Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

What VLSI & RF software does the department have?

This page contains information about the software used within the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) circuit design and Radio Frequency (RF) design, including tutorials on how to use them and a debugging page that lists all the common problems and their solutions.

We use the tools developed by Cadence Design Systems in graduate and undergraduate research and teaching. To be more precise, we use them to design, and simulate circuits at the schematic view, draw circuit layout, perform post-layout simulations of the transient, frenquency and dc type, simulate hardware description language files and perform the elaboration, floorplanning, placement, and routing of a digital system.

Designs made in commercial design kits are ready to be sent for fabrication.

• Cadence University Program
• Design Kits
• Frequently Asked Cadence Questions
  

We use the HP Advanced Design Systems (ADS) tools for designing and simulating RF circuits. ADS is  a software from Agilent Technologies. It is a versatile and powerful CAD program for RF and microwave design. Among other items, it can do much of what Spice can do, as well as perform harmonic balance and microwave frequency-based design.

It has a large palette of microwave components and transistor devices and can accommodate VLSI devices. It has a good geometric-to-schematic linked capability so that PCBs and chips can be fabricated with the database generated. Currently, our license is limited for academic use only (i.e. it is not for funded research, but can be used for graduate student theses and dissertations).

ADS is used in EE 414/514 and other microwave courses. Graduate students can use it for computations directly benefiting their theses and dissertations. There is a possible link in Cadence to ADS. It can be an alternate computational tool to SpectreRF for RF design.

Iowa State University thanks Agilent for providing the software license under the university discount licensing. All work performed at Iowa State that uses ADS tools should be restricted to academic purposes only. If you are unsure about your case, please contact Professor Robert Weber.