Ansoft Corporation, Pittsburgh, and TriQuint Semiconductor Inc., Hillsboro, Ore., announce the immediate availability of a new process design kit (PDK) supporting TriQuint's 0.6 µm MESFET three-metal-interconnect gallium arsenide (GaAs) IC process, TQTRx, for use with Ansoft Designer v2. This new kit provides monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) designers with an electronic design automation (EDA) flow that maximizes performance and yield while reducing design uncertainty prior to fabrication.

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"Our customers are becoming increasingly aware of the value of performing electromagnetic simulation as part of their design-verification procedures," said Paul Litzenberg, TriQuint's Foundry Applications Engineering Manager. The PDK includes active and passive electrical models and parameterized layout cells that have been tested and validated against TriQuint's layout design rules. The design kit provides engineers using Ansoft Designer with direct access to one of TriQuint's highest-volume processes, supporting RF applications up to Ku-band, and mixed-mode applications up to LSI complexity. The TQTRx is based on advanced, 0.6-micron enhancement/depletion mode MESFET technology with an integrated power MESFET.

Ansoft Designer combines high-frequency circuit, system, and 3D planar electromagnetic simulation to take advantage of the high circuit density offered by the TQTRx process. The PDK leverages Ansoft Designer's Solver on Demand technology with a dynamic link to HFSS. The libraries for Ansoft Designer include TriQuint's TOM3 fully scalable model. All component models also include a parameterized layout cell for full physical representation. Ansoft provides the simulation models, customized symbols, layout P-cells and documentation.