Computer-aided
design (CAD)
Updated July 5,
2009

In all types of electrical engineering,
the term "CAD" is rapidly being replaced with "EDA",
which stands for "electronic design automation". We're
going to stick with "CAD" since it's faster to say, and
everyone knows what it means, including the politically incorrect
double-entendre in the Rhett Butler sense (which is no-doubt why
the feminized software industry has switched to "EDA"!)
But let's stop digressing... again...
Update July 2009: we've
changed the rules on this page and many others. In the interests
of providing information to our readers, we will continue to list
software suppliers, but we will no longer maintain links to their
web sites for free. Instead, you will be linked to
this page, which will soon be one of our most popular in terms
of page views. If you are a supplier, we'll rent you a link on this
page or any other page, but it won't be for free. Contact
us!
Being primarily hardware guys
(by "guys" we mean all possible sexes) at Microwaves101,
we try not to refer to software as tools. Software is software,
you use it while sitting your increasingly soft butt in a chair.
Tools are those things that real men (and men-like women)
use in the garage or around the house, while skinning knuckles and
getting grease, paint and dirt on their pants. Hey, that was a seriously
incorrect statement, oops, there goes another potential sponsor...
A clickable index to the slowly
growing Microwaves101 CAD web resource:
History
of microwave software
Linear
analysis software
Synthesis,
analysis and optimization
Optimization
Netlist
versus schematic capture interface
Physical
versus ideal elements
Linear
versus nonlinear analysis
Time
domain versus frequency domain
Electromagnetic
analysis software
Computational
electromagnetics
EM
analysis using Sonnet (separate page sponsored by Sonnet)
Layout
software
Laying
out thin-film networks
Laying
out printed wiring boards
Free
printed circuit board software!
Laying
out MMICs
CAD computer
files: common file extensions
Software
for coplanar-waveguide designs
Filter design
software
Large-signal
analysis software
Spice
analysis
Links to
microwave software suppliers
Here's a list of software suppliers.
Guess how many of the links are "live?" One of these days
we'll sort this list into a table that shows linear, EM, layout,
transient, etc. capabilities. Maybe someone else would like to take
a crack at this for a free
gift?
Advanced
Design System (ADS)
Ansoft
Ansys
Applied
Wave Research
Bay
Technology
Computer
Simulation Technology
EM
Photonics
Field
Precision
Integrated
Engineering Software
Lumerical
Remcom
Sonnet
software
Vector
Fields
Software for coplanar-waveguide
designs
Many companies out there offer
specialized software that works in conjunction with linear optimizers.
There is at least one company that specializes in a simulation tool
for CPW, called Coplan.
Filter
design software
There are a large number of vendors
selling filter design software these days, check the ads in any
microwave trade journal. You can
download a fair amount of filter design software on the web for
free, nerds have been writing their own filter code for as long
as there have been computers. Heck, even Microwaves101 offers a
free download for lumped filter
design!
Large-signal
analysis software
Coming soon! Or not!
|