Overview of commercially-available analog/RF simulation engines and design environment

Given the availability of various analog/RF simulator engines on the market, designers are usually faced with a dilemma of which simulator to use, and more importantly, which simulator result to trust. This paper will review the main analog/RF simulators on the market: Cadence Spectre/APS/XPS, Agilent ADS and GoldenGate, and Mentor Graphics (formerly BDA) AFS, with respect to performance and accuracy for various analog/RF circuit blocks. We also present case studies for these simulators to show how they integrate in the Cadence Virtuoso design environment. Finally, due to growing circuit complexity and the requirement to use multiple design kits in the same session, we will explain the feasibility and limitations of these simulators when used in a multi-technology simulation environment.