Broadband SPICE User Guide
Product Version Sigrity 2018
July 2018
© 2018 Cadence Design Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Broadband SPICE User Guide
July 2018 3 Product Version Sigrity 2018
© 1999-2018 All Rights Reserved.
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
How to Use This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Additional Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Conventions Used in This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
How to Contact Technical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Learning the Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
What is Broadband SPICE? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
What are the Major Features of Broadband SPICE? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Who Should Use Broadband SPICE? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Broadband SPICE Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Using the Workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Using the Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Using the Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Using Parameter Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Change the Display Mode
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Working with Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Understanding Parameter File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Understanding Comment Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Understanding Specification Lines
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Understanding Data Lines
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Using Broadband SPICE Project Files (.bds) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Change Extraction Options
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
File Manager
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
File Folders
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
File Name Pattern
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Folder Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Contents
Broadband SPICE User Guide
July 2018 4 Product Version Sigrity 2018
© 1999-2018 All Rights Reserved.
Working with the Extraction Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Running in Interactive Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Understanding Extraction Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Understanding the Difference Between Passivity and Precision Modes . . . . . . . . . . 24
Updating Equivalent Circuit Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Using DC Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Specifying Extraction Settings Using a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Starting the Extraction Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Error and Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Understanding the Progress Report in Passivity Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Checking the Input and Output of Data (Passivity Mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Extracting Selected Entries (Precision Mode Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Running in Batch Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Command Line Format (Extraction Options) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Command Line Format (Checking Option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
S-parameter of BBS Circuit Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
RFM Export Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Working with S-parameter Checking and Tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Toolbar in Checking Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Options for Checking and Tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Perform S-parameter FD Checking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Perform S-Parameter Tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Perform Tuned S-parameter FD Checking
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Perform TD Checking
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Lossy Peeling and Lossless Peeling
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Getting Started Tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Working in Passivity Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Example 1: Differences in Passivity and Precision Mode
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Working in Precision Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Example 1 Spiral Inductor
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Example 2: Coupled Transmission Lines
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Example 3: Impedance of Power Delivery System
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Example 4: Traces Over a Split Plane
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Example 5: Trace Return Path Discontinuity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Working in Checking Mode
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Broadband SPICE User Guide
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© 1999-2018 All Rights Reserved.
Example 1: Lossy Transmission Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Application Example. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
General Modeling and Simulation Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Modeling and Simulation Flow Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Sample Structure, Set-up and Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Frequently Asked Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Generating S-Parameters in Frequency Domain Using HSPICE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Bandwidth of Network Parameter File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Warning Message Concerning DC Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Rational Function Model vs. Frequency Response Table Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
