NI AWR Design Environment
Resource | Type | Authored |
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Dive Into EM/Circuit Co-Simulation of a T/R Front End – Part 1 5G is poised to bring more integrated and sophisticated antenna and circuit modules to the modern defense and commercial electronics markets. This article, part 1 of a two-part series, examines today’s multi-technology circuit and electromagnetic (EM) simulation challenges and the software tools that are needed to support the successful design of 5G products. |
Technical Article | February 26, 2018 |
Count on Design Software for Millimeter-Wave Automotive Radar and Antenna System Development, Part 2 Ongoing developments in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are expanding the capabilities and affordability of vehicles that can alert and assist drivers using radar technology mostly focused over the 76-to-81 GHz spectrum. This article examines some of the challenges behind developing millimeter-wave radar systems and the antenna-array technologies that will be responsible for the next generation of smart cars and trucks. |
Technical Article | February 2, 2018 |
MIMO and Beam-Steering Modeling in NI AWR Design Environment Supports 5G This application note presents practical examples and showcases advances in MIMO and beam-steering model technology for 5G communications within VSS system design software. |
Technical Article | January 24, 2018 |
Synthesizing MIMO Antennas for Compact Devices This article presents new features and functionalities in the latest version of AntSyn™, an automated antenna design, optimization, and synthesis tool that enables designers to automatically synthesize compact MIMO antenna arrays from user requirements. |
Technical Article | January 15, 2018 |
Count on Design Software for Millimeter-Wave Automotive Radar and Antenna System Development, Part 1 Part 1 of this article overviews automotive radar (ADAS) systems and examines some of the challenges behind developing mmWave radar systems and the antenna-array technologies that will be responsible for the next generation of smart cars and trucks. |
Technical Article | January 12, 2018 |
View From the Top David Vye, director of technical marketing at AWR Group, NI, discusses opportunities in the defense market, 5G, and the Internet of Things for RF microwave applications in 2018 and beyond. |
Technical Article | December 29, 2017 |
Simulation Speeds NB-IoT Development This article presents an overview of NB-IoT requirements, how they compare with LTE and the resulting challenges for component development. The use of simulation tools for system analysis and design is demonstrated using NI AWR Design Environment, specifically, VSS. VSS test bench examples are presented, including NB-IoT signals operating in the same band as an LTE signal and in the guard band of an LTE signal. |
Technical Article | December 29, 2017 |
Capitalize on EDA When Developing MIMO, Phased-Array Antenna Systems, Part 2 Part 1 of this two-part series discussed the development costs and complexity of new radar and communications systems utilizing phased-array antennas and how these challenges are being addressed through new functionalities in EDA software. Part 2 delves into individual antenna-element development and its incorporation into an array simulation that accounts for mutual coupling between radiating elements, as well as positioning (edge, center, corner) within the array and impairments due to element failure. |
Technical Article | November 29, 2017 |
Design Software Supports mmWave Automotive Radar and Antenna System Development Ongoing developments in advanced driver assist systems (ADAS) are expanding the capabilities and affordability of vehicles that can alert and assist drivers using radar technology mostly focused over the 76 to 81 GHz spectrum. These systems must perform over a range of applications, operating conditions, and object detection challenges in order to provide reliable coverage over the range (distance) and field of view (angle) as dictated by the particular driver assist function. This article examines some of the challenges behind developing millimeter-wave (mmWave) radar systems and the antenna array technologies that will be responsible for the next generation of smart cars and trucks. |
Technical Article | November 8, 2017 |
Interference Analysis and Experimental Results of Passive UHF RFID Systems in Sub-1 GHz Wireless Communications Systems Ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is being adopted by a variety of applications such as inventory control tracking, race timing, attendee tracking, access control, and more. The impact of RF interference due to performance degradation of UHF RFID technology on the interference signal is emerging as a new obstacle. This paper investigates the interference analysis and experimental results of passive UHF RFID systems in sub-1GHz wireless communications systems. By considering interference signal frequency and power, interference deployment, antenna polarization, RF system-level analysis, and experimental verification are conducted to evaluate the impact of performance degradation in the UHF RFID system on the interference signal. |
Technical Article | October 27, 2017 |
Capitalize on EDA When Developing MIMO, Phased-Array Antenna Systems, Part 1 Advances in software are leading to a more effective design flow for phased-array systems by leveraging measured radiation patterns and gain-tapering data, among other factors. This first part of a two-part series discusses these trends and presents recent advances in EDA tools for phased-array-based systems. |
Technical Article | August 14, 2017 |
Electromagnetic Simulation Software Tools to Watch For years, software firms have beefed up tools that simulate how electromagnetic fields sprout from antennas and amplifiers. Now, these programs serve as a starting point for complex designs, providing insight into emissions and coupling issues faster than tinkering with prototypes. This article provides a list of electromagnetic simulation software that engineers should know, including Microwave Office. |
Technical Article | July 23, 2017 |
5 Leading EDA Tools for EMC/EMI Design Challenges Microwave Journal asked some of the leading electromagnetic compatibility (EMC)/electromagnetic interference (EMI) electronic design automation (EDA) software suppliers to provide a description of their features for EMC/EMI applications and unique solving capabilities for these markets. |
Technical Article | July 21, 2017 |
Accelerate PA Design with Source/Load-Pull ACPR and EVM Measurements This article describes how load-pull data files with an independent swept parameter, such as power, can be used directly in the NI AWR Design Environment, specifically Microwave Office circuit design software. It also highlights the design of a Class J PA to show how load-pull data can complement traditional theoretical Class J analysis, thereby streamlining the design flow. |
Technical Article | July 10, 2017 |
Executive Interview: How the Latest Release of the NI AWR Design Environment Addresses Industry Trends In this executive interview, David Vye, Technical Director at AWR Group, NI, discusses new features in NI AWR Design Environment v13 that address industry trends in communications. |
Technical Article | May 1, 2017 |
Mixed-Signal Instrumentation for Design and Test of 5G Systems This article describes a new approach for RF engineers designing systems where analog and digital RF waveforms coexist. The new characterization approach and subsequent extraction of a mathematical model equivalent to scattering parameters for mixed-signal devices uses NI instrumentation and NI AWR Design Environment and can be used in system-level simulators to design 5G and other communication systems. |
Technical Article | April 19, 2017 |
Designing Next-Generation AESA Radar Recent trends in active electronically scanned arrays (AESA) are targeting new radar payloads for satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). These radar payloads are driving size and performance requirements, which are being addressed through novel architectures and system capabilities made possible through improvements in microwave and signal processing technologies. Behind these development efforts are a host of evolving EDA technologies that support designers with system architecture, component specifications, physical design of individual components and verification prior to prototyping. This article will discuss these technology trends and present several examples where advances in EDA tools, including NI AWR Design Environment, are supporting next-generation AESA and phased-array radar development. |
Technical Article | November 16, 2016 |
Quantitative Analysis of Break-lock in Monopulse Receiver Phase-locked Loop Using Noise Jamming Signal It is evident that noise jamming is one of the several active jamming techniques employed against tracking radars and missile seekers. The noise jamming mainly aims at completely masking the desired radar signal by the externally injected noise signal. Of several parameters to be considered for the analysis of noise jamming problem, the noise jammer power is one of the most critical parameter. In this paper, emphasis is given for estimation and quantitative analyses of the effectiveness of break-lock in a missile borne phase locked loop (PLL) based monopulse radar receiver using external noise signal. The analyses involve estimating the jamming signal power required to break-lock as a function of radar echo signal power through computer simulation and experimental measurements. |
Technical Article | November 4, 2016 |
Optimizing Design of Envelope Tracking Power Amplifiers for 4G/5G This article describes the development of an envelope tracking power amplifier (ETPA) test bench capability for real-time efficiency and linearity measurements for optimizing ETPA design, along with flexibility to accommodate different 5G signals. This capability uses NI LabVIEW software to test and optimize the ETPA, in addition to a vector signal transceiver (VST) for RF signal generation and an arbitrary waveform generator (AWG) for envelope signal generation. The design, on-board retuning, and final optimization are performed with the NI AWR Design Environment™. |
Technical Article | August 1, 2016 |
Supporting the 5G Network Information connectivity continues to evolve, as does wireless technology. This next era, the so called Internet of Things (IoT) or even the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), will drive the development of new wireless technologies supporting the underlying infrastructure defined in 5G network standards currently being conceptualized. The promise of increased information bandwidth and faster response times (low latency) for real-time wireless control, all with minimal power consumption, makes for highly attractive yet very challenging system performance goals. While the technical requirements necessary to make 5G and the IoT a commercial success are very demanding, the economic potential and business opportunities are enormous. |
Technical Article | April 29, 2016 |
View From The Top 2015 David Vye, director of technical marketing at AWR Group, NI, discusses the state of the defense market for RF microwave applications and the Internet of Things in 2016. |
Technical Article | January 6, 2016 |
Software Simulates RF System Behavior This article discusses how achieving target levels of RF/microwave system-level performance requires proper operation of many components and subsystems. |
Technical Article | November 6, 2015 |
Enhancing Productivity for RF/Microwave Design NI AWR Design Environment™ software has continued to evolve with each new release to not only keep pace with the state-of-the art in microwave/RF design but also to ensure the continual enhancement of productivity for its users—the MMIC, RF PCB, module, communication systems or radar systems designer. The latest release of NI AWR Design Environment, V12, is no exception. This latest release offers numerous new features and usability enhancements that support our traditional emphasis on our users and the tools they need to do their jobs better (higher performing designs, faster throughput, and more). |
Technical Article | October 24, 2015 |
An Integrated Framework for Complex Radar Design To overcome the challenges of complex radar design, digital and RF/microwave engineers are increasingly cooperating to achieve overall system performance metrics that are jointly optimized across the two disparate domains. This article discusses how this can be done using the NI AWR Design Environment™ combined with LabVIEW and NI PXI instruments to design, validate, and prototype a radar system. The NI AWR integrated framework provides a unique avenue for digital, RF and system engineers, to all collaborate on a complex radar system. |
Technical Article | October 1, 2015 |
A Digital Signal Processing Based Ka-Band Satellite Beacon Receiver/Radiometer This paper describes the design of a digital signal processing (DSP) based JCU-STRAP (James Cook University - Satellite Transmission Rain Attenuation Project) Ka-band satellite beacon receiver / radiometer for measuring both the sky noise and the attenuation caused by rain and water vapour to satellite signals, at the same frequency and look angle. |
Technical Article | September 30, 2015 |
Design, Optimization and Production of an Ultra-Wideband Receiver This article describes the design process for a complete ultra-wideband (UWB) RF receiver, including both the RF circuit design and the printed circuit board (PCB) layout for manufacturing. |
Technical Article | September 24, 2015 |
2015 Most Valuable Product: V12 Release Enhances Productivity for RF/Microwave Designs This article examines the new features in the V12 release of NI AWR Design Environment. |
Technical Article | July 16, 2015 |
Design and Simulation of Phased Arrays for Radar/Aerospace Applications Phased array antenna systems, which use sets of two or more antennas, offer improved performance over single antennas and are well known for their usefulness in radar and aerospace applications. |
Technical Article | July 1, 2015 |
Simulate and Test Chirped Radar Radar technology now serves a broad range of applications well beyond military systems, including commercial, civil, and scientific uses. Radar is also being used in weather and law-enforcement applications, as well as in automotive and public transportation system, for global mapping, oil exploration, and even for quality control in manufacturing applications. |
Technical Article | March 24, 2015 |
Design, Realization, and Test of a UWB Radar Sensor for Breath Activity Monitoring NI AWR Design Environment/Microwave Office circuit design software was used to develop a circuit model for the design and analysis of this new UWB radar for the remote monitoring of breath activity. |
Technical Article | January 16, 2015 |
Design Environment Enables Integrated Design to Test Framework This article describes how NI AWR Design Environment™ can be combined with LabVIEW and test instruments to design, prototype, and validate components or systems that comply with the WLAN 802.11ac standard. |
Technical Article | December 16, 2014 |
Integrated Framework for Radar Design As modern radar systems become more complex, they depend heavily on advanced signal processing algorithms to improve detection performance, making their design and implementation more challenging and expensive. The NI AWR integrated framework provides a unique avenue for the design, development, and testing of modern radar systems that takes advantage of the extensive RF design and measurement capabilities of NI AWR VSS and the flexibility of the NI PXI hardware. |
Technical Article | August 27, 2014 |
Leveraging the Use of a Radio Frequency Planning (RFP) Design Tool for Modern System Design RF planning, the process of assigning the frequencies, transmitter locations and parameters of a wireless communications system, is an important element of system design as it ensures sufficient coverage and capacity for the services required by the end product. Traditionally, system designers have relied on the use of spreadsheets for RF planning purposes rather than digging deeper into the problem(s) at hand: establishing the best frequency plan and system architecture to meet the system specification. |
Technical Article | January 14, 2014 |
Evaluate EDA Software For A Wireless World Engineering design and analysis (EDA) software has evolved into an essential tool for wireless circuit and system design. High-frequency engineers are now using RF/microwave EDA software tools to achieve effective and efficient design flows for a wide range of circuits and systems, in commercial, industrial, and military markets. |
Technical Article | November 12, 2013 |
Design, System Integration and Testing of Radar Systems This article discusses some of the fundamental research and development challenges in both the digital and RF/millimeter wave domains (such as waveform generation, receiver algorithms and transmit/receive front ends). It addresses current and future directions in design, system integration and test, featuring an example of an integrated tool chain by Visual System Simulator and National Instruments. |
Technical Article | October 16, 2013 |
Using Test Equipment to Extract Behavioral RF Device Models for Communications System Design This article explains two methods for obtaining behavioral RF device models. The first performs simple AM-AM and AM-PM model extraction using instrumentation and is useful for narrowband applications. The second, more complex method, builds a time delay neural network (TDNN) for modeling the behavior of devices that use broadband modulated signals. |
Technical Article | March 15, 2013 |
RF System Design: Automating the Custom Model Process with Instrumentation and System Simulation Software This article discusses an automated approach to predicting performance of an RF system using a combination of NI’s T&M instrumentation and LabVIEW software with VSS system design software to build customized models. |
Technical Article | March 12, 2013 |
Melding Measurements With Design Software NI LabVIEW and AWR Microwave Office and VSS can be used together to augment RF/microwave circuit design with measurement results. |
Technical Article | August 10, 2012 |
Optimize SDR Performance AWR’s Visual System Simulator (VSS) software for system simulation of RF end-to-end architecture design can be used to address the challenges of SDR design. |
Technical Article | August 10, 2012 |
Measurements in RF Design Flow Even the "simplest" of RF devices, like RF power amplifiers (PAs), are now required to handle multiple wireless technologies and operate over a broader range of frequencies. To cope with the increasing complexity in designing wireless systems, designers are augmenting RF circuit simulations with real-world measurements to validate and test designs before moving forward with physical prototypes or component integration. |
Technical Article | August 10, 2012 |
Analyze, Optimize, And Verify Complex RF Circuits, Subsystems And Digital Signal Processing This white paper illustrates, Visual System Simulator™ (VSS) and National instruments’ LabVieW graphical programming environment are now co-simulating so as to better enable designers to analyze, optimize, and verify complex RF circuits, subsystems and digital signal processing within a unified framework. |
Technical Article | August 9, 2012 |
Circuit Envelope Simulation: A Powerful Resource for 4G Power Amplifier Design Circuit envelope simulation available in AWR circuit design software enables 3G and 4G wireless RF power amplifier designers achieve high performance products. |
Technical Article | October 12, 2011 |
Software Speeds Design Of Complex Modules |
Technical Article | June 11, 2011 |
The Effect of Amplifier Distortion and Filter Type on BER of WCDMA-UMTS Mobile Radio Systems |
Technical Article | April 10, 2010 |
Filter Comparison Gives Bessel High Marks in W-CDMA UMTS Base Stations This article compares filter types for W-CDMA UMTS Base Stations. |
Technical Article | October 24, 2009 |
Interfacing the R&S ZVA/ZVB/ZVT With AWR Software for Filter Design and Optimization This application note describes how to interface R&S ZVA/ZVB/ZVT vector network analyzer with AWR electronic design automation (EDA) software. Using AWR |
Technical Article | October 9, 2009 |
System-Level Analysis Moves “Up Front” System-level analysis performed “up front” almost invariably results in fewer problems at the “back-end”, where modifications become far more difficult, expensive, and time-consuming to remedy. |
Technical Article | October 10, 2008 |
The Effect of Filter Type on BER of WCDMA-UMTS Mobile Radio Systems This paper uses Visual System Simulator software to investigate the bit error rates (BER) obtained using different filter types for RF front ends for WCDMA-UMTS mobile radio systems. |
Technical Article | September 18, 2008 |
Filter Requirements for Wideband Mobile Radio Systems This paper investigates the bit error rates (BER) obtained using different filter types for RF front ends for wideband mobile radio systems using VSS system simulation software. |
Technical Article | February 12, 2008 |
Meeting the Challenges of WiMax Design With new Methodologies The design of today's WiMax products requires a unified baseband and RF design methodology to help designers overcome the challenges of working with WiMax signals and take advantage of the market's windows of opportunity. Such a design methodology uses realistic modulated signals and provides accurate performance predictions for RF components, eliminating overdesign. This expanded methodology enables the use of system-level measurements that are defined in the WiMax specifications and which are common to all other wireless standards. |
Technical Article | February 11, 2008 |