Ansys, the simulation software specialist, has added software designed to spin up RF filters. The RF filter software aids in the design, synthesis and optimization of RF, microwave and digital filters, thereby lowering development costs while boosting performance.

The Nuhertz FilterSolutions workflow starts by entering filter performance specifications used by the tool to synthesize both ideal and physical filter layout. The tool automatically sets up filter analysis and optimization in the company’s HFSS 3D high frequency electromagnetic (EM) simulator software.

Filter design is complex, especially for high-performance microwave and millimeter-wave  designs. RF and microwave filters are prone to EM cross-coupling, which is often a source of inaccuracies in traditional circuit modeling approaches. EM software often proves inadequate for the optimization of high-end filters. An accurate prototype design can help.

Filter designs lacking accuracy often translate into a long, expensive tuning phase requiring consideration of component tolerances. An CAE-based approach can provide a tuning-free design independent of manufacturing or component tolerances.

“It is difficult to find RF designers who are acquainted with and have the expertise for filter design,” said Shawn Carpenter, Ansys product manager for Nuhertz FilterSolutions. The new tool is “used it as a front-end to our electromagnetic simulation suite, the ANSYS HFSS software, in order to provide a tool able to design, synthesize, virtually test, tune and optimize filters, making them suitable for manufacturing tolerances”.

A FilterQuick interface (below) allows also non-expert users to design and synthesize filters, with all the controls available in a single panel. The design can then be pushed to HFSS for validation.

The modeling and simulation tool also: automates filter design and synthesis; provides virtual prototyping of filters via physics simulation; and assesses yields, process tolerances and relevant effects such as electrical loss, heating, mechanical deformation and stress. The tool also eliminates the need for multiple prototype stages, Carpenter said.

Filter design Filter categories that can be designed and synthesized by the new tool include:

The new package has been added to the Ansys academic bundle, making it available to research and education institutions. It is also available in the Ansys education bundle with the HFSS software.

The tool “has the ability to synthesize pieces of software subroutines or code that could be used in a digital signal processor,” said Carpenter. It also “creates C code for an IIR or a FIR filter through the many topologies that exist to realize this filter, and filters can be created using active components like op-amps, or individual gain stages transistors. And we have the ability to synthesize them.”

Maurizio Di Paolo Emilio has a Ph.D. in Physics and is a Telecommunications Engineer. He has worked on various international projects in the field of gravitational waves research designing a thermal compensation system, x-ray microbeams, and space technologies for communications and motor control. Since 2007, he has collaborated with several Italian and English blogs and magazines as a technical writer, specializing in electronics and technology. From 2015 to 2018, he was the editor-in-chief of Firmware and Elettronica Open Source. Maurizio enjoys writing and telling stories about Power Electronics, Wide Bandgap Semiconductors, Automotive, IoT, Digital, Energy, and Quantum. Maurizio is currently editor-in-chief of Power Electronics News and EEWeb, and European Correspondent of EE Times. He is the host of PowerUP, a podcast about power electronics. He has contributed to a number of technical and scientific articles as well as a couple of Springer books on energy harvesting and data acquisition and control systems.

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