GreenPeak Uses AWR’s Microwave Office/AXIEM software to design ZigBee SOC RF Communication Controller

Using AWR’s Microwave Office/AXIEM software, GreenPeak was able to successfully perform RF board analysis, validation, and optimization for best RF performance, certification margin, and production yield, while at the same time cutting design iterations down to one or two when integrating its custom design into the ZigBee remote control device.

GreenPeak chose AWR’s Microwave Office circuit design and AXIEM 3D planar EM tools for their capabilities in performing electromagnetic simulation of single and multilayer printed circuit boards and antennas, as well as integrating with component models for complete RF characterization.

“AWR software enables our team to design worldwide certifiable 2.4GHz radio circuits on single layer PCB substrates,” said Eugen Moldovan, RF application engineer at GreenPeak. “Microwave Office and AXIEM tools helped us to drastically reduce our printed circuit costs.”

The Success Story in Detail

The Design Challenge
GreenPeak was tasked with designing a GP510 system-on-chip RF4CE communication controller for integration into set-top boxes and a GP561 chip for the remote controller device. The chips needed to be optimized for low cost while at the same time providing superior performance. GreenPeak required its RF/microwave software to perform RF board analysis, validation, and optimization for best RF performance, certification margin, and production yield. Specifically, GreenPeak needed a sophisticated software suite that was capable of performing electromagnetic simulation of single and multilayer PCBs and antennas, as well as integrating with component models for complete RF characterization.

The Solution
GreenPeak relied on Microwave Office circuit design software to set up the simulation using RF models of multilayer/single layer printed circuit board layouts, to EM the PCB antennas within AXIEM, to combine all with parasitic models of the components, and finally to assess the overall performance characteristics of the complete assembly. With AWR software as part of their design process, GreenPeak designers were able to reduce the number of iterations down to one or two when integrating with custom designs. Microwave Office also enabled GreenPeak to improve their models and expand their single layer RF design capabilities.

Why Microwave Office And AXIEM
GreenPeak selected AWR software for its excellent track record with existing users and for its flexible and user-friendly interface as well as powerful simulation features. Additional key benefits that GreenPeak found using AWR software included productivity, ease-of-use, simulation speed, and availability of models. GreenPeak was particularly impressed with the software’s ease-of-integration and ability to adapt to new design challenges. In addition, AWR offered competitive and flexible licensing/pricing and exceptional customer service.