Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1534120
48 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2025 extend the system range. For the RF engineer, this leads to multiple technical considerations such as maintaining signal integrity, manag- ing multiple high-frequency signals, ensuring proper impedance matching, and minimiz- ing noise and interference, all while balancing performance, manufacturability, and space constraints. You've mentioned several differ- ent wireless standards; many of them exist together in a single device, serving a wide range of applications and consumer prefer- ences for speed, quality of service, battery life, and the lowest possible cost. Fitting multiple radio front ends into the smallest possible form factor requires smart layout strategies, proper shielding to prevent high-frequency signals from coupling to sen- sitive traces, a solid understanding of perfor- mance vs. cost trade-offs pertaining to com- ponent selection, and an awareness of non-RF issues such as thermal and stress-related effects that can impact the reliability of a PCB-based system. ese considerations can be addressed with design and simulation soware that pro- vides insight into optimal system architecture and component selection via budget analy- sis, PCB passive component design capabili- ties through RF circuit simulation, and design verification through electromagnetic and ther- mal analyses. To reduce design turnaround times, these capabilities offer the greatest ben- efit when they are tied into a layout platform that offers a constraint-driven PCB design approach, which emphasizes defining design intent through rules for electrical, physical, and manufacturing aspects, ensuring first-pass success and streamlining the design process. From a designer's viewpoint, how does designing an RF PCB differ from designing a traditional PCB? RF design is based on managing circuit behav- ior through the physical attributes of your traces, from the transmission line widths, along with the material properties such as dielectric constant and height, control the characteristic impedance, to the line length, which governs the signal phase and can be used to transform impedances. High-speed design relies on post- layout extraction to perform signal integrity analysis aer components have been placed and routed, whereas RF design should perform RF analysis and layout design nearly simultane- ously. Soware tools like ours provide concur- rent schematic and layout design entry, so RF design and the physical design happen together. When placing a trace between two compo- nents that have internal matching so that the I/O (or port) impedance of each component is 50 ohms, then an interconnect with a character- istic impedance of 50 ohms, as determined by the line width and dielectric thickness, is very similar to traditional routing. at said, trans- mission line bends and tee junctions introduce discontinuities that can cause parasitic effects and degrade performance, especially at higher frequencies, requiring careful design and miti- gation techniques. A few decades ago, designers hated to use dedicated RF design software because it was a completely different environment. But you all seem to have made the RF experience more user-friendly. Give us a short walk- through of your RF tool. David Vye