Choosing Your RF Design Environment Flow

You can’t build a house without blueprints. So why do so many RF design flows try to build a board without a schematic? Most often, this crude process comes about due to lack of availability of RF design tools. But the wireless industry is the new cool kid on the block. As a result, electronic design automation (EDA) software vendors are scrambling to disencumber the rigid printed circuit board (PCB) world of tailored processes and streamlined user flows. RF engineers demand freedom from constraints, so EDA vendors are peeling back the layers of traditional PCB design and opening up some truly excellent solutions. But with these solutions, RF engineers are challenged to rethink their request for primitive simplicity and consider a higher-level process.