ACCELERATE RF, Microwave DESIGN (2/5)

The billions of IoT devices that will surround us in the coming years require RF path design capabilities to support ultra-fast 5G data rates.

IoT devices operate at higher frequencies with wider bandwidth.
Huge demand is predicted for the development of RF and microwave devices in various fields:

• IoT
• IoV
• Smart House
• Smart city
• Medical systems
• Wearable electronics
• Intelligent systems in the agricultural industry
• Intelligent systems in the industrial industry

  

Lesson 2 – Updating the Schematic and Placing RF Objects on the Board

In this tutorial, you will add a newly created antenna to the schematic and place it on the board.

1. Double click the PADS Pro Designer VX.2.x icon on the desktop or select
   START Menu> PADS Pro Tools VX.2.x> PADS Pro Designer VX.2.x.
2. From the PADS Professional Designer start page, click Open and open
   C: RF Design Lesson2 Lesson2.prj.
   • If a licensing dialog box appears, make sure the option PADS Professional RF Design installed and click OK
     
3. Open the sheet Ant double click on Ant in the window Navigator…
4. Next, let’s add 4 antennas to our project.
   • If not already open, open Databook
     • click on the Databook icon
       
   • Select an icon Show CL View on the Databook panel
   • Open the tab Symbol View…
   • On the contrary [Local Symbols] symbol name should be displayed DXF_PatchAnt… Highlight it
   • Click on the symbol image Paintwork and drag it to the page.
5. Next, we need to add connections
   • Click on the icon Net on the toolbar
     
   • Click Paintwork pin and hold to draw a chain.
     Note: While holding LMB, RMB click or click on
     space to add a kink.
   • Release LMB to finish.
   • Double click on the circuit to bring up the properties panel.
   • To assign a name to the circuit in the properties panel, click in the field
     Name and select RX1 from the dropdown list.
6. We need to create 3 more copies of this little schematic.
   • Highlight the symbol along with the chain
   • Holding down the key CTRL, drag the marquee in any direction. A copy of the selected objects will appear on the cursor.
   • Place the copy under the current outline and release LMB.
   • Repeat these steps 2 more times so that you have a total of 4 antennas with circuits.
7. Now we need to rename the nets in the copies of the schematic.
   • Double click on each of the nets and give the following names in the following
     order: RX2, RX3, RX4… Your final schematic should look like this
     way:
     
8. Before we move on to the topology, we need to create an RF group for these 4 antennas
   • Open the RF Group / Ungroup tool by selecting the appropriate. icon on the RF panel
     
9. Create a new group by clicking on the blue icon in the toolbar of the panel RF Group / Ungroup
10. Rename the created group to Patch
    
11. Select all 4 antennas with circuits in the diagram, then press the button Add selected items to the groupwhich is located in the lower left part of the panel RF Group / Ungroup…
12. Each RF element in PADS Professional contains additional data that describes the physical properties of each object. To view this data, you need to open the panel RF Parameters
    • On the RF toolbar, click on the icon RF Parameters
      
13. Try to select different RF objects on the Ant page and view their parameters. If it is a road segment, you will see information such as length, width, layer, group, model type, and more. Other objects, such as the antenna we created, will have fewer parameters.
14. Now we can go to the topology and place these antennas
    • To launch the topological editor, click on the icon PADS Professional Layout on the main toolbar
      
15. The topology editor will be loaded in a state that corresponds to the state immediately after creating the antenna. The antenna imported from DXF will no longer be useful to us, so let’s remove it from the project.
    • Highlight an antenna and press Delete
    • If a warning appears, click OK
16. Before starting the placement process, we need to import the antenna data from the schematic into the topology by completing the synchronization step
    • Go to the menu Setup> Project Integration
    • Click on the yellow traffic light Forward Annotation
    • At the end, all four traffic lights should be green.
17. To place our RF object, we will use Component Explorer
    • If it’s still open, go to the menu Place> Component Explorer
18. Let’s start by placing the RF group P2
    • Click PKM by P2 and select Auto arranger from the context menu
    • Move the cursor to the working area of ​​the editor and place the object as shown in the picture
    • Before placing an element, flip it horizontally by clicking PKM and selecting the item Mirror Horizontally…
      
19. For the group P1 we will use the copy function
    • Select the P2 schematic in the workspace
    • Click on CTRL-C, group P1 is copied and anchored at the cursor.
    • Mirror this element
    • Place the element as shown in the picture
      
20. Finally, we will place the strip antenna
    • Select and drag the group Patch of Component Explorer into the working area of ​​the editor and place it as shown in the picture
      
    • Select a circular placement area
    • Click PKM and select Place part
    • The antenna will lock onto your cursor
    • Place the antenna as shown in the illustration. Repeat the placement procedure for the remaining 3 antennas
      
21. This concludes Lesson 2.

Test 30-day licenses can be requested HERE

Materials for this and subsequent lessons can be downloaded HERE

You can also watch a video version of this tutorial: