[SI-LIST] Re: [SI-LIST]: Which tool is the best
- From: "Michael E. Vrbanac" <vrbanacm@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: MikonCons@xxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2004 13:52:26 -0500
Mike,
Thanks for the information... it was just what I needed.
re: cost of ApSim
I knew there was something different there but I had no idea if other tools
were
included in that number and figured the quote was something that got mixed up
in some numbers you'd heard someplace. No problem.
re: ApSim RLGC (and SPICE)
I have used ApSim's RLGC (and SPICE, an RF SPICE as I used to call it) with
great success.
I used these tools as far back as about nine years ago ('95/'96) and they
did an excellent job on
multi-gigabit signaling when nothing else seemed to be available and hadn't
heard about Linpar.
I even used them to create an extensive amount of data (corporate internal
stuff, never published)
that very close correlated with a whole lot like a lot of papers published
some years later on losses
and predicted connector crosstalk and performance levels. Since I not only
had my own laboratory
data to work from but also completely independent work by folks who had no
idea what I was doing,
that gave me great confidence in the tools and the methodology used with
them. I didn't use HSPICE
except in limited cases (for electrically short structures) because that
was before the W-element came
around so I cannot comment much on that one. So getting back to "stackup"
tools, if you are looking
for performance on doing that, RLGC will do it well.
One thing that I don't suppose Linpar does is RLGC which can do arbitrary
shape modeling which
makes it nice for via modeling if you need to go on the cheap and avoid a
much more
expensive 3D modeler. I'm sure the 3D tool would likely beat RLGC on that
in accuracy but
the cost is so disparate between the two sometimes just having enough
information that is not
necessarily accurate to 12 decimal places but it is still "good enough"
will work so
that the exorbitant cost of the 3D tool can be avoided. You do have to
know what you
are doing here, however, to make that work.
re: cost
I've just been looking for a cheaper tool to do cross checks with and get
around the
licensing issues when one finds themselves on the road. I like ApSim but I
don't need
two or more copies of it right now. The cross checks are not for the
tool... its for
me and that silly little problem called "data entry error" that creeps in
now and then.
From what you've described about Linpar, it would be an ideal
"cross-check" and mobile
tool, if not a low cost partial solution that in some cases might get you
by in a pinch.
Best Regards,
Michael E. Vrbanac
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