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This document contains references to Agilent Technologies. Agilent's former Test and Measurement business has become Keysight Technologies. For more information, go to www.keysight.com.


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ADS 2014.01 Release Notes
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Advanced Design System 2014.01 Release Notes

For general information about Advanced Design System (ADS), visit ADS webpage at http://www.keysight.com/find/eesof-products

Starting October 2014, support for the following operating systems will be discontinued:

  • Windows 7 32-bit
  • Windows 8 32-bit
  • Suse10

Key Features

Issues Addressed

Licensing

  • On windows, a possible Administrator privilege issue preventing the automatic restarting of the FlexFNP license server program, lmgrd after the PC comes out of the hibernation mode has been fixed. The License Setup Wizard will automatically restart the server without any user intervention.

Platform

  • The File > Release Layout License menu has been removed from the Layout window, as the Layout license gets released automatically when all layout windows are closed.
  • Switching to the "Library View" tab after opening a schematic from the "Folder View" tab will not result in a crash.
  • A cell's itemdef.ael file is no longer overwritten when renaming its library, moving the cell to a different library, or copying the cell to a different library while retaining the same cell name.
  • If an open library contains a reference to a separate technology library, it will be updated when the technology library is renamed.
  • The "Library View" tab refreshes when changing a library's mode to or from Read-Only.
  • Migrating schematic designs with non-90 degree rotated instances will preserve connections between instances, although the original wire stubs will remain and must be fixed manually. Component authors must also update component definitons to support non-90 degree rotation in ADS 2011.01 and later releases.
  • Migrating designs with layout look-alike symbols properly displays connected pins.
  • Migrating designs with bus syntax retains the ':' characters in net names, preserving the connectivity.
  • Performance is greatly improved when creating and opening workspaces containing large libraries located over a network.
  • The Edit > Modify > Force To Grid command in Schematic reroutes wires as necessary to maintain connectivity when components are moved.
  • Copying and pasting a Global Variable maintains its global scope.
  • Shift+Select toggles properly between selecting and deselecting vertices.
  • When rectangle vertices are selected in Layout, performing Select > Deselect Area will deselect the vertices instead of selecting the entire rectangle.
  • Responsiveness is improved when the Library Browser is open and workspace files are modified.
  • The DRC error layer is no longer filled by default.

Artwork Translators

  • DXF Export does not crash when exporting two different ADS layers to the same DXF output layer.
  • DXF Export retains arc information instead of exporting arcs as polygons or polylines.
  • GDSII exports dot-shaped (zero dimension polygon) pins in a way that avoids failures at foundry mask level checks.
  • Gerber Import properly handles cut-out islands.
  • Gerber Import has improved handling of decimals in Drill files.
  • IFF Import uses the correct Library Technology resolution setting.
  • IFF Import properly maps illegal characters and keeps legal characters.
  • IFF Import results in correct net names involving Grounds in Layout.
  • IFF Import now supports layout sub-design instances with non-90 degree rotation angles.
  • IGES Import performance is once again comparable to ADS 2009U1.
  • Mask Export file size is reduced when the layout contains a large number of rectangles.

Data Display

  • List plots now support the ability to automatically resize to the width of the displayed data.

Momentum Simulations

  • Layer and Shape specific mesh settings are respected when mesh reduction is enabled. Previously, mesh reduction ignored them. For example, a denser mesh on a specific layer was reduced away to the global mesh density.
  • Addressed solver crashes that could be triggered when working with dense meshes.
  • Improved modeling when long narrow quads are present in the mesh.
  • Improved modeling of the current flow in contact areas between thick strips.
  • Improved cluster simulation status and warning message reporting in the EM Job Manager.

FEM Simulations

  • Memory usage and performance of designs containing a large number of ports is improved.
  • Increased FEM mesh performance and robustness for large designs.
  • Improved stability when using waveguide ports in multi-conductor applications such as co-planar waveguide, floating ground, stacked conductors, and multiple coupled lines.
  • Improvements in co-simulation flow with EMPro 3D components, advice is to use ADS 2014.01 in combination with EMPro 2013.07 HF1.

Circuit Simulation

  • Improved convergence for MOSVAR in ST PDK
  • HSPICE compatibility for HiSIM-HVMOS
  • Improved convergence for Transient Assisted Harmonic Balance simulation of Oscillator circuits
  • Improved ChannelSim accuracy for channels with 10 or more multiple segments
  • Allow variable number of pins for VBIC model in Spectre compatibility mode
  • Add support for the IBIS 5.1 C-Comp_Corner keyword
  • Enhanced default DC solver now uses a new DC convergence algorithm
  • Significantly improved performance of Tran solver with PWL sources that have extremely large number of segments

Known Issues

Installation

  • While installing a new version of ADS, if you see “Previous version detected” and you've already ran the uninstaller for ADS, you need to manually uninstall ADS before continuing with a new installation of ADS. To manually uninstall ADS, perform the following steps.
    1. Exit the current ADS installation session if it is running.
    2. Remove/rename the file .com.zerog.registry.xml under directory C:\Program Files (x86)\Zero G Registry and manually remove the ADS installation directory through the Windows Explorer. The directory Zero G Registry is a hidden directory and file .com.zerog.registry.xml is hidden. To see the hidden directory, change the settings to view hidden files under Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Folder Options.
    3. Re-start the ADS installer after these steps.
  • While installing on Linux, if the message “dialog prompts to insert Disk1” is seen, this generally means the download the customer is using has been corrupted. This message can indicate the local hard disk ran out of the space while the untar command was performed.
  • Antivirus Usage: Advanced Design System can have issues either booting up properly or running the simulations properly on a system with Antivirus or any other security protections installed.
    Workaround: You should add the following list of executables (for products such as McAfee or Bitdefender) under the ADS installation directory as exceptions to the Antivirus or security protection settings for the given product:
    • bin/hpeesofde.exe
    • bin/MomEngine.exe
    • bin/hpeesofdds.exe
    • bin/agilent-vacomp.exe
    • bin/hpeesofsim.exe
    • bin/win32_64/MomEngine.exe
    • bin/win32_64/hpeesofdds.exe
    • bin/win32_64/agilent-vacomp.exe
    • bin/win32_64/hpeesofsim.exe
  • If a user doesn't use the Gnome or KDE Window manager on Linux, then the Gtk warning message appears on the terminal window while installing ADS on 64-bit Linux (RHEL 6) platform.
  • Symantec Endpoint Protection Notification appears while installing ADS.
  • On some Linux systems, the Advanced Design System installation process will report warnings due to the default settings for the maximum number of files that can be opened.
    • To verify that your system is experiencing issue with a limit on open file descriptors while installing ADS, open the log file under the directory $HOME/Uninstall_ADS2014.01/Logs , where the name of the file is Advanced_Design_System_2014.01_Install…log. 
    •  If you see the phrase “Too many open files” under the log file then, you need to increase the open file descriptors limit on your system.
    • Use the following command to display the maximum number of open file descriptors
      • cat /proc/sys/fs/file-max
    • To see the hard and soft values, issue the command as follows:
      • ulimit -Hn
      • ulimit -Sn
    • Increase Open FD Limit at Linux OS Level*
      • Many application such as Oracle database or Apache web server needs this range quite higher. So you can increase the maximum number of open files by setting a new value in kernel variable /proc/sys/fs/file-maxas follows (login as the root)
        • sysctl -w fs.file-max=100000
      • Above command forces the limit to 100000 files. You need to edit /etc/sysctl.conffile and add the following line so that after reboot the setting will remain as it is
        • vi /etc/sysctl.conf
      • Append a config directive as follows:
        • fs.file-max = 100000
      • Save and close the file /etc/sysctl.conf. You need to log out and login again for the changes to take effect or just type the following command.
  • Unable to uninstall ADS on certain Windows 7 64 bit machines.
    Workaround: Rename or remove the jre directory under the installation directory and run the uninstaller.

Spaces and International Characters' Supportability (This is a beta feature in this release.)

  • Leading or trailing spaces in workspace name or cell name are not supported. Space should be used only to separate two words.
  • Mentor’s DxDesigner does not support international characters. When cells named with international characters are transferred to Mentor, the international characters gets modified.
  • In case of Budget Simulation, when user tries to open the results of simulation (.csv file) with international characters, MS Excel gives the incorrect filename error.
    Workaround: Ignore the incorrect filename error; open the file manually to view the results.
  • DRC AEL Rule files (like “drc.ael” or “spacing.ael”) cannot contain international characters in the name. It otherwise works well with the international characters.
  • LVS AEL Rule files cannot contain international characters in the name. It otherwise works well with the international characters.
  • Ptolemy modelbuilder and HDLCosim is not working when space(s) or international characters are part of ADS installation path.
    Workaround: Install ADS in a directory that does not contain spaces in the installation directory path.
  • Model Composer and Advanced Model Composer do not support spaces or international characters in the library or cell name.

Licensing

    • License Setup wizard may not be able to start license server with many license files. During setup, it may lead to a situation where a command prompt window appears/disappears incessantly. This is due to the fact that License Setup wizard is not able to start lmgrd with a long command line and may get stuck in a loop.
      Workaround: 

      1. It is recommended to combine all license code words tied to same MAC ID into single license file to avoid setting large number of license files.
      2. Try to use a shorter path to place license files.
      3. If #1 and/or #2 does not help, start the license server (lmgrd.exe) from the command line (e.g. lmgrd.exe -c <lic-file-path> -l <license_server_log.txt>) and then set <PRODUCT>_LICENSE_FILE=<PORT-NUMBER>@localhost for product you want to use on same PC.

    • Dongle drivers for Flex-10 dongles on Linux are release specific. Installing the latest dongle drivers on Linux will function properly only for the most recent EEsof releases.
      Workaround      : Install and use dongle drivers as needed.  If you need to run the most recent EEsof releases, use the latest  Flex-10 dongle driver. If you need to use older releases, uninstall the latest dongle driver and re-install the older dongle driver

    • FLO and EEsof License setup are writing server logs at different locations. However, the EEsof server log file location is updated in the License Manager > Environment tab.
    • When multiple same-named INCREMENT lines of different version exist on the license server, few advanced FlexNet options to reserve/limit licenses may not work properly. 
    • Product Selector “Check Availability“ generates incorrect results (which leads to license failure) for older releases when multiple date base versions of like-named bundles exist in the license pool.
    • In Linux, Product Selector OK and Cancel Buttons locations are reserved.
    • Starting from FlexNet Publisher 2015 (also known as version 11.13.1), the adoption of the best practice of the least-privilege security therein results in the License Server related Windows Service to run with the LocalService Account privilege (instead of the LocalSystem privilege as before.)  Running with the LocalService Account privilege, an executable can no longer access any files located in the per-user specific type of folders.  As a result, any license file placed in those folders can no longer be accessed by the License Server when the License Server is automatically started via the Windows Service upon each PC reboot. For the local node-locked license, this would not result in any disruption to the usage of EEsof applications; however, for the license installed on a network PC that is accessed by multiple client PCs, this may cause EEsof applications not to start after the network PC reboots
      Workaround: Store your license files in the Windows folders that are accessible by the LocalService Account privilege.  For example, C:\ProgramData or C:\users\public are both qualified choices.  In general, any folder that has the "Users" group listed in its Properties > Security page and this "Users" group has the read permission enabled should work. 

    • Using the default port to connect to a license server may cause a delay when checking out licenses. If no port is given in the license file, Flexera scans ports 27000 to 27009 to find the port. Starting from FlexNet Publisher 2015 (aka version 11.13.1), the default timeout for the response from each port increased from .1 seconds to 3 seconds.

      To avoid the delay, KSM now issues licenses with port 27009 instead of leaving this blank. The EEsof License Setup Wizard (from Licensing 2017.01 onwards) handles some common situations such as: where it detects license file(s) without port, when users get a new license file with port 27009, or when all license files for a vendor daemon does not have same port.

      You will not be able to start the license server if all license files for a vendor daemon on a server does not have same port.
      Users who manually setup a license server or using EEsof License Setup Wizard with older licensing bits may need to manually edit license files to comply with the following rules:

      1. All license files for a vendor daemon on a server must use the same port (or all be blank). 

      2. Using the default port (blank) is allowed but may result in longer checkout times. 

      3. If setting up a network server, select an unused port that is not blocked by a firewall.

      Workaround: If the user cannot change the port, or wants to use the default Flexera ports, the environment variable FLEXLM_TIMEOUT can be set to .2 seconds (200000), to minimize the performance degradation. However, if the network latency is an issue in your environment, you may need to fine-tune this setting to minimize the general performance degradation while still accommodating the network latency.

    • Installation of EESof EDA tools (such as, SystemVue 2016.08, Genesys 2017.XX, or ADS 2017.XX) may hang at 4% (percentage vary based on the products) for few hours or even more on some specific machines.
      Workarounds:

      • Disable Firewall setting in Anti-Virus Software installed on the PC.
        or
      • Download and unzip process explorer from the below link and then invoke procexp.exe.
        https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/processexplorer.aspx
        Right click on the wusa.exe process under <Product installer exe> and select KillProcess. Now it will continue the product installation.
    • After installing EESof EDA tools (such as, SystemVue 2016.08, Genesys 2017.XX, or ADS 2017.XX) successfully and try to invoke the software or License wizard, you may encounter “api-ms-win-crt-runtime-l1-1-0.dll” missing error.
      Workaround: Install the Update for Universal C Runtime in Windows .  On Windows 64-bit system systems, the file to install is x64 version of the Microsoft hotfix KB2999226. A copy of the Windows6.1-KB2999226-x64.msu Microsoft 64-bit hotfix installer can be found under the C:\Program Files\Keysight\EEsof_License_Tools\bin directory.  The Microsoft hotfix KB2999226 can be found under the Update for Universal C Runtime in Windows  page at  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2999226/update-for-universal-c-runtime-in-windows as well.
    • On a newly formatted RHEL system, the EEsof Licensing tools may fail to boot. This is because the FlexNet Publisher 2015 requires a certain rpm
      Workaround: Under the EEsof product installation directory, there exists a utility script named "Linux_sys_check.sh" under the bin directory. Run this script to find out whether any rpm is missing; run this script with a "-y" command-line option to also have all the missing rpms automatically installed if you have the sudo or root privilege.
    • License server may stop recognizing Flex-10 dongle on some systems within a few hours after starting 
      Workaround: If you experience this problem, install the latest WibuKey drivers from Wibu Systems.
    • Unable to install Flex-10 driver if Flex-9 dongle is already plugged into a machine
      Workaround: Before installing a Flex-10 driver for the first time, unplug the Flex-9 dongle.
    • There is a known FlexNet Publisher issue, whereby mixing node-locked codewords and floating codewords in one license file can result in: a) Remote simulations not working or b) A second local simulation not working in case the license is node-locked and also has incorrect version.
      Workaround: It is strongly recommended that you do not mix node-locked codewords and floating codewords in one license file nor in any configuration that ends up with node-locked codewords and floating codewords both available on the same server. In other words, put the node-locked license and the floating license on different servers, and point to the respective one based on what you need to run.
    • If a user simultaneously runs two instances of a product and has mixed different versions of the same codeword on one license server, extra licenses may be pulled and result in unexpected “Licensed number of users already reached for this feature” errors.
      Workaround: We recommend you remove expired codewords, to separate out the new and the old versions of codewords into different files and different servers, and to point to the respective one based on what you need to run.
    • Not specifying the TCP/IP port for the license server during license setup may lead to unexpected behavior and/or license checkout failure on the Windows platform. We strongly recommend you to always explicitly specify the TCP/IP port associated with each license server.
    • A node-locked and floating bundle operating on Linux cannot be shared between products using EDA License Tools version older than 2014.01 when run at the same time.
    • License Setup Wizard does not remove any previous user-configured FLEX Windows License Service manually set up by a user using FlexNet's lmtools. 
      Workaround: You must remove the previous user-configured Windows License Service via lmtools.

      • Run the lmtools.exe from C:\Program Files\Agilent\EEsof_License_Tools\bin to invoke the lmtools utility. The lmtools utility window is displayed.

        If you have installed an EEsof product released before 1st August, 2014 on your system prior to installing an EEsof product released after 1st August, 2014 then the default EEsof Licensing tools path will remain C:\Program Files\Agilent\EEsof_License_Tools. On the systems that only have EEsof products released after 1st August, 2014 installed then the default EEsof Licensing tools path will be C:\Program Files\Keysight\EEsof_License_Tools.
      • In the Service/License File tab, check the Configuration using Services option. All user-configured FLEX Windows License Services will be listed.
      • Select the service you wish to remove.
      • Select the Config Services tab and click the Remove Service button to remove the service.
        To ensure that the license service or lmgrd is running, click View Log. A log window appears that confirms whether agileesofd and lmgrd are up and running.
    • While running multiple versions of prior ADS releases together, set ADS_MAXIMUM_BUNDLE_USAGE=ON in your environment so that all of them will use the same method to check out licenses. Otherwise, you might receive an error message, "Licensed number of users already reached".
    • On some Windows 7 machines, when more than one definition of an Ethernet adapter exists (duplicates), license checkouts may appear to hang up.
      Workaround: Disable the duplicate network card definitions in your network settings: Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network Connections. This issue has been acknowledged by Flexera and they have created a bug report (SIOC-000103097).
    • For LSF style distributed simulations, ensure that the PATH on the client computer points to the $HPEESOF_DIR/EEsof_License_Tools/${architecture} directory that corresponds to the EEsof release being used. This needs to be done in order to ensure that the proper version of the Flexera utilities (like lmutil ) gets picked up in the path before any older in-compatible versions (that may also be installed on a users’ system.)
    • License Setup Wizard ( aglmwizard.exe ), which is used to set up and record the license path would not work if you already have an environment variable set for ADS_LICENSE_FILE.
      Workaround: You can use ADS_LICENSE_FILE variable to point to license file or refer to Licensing (For Administrators).
    • The License Setup Wizard will exit or not properly configure a license server, if the server has all of its licenses currently in use.
      Workaround: Wait for a license on the server to become available as you normally would before launching the product.
    • Unable to set license in case unicode characters are used either in path or license file name because the Flex License Service does not support these characters.

    • The Product Selector tool will be unable to display the license server status properly when connected to older license server.
      Workaround: Upgrade your license server to the latest version.

    • EEsof Licensing Tools installer can hang on systems with McAfee LiveSafe installed and running the default firewall settings.
      Workaround:  Prior to installing EEsof Licensing Tools, temporarily turn off the McAfee LiveSafe firewall.

    • Licensing setup steps on systems with McAfee LiveSafe installed can fail.
      Workaround:  Under the McAfee LiveSafe firewall settings, under Port and Settings, allow the use of port 27001 for lmgrd.exe under the EEsof Licensing Tools installation bin directory.  Under Internet Connections for Programs , enable lmgrd.exe, aglmmgr.exe and aglmwizard.exe for all devices and turn off monitoring.

    • On Windows, EEsof product releases prior to 2014 can have boot time issues with licensing if an newer EEsof product is installed prior to installing the older product. For example, if a users installs Advanced Design System 2017 and then installs Advanced Design systems 2014.01, the user can have boot time errors with ADS 2014.01.
      Workaround:  For Advanced Design System users,  set a system environmental variable named ADS_LICENSE_FILE under the Control Panel/ System, and Security / System / Advanced system settings and under the "environmental variables".  Add an System variable named ADS_LICENESE_FILE and the value will be the path to your local license file or the port@host setting for your site.
    • On Windows 10 systems with  UEFI Secure Boot (BIOS) turned on, Wibu USB key or dongles are not recognized and licenses based on the Wibu key can not  used.
      Workaround:  Disable UEFI Secure Boot under the BIOS settings.

  • Unable to invoke ADS 2009 Update 1 with node locked license file on Linux.
    Workaround: Invoke ADS 2009 Update 1 with floating license file on Linux.
  • When the same user is running similar simulations from multiple sessions of ADS on the same computer and display---that is, the same User-Display-Host--- and if simulations are rerun an extra license may be pulled.
    Workaround: Select Simulate > Stop and Release Simulator in all the ADS sessions to release all the simulator licenses, then rerun the simulations.

Platform

  • Editing a schematic can result in a situation where it looks like a wire has two different node names when, in fact, two different named wires exist. This issue will be addressed in a future release.
    Workaround: Use the View>Navigator Window or Tools>Info... feature to view the nets.
  • There is a known problem with Cadence Design System's Virtuoso software when using libraries compatible with the Windows file system and using uppercase letters in the library name.
    Workaround: Use all lowercase names for IC Interoperable libraries and designs.
  • After opening a substrate, using Version Control to check-out a different revision of the substrate will not show any changes.
    Workaround: Close the workspace and reopen it.
  • Genesys 2012.01 and earlier versions do not support schematic export to ADS in 64-bit mode. This will be addressed in a future version of Genesys.
    Workaround: Launch ADS 32-bit to use the ADS-Genesys Link for Genesys-to-ADS schematic transfer.
  • When running ADS on linux and displaying it on a remote system, some graphics drawing such as displaying menus are slower than on previous releases.
    Workaround: Launch ADS with "-graphicssystem" as a command line option to the "ads" startup script.

Layout

  • ADS crashes when a Via is selected and its corresponding via definition is deleted.
    Workaround: Before deleting a via definition, delete the corresponding Via instance(s) from the layout.

Electrothermal

  • Receiving errors in licensing while running thermal simulator.
    Workaround: Rename the file $HOME/.eesofrc. For example, $HOME/.eesofrc-orig.
  • All libraries referenced in a layout should use the same layout resolution (database units per user unit).
  • LSF, remote, batch, sequencer simulation does not work with thermal.
  • You cannot run both a transient and envelope simulation on the same design from one testbench.
  • Thermal simulation only works with the default DC convergence mode. If you change DC_ConvMode (not recommended), thermal simulation may not work.

EM Simulation

  • An EM Setup saved in ADS 2014.01 resets the Momentum Global Mesh Options to the factory defaults when opened with ADS 2011.10.
    Workaround: Install the latest ADS 2011.10 hotfix to address this compatibility issue.
  • For EMPro generated emModel used in EM co-simulation, visualization will not work in ADS 2014.01.
    Workaround: To see field plots, use layout components instead of emModels used in EM co-simulations.
  • If you see a failure while doing a 3D FEM simulation, creating a 3D view from ADS layout, or when exporting a design from ADS layout to EMPro, check for either of the following error messages:
    • RuntimeError: Unable to create a new Eigenmode simulation because the simulation settings are invalid. The invalidity message is: Eigenmode simulation cannot have absorbing boundary conditions.
    • RuntimeError: Unable to create a new FEM simulation because the simulation settings are invalid. The invalidity message is: FEM 2D Port solver requires waveguide ports
      Workaround: Open up EMPro and check the selected simulator in the Simulation toolbar. If it is set to FEM Eigenmode Simulation or FEM 2D Port Simulation, change the selection to be FEM Simulation and save the opened EMPro design.
  • The FEM LSF cluster simulation may fail with the error "Cannot find a license file or connect to a license server".
    Workaround: Specify the ADS license file or server in the file .eesoflic in your home directory on the LSF cluster. This can be done by adding a line of the form
    ADS_LICENSE_FILE=<license file name or server name>
    to the .eesoflic file.
  • The ADS to EMPro export is not compatible with EMPro 2011.12 or older. Use EMPro 2012.09 or later.
  • FEM simulations and viewing field and current plots in the 3D viewer are not supported in case the workspace path has international characters. The FEM simulations can be executed if the name of the simulation directory specified in the emSetup resources tab is set to a location without international characters.
  • In case of a FEM simulation with one or multiple calibrated ports, the following warning may appear ("Warning detected by hpeesofsim during netlist flattening. Simulation results may be incorrect. Errors encountered when looking for S11 (orY11/Z11/H11/G11) in the file: ..."). In this case either use a citi file or the layout component or 3D component infrastructure to use the FEM simulation results as part of the circuit simulation.

Circuit Simulation

  • While sharing through the product Cisco Webex, the second circuit simulation can hang the running ADS session.
    Workaround: Change or add the registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WebEx\AppSharing\DisableSharingIndicator to be equal to zero. The following is reg file example for this setting
    • Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
    • [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WebEx\AppSharing]
    • "DisableSharingIndicator"=dword:00000000
  • Certain user-compiled mint models are not threadsafe.
    Workaround: You should recompile the model or run the model as single threaded.
  • Verilog-AMS is not supported on SUSE11 platform using ADS2014.01.

Data Display

  • The evm() measurement expression can be slow when large amounts of swept data are processed. To workaround this problem you will need to reduce the amount of data being processed. This can normally be done by increasing the step size of the sweep or reducing the range of the data being processed.

This first release of ADS Board Link includes coverage of most ADS 2012.08 and 2013.06 features. Some complex capabilities of ADS and new features of ADS 2014.01 are not supported completely in this release. These include:

  • Nested technology support
  • Complex component instances - these include most simulation controllers and other components with complex parameters
  • New layout features such as route/via objects and ground fill structures
  • Most IC Interoperability features, such as CDF item definitions and new IC-style pins
  • Automatic EM/Circuit Partitioning

Artwork Translators

  • The GDSII translator was replaced in ADS 2011 and later versions with the OpenAccess-compatible version. A performance issue may be observed for GDSII imports. For large GDSII files (with more than 50 stream structures) GDSII import may take longer time than ADS 2011.10.

Budget Analysis

  • Budget analysis might fail if ADS is installed on Windows 8 platform.
    Workaround: Use other supported platforms.

PDKs

  • If you make changes in the View-Specific Configuration tab of the Design Parameters dialog box, an itemdef.ael file may get created in the cell of the component. You can ignore this and delete it if you don't require demand loading. The Item definitions will be loaded as they were prior to this file getting created.
  • When a project is converted to workspace, there is a chance that string type parameters of some components may show invalid values. To get the correct parameter values, open the Component Parameter dialog box, click on the editable parameter and hit Apply button. If a large number of components need to be modified please contact Keysight for better support.
  • The PDKs created by RFIP Encoder still contains some files and folders which are obsolete in the ADS2011 and onwards. You can ignore them.
  • ADS may issue a warning message requesting that you contact your foundries for an updated PDK. This warning message appears when popping out of the design hierarchy in a layout window, or using the Edit>Component>Update Component Definitions menu option. We are working closely with foundries to update these PDKs. PDK Users can determine whether a PDK needs to be repaired by calling de_check_and_report_pcell_parameters_in_library() from the ADS Command Line. If you are the owner of a PDK, you can fix the PDK using de_update_pcell_parameters_in_library(), as described in the PDK Documentation.

PDK Builder

  • PDK Builder is not fully functional on Linux.
  • If a PDK is re-generated using the PDK Builder at the same location as was created earlier, the technology library inside this PDK will be deleted.
    Workaround: Delete the PDK before re-generating it at the same location, through the PDK Builder.

Printing

  • Printing now support custom paper sizes when set from the "Advanced Printer Setup" dialog. However, this capability is only active during the current session and must be reset when ADS is restarted.
  • When using an SVG or PDF file generated using the ADS printer interface in other applications the fonts used in the file may not be found by the other application. When this occurs the text will be displayed using a different font that may not appear to be the same size as the original font used inside ADS. This is caused by the other application not being able to find the ADS fonts used in the SVG or PDF file. To workaround this issue install the ADS fonts into the local systems font configurations using the "fontconfig" or "xset" commands. The ADS fonts are located in the "$HPEESOF_DIR/lib/fonts" directory.

Verification

  • Clicking the Desktop DRC "Cancel" button does not terminate a process called "jade," preventing DRC errors from being reported until jade is terminated.
    Workaround: Kill the jade process from the Operating System and run Desktop DRC again.
  • Cadence IC 5.1.41 (and other Cadence versions without 64-bit MPS libraries) will not work for GGTools and Dynamic Link. The rfdemp (GGTools) and idfmp (Dynamic Link) executable files are linked to Cadence 64-bit libraries. Only Cadence versions with 64-bit em_sh, mpsc_sh, cdsCommon_sh, and sman_sh libraries are supported. Supported Cadence versions are listed in $HPEESOF_DIR/idf/supported_cadence_versions.txt.
    Workaround: Use ADS 2013.06, 2012.08 or earlier versions of ADS for GGTools or Dynamic Link when using Cadence IC 5.1.41. Alternatively, Cadence IC 5.1.41 libraries can be converted to Cadence IC 6.1.4 or newer versions to use GGTools and Dynamic Link in ADS 2014.01.

DesignGuides

From ADS 2014.01 release onwards, the Linearization, PLL, and RF System design guides are obsolete. For any queries, please contact the Keysight Technical support.

Examples

  • Unable to compile Pin Diode Model using Visual Studio 2012 on Windows 7 64-bit platform.
    Workaround: Delete the contents of the directory examples/Tutorial/UserCompiledModel_wrk/UserCompiledModel/lib.win32_64 before using UCMs.

Documentation

  • ADS online help is not supported on the Google Chrome browser.
    Workaround: Use Internet Explorer or Firefox to view ADS documentation.
  • Do not install Vendor Libraries or Design Kits under $HPEESOF_DIR, otherwise the associated help links will not work.
  • Mozilla Firefox version 3.0.5 crashes on RHEL 5 machine while accessing protected ADS on-line documentation from Qt Help window.
  • If the ADS help does not show any content, throws an error, or does not display any search results.
    Workaround: Close the help and delete the contents of the following directory:
    • On Windows 7: C:\Users\<Windows_Login_ID>\AppData\Local\Agilent\Help
    • On Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<Windows_Login_ID>\Local Settings\Application Data\Agilent\Help
    • On Linux: $HOME/.local/share/data/Agilent/Help

ADS 2009 Update 1 License Compatibility Hot Fix Available

ADS 2014 requires licenses with an updated version number (3.1). Per Keysight’s license backward compatibility policy, these new licenses will work with the ADS 2014.01 version, and the prior two major ADS releases (ADS 2012.08 and ADS 2011.01), as well as the interim minor releases (ADS 2013.06, ADS 2011.05, and ADS 2011.10). The new 3.1 version licenses will NOT work with ADS 2009 Update 1 or prior releases.

Keysight has decided to make an exception to this policy and has an ADS 2009 Update 1 hotfix available which will allow ADS 2009 Update 1 to work with 3.1 version licenses. You can download the hotfix by visiting https://edasupportweb.software.keysight.com/page/show_add_on?id=337055 (Knowledge Center password required).

If you have fully upgraded to ADS 2011/12/13 or ADS 2014, you do not need to download this hotfix. But if you would like access to both ADS 2014.01 and ADS 2009 Update 1 concurrently, or you require long term access to legacy ADS 2009 Update 1 designs, we recommend you to download and install the hotfix.

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