Case Study: Rohde & Schwarz achieves faster, first-time-right high-frequency IC designs with Cadence Design Systems' Spectre Accelerated Parallel Simulator

Rohde & Schwarz - Customer Case Study

Rohde & Schwarz, a Munich‑based leader in test and measurement and wireless communications equipment, needed to develop proprietary high‑frequency ASICs under tight time‑to‑market and performance constraints. Wideband circuits and low‑frequency noise analysis made key simulations extremely slow or impractical, so the design team required fast, accurate, and scalable simulation technology to meet stringent device specs and schedules.

The team adopted Cadence Spectre Accelerated Parallel Simulator (APS) and complementary tools, using features such as the full‑spectrum pnoise option, small‑signal/PAC/PXF analyses and Rapid IP3, analog asserts, and a parallel multi‑core solver. This enabled up to 20× faster pnoise runs, the ability to perform previously impossible low‑frequency analyses, earlier detection of reliability issues, improved productivity, higher chances of first‑time‑right silicon, and more efficient use of compute and licensing resources.

Rohde & Schwarz

Gerhard Kahmen

Director of Mixed-Signal IC Design Subdivision,