PADS is a complete, integrated and scalable PCB design solution.

PCB Flow

D A T A S H E E T

www.mentor.com

PADS PCB Design SolutionsD A T A S H E E T

www.mentor.com/pads

Overview

PADS, Mentor Graphics’ worldwide leading desktop PCB design solution,enables individuals and small teams to develop PCBs within a highlyproductive and easy-to-use environment. Integrated and scalable, PADSallows individual engineers and designers to accomplish a wide breadth anddepth of core PCB development tasks, including schematic entry, analogdesign, signal and power integrity, thermal analysis, and PCB layout-to-manu-facturing preparation.

PADS offers a low cost of entry, yet delivers high performance that exceedsother desktop PCB design solutions on the market. Long a part of the MentorGraphics PCB lineup, PADS has benefitted from continuous, solid develop-ment and global distribution, making it the most popular desktop PCB soft-ware package in the world. And, as a Mentor Graphics PCB solution, PADSprovides a clear and connected path to an enterprise flow if your requirementsgrow.

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Major product benefits

The standard in desktop PCB design

� Proven, reliable PCBdesign technology

� Powerful, yet easy-to-use

� Scalable to grow as yourrequirements grow

� Advanced capabilities totackle complex designproblems with accuracyand ease

� Offers capabilities for high-speed, thermal, and powerintegrity analysis, analogand RF design, FPGA toPCB optimization,manufacturing prep, andmore

Are PADS PCB Design Solutions for You?

� Have your current tools “run out of gas,”driving you to explore new options?

� Do demanding design challenges and tighttime-to-market demands conflict with strictbudget constraints?

� Is cost-of-ownership a primary factor in yourbuying decision?

� Do you want the shortest learning curvepossible and user-experience that doesn’tdivert you from focusing on your design?

� Do you do it all – concept, layout, andanalysis?

� Are you looking for a plug-and-playsolution?

PADS PCB Design SolutionsMentor Graphics leads te PCB market inproviding scalable design solutions that meetor exceed your requirements. Whether youare a single designer, part of a small group, oran independent group within a largercompany, PADS PCB design solutions offerwhat you need, when you need it, at anaffordable cost.

System DesignThe PADS flow delivers the most robust

system design captur and definitionfunctionality available, including intuitive projectand design navigation, unlimited hierarchicalsupport, design reuse, advanced design attribute andrules management, full forward/back annotationincluding design rules, cross-probing with layoutand routing, and a direct schematic-to-signal-integrity analysis link.

Analog AnalysisHyperLynxAnalog with EZwave is a board-level

simulation analysis and verification environment thatis integrated into Mentor Graphics’DxDesignerboard-design environment. Using a single schematicto drive both the simulation and PCB applicationseffectively illuminates costly and error-proneschematic re-entry, therefore significantly shorteningthe overall development cycle.

HyperLynxAnalog provides basic simulation capa-bilities, such as DC, frequency and time-domainanalysis, as well as more statistical approaches such asMonte Carlo and multiple sweep analyses. EZwavesets the standard in waveform analysis, with easy-to-use drag ‘n’ drop features enabling fast waveformviewing, multiple cursor support to sophisticated oper-ations through the waveform calculator and measure-ment tools. Waveforms from multiple simulation runscan be overlaid to quickly compare result differences.EZwave also offers a range of plotting formatsincluding time-domain, digital, smiths charts, and bodeplots.

HyperLynxAnalog includes thousands of popularproven models, with access to extensive externalvendor libraries, the ability to import and convertexisting PSpice libraries, and even drag 'n drop symbolgeneration for automatic symbol creation usingcommonly found SPICE models.

Signal Integrity AnalysisSignal integrity (SI) analysis is an essential part of

modern electronic design. Increasingly-fast edge ratesin today’s integrated circuits (ICs) cause detrimentalhigh-speed effects, even in PCB designs running at lowoperating frequencies. As driver ICs switch faster, agrowing number of boards suffer from issues such ascrosstalk, over/undershoot, ringing, glitching, andtiming problems. PADS design solutions offers

HyperLynx Analog provides a complete simulation environment integrated intothe PCB design flow. HyperLynx Analog allows the user to prepare all aspects ofsimulation for both basic and complex analysis while seamlessly driving thePCB layout design system.

powerful and easy-to-use signal integrity capabilitieson the engineers desktop. With pre-layout analysiscapabilities for defining routing constraints, to verifica-tion of the routed board to ensure your design goals aremet, PADS design solutions offer a complete environ-ment for all your signal integrity analysis needs.

PCB LayoutAs the standard in desktop PCB layout tools, PADS

offers unparalleled price-performance for the layoutand design of complex circuit boards, including high-speed applications and RF circuits.PADS offers advanced design ruleswith real-time design rulechecking, bi-directional cross-probing, RF design functionality,split-plane generation, auto-dimen-sioning, direct DXF import intoboth the board and part libraryeditors, advanced fabrication veri-fication tools, and 3D viewing.

Also available are assemblyvariant functions, test coverageauditing, physical design reusemodule, chip-on-board / advancedpackaging, and an IDF link tothird-party CAD/CAM tools.

Interactive / AutoroutingMany designers of high-

speed and/or dense designsrequire exacting manualcontrol of critical signal traces,but could also use the speedand built-in intelligence of anauto router. The routerprovides both advanced inter-active routing and sophisti-cated autorouting for high-speed applications.

Whether interactivelyrouting with orthogonal, diag-onal, or any-angle styles, ordifferential pair routing withunique rule assignment ortrace length requirements, therouter provides exacting

control. Intuitive graphical monitoring tools providereal-time feedback for correct-by-constructionmethodology. Proven routing algorithms enablerobust design rules and advanced design constraintsto be applied between objects or groups of objectssuch as components, layers, nets, and vias.

The advanced autorouter simplifies routing oper-ations most suited for an autorouter, including fanoutand routing, by individual components or groups ofcomponents.

The PADS Layout solution combines ease of use with great value and broadtechnology, making it ideal for complex PCB designs.

Signal Integrity analysis will allow you to determine routing constraints and perform verificationof your routed PCB to ensure your design goals are met.

VerificationPre-route analysis ensures use of the optimum rules

strategy, while post-route analysis maximizes manufac-turing yields. The design for test routing routineperforms automatic testpoint insertion as part of thenormal routing pass, for optimum test point placement.Rules can be set for component pad entry and viaplacement under SMD pads, and checked using

state-of-the-art post-route audits and design verifica-

tion.

Viewing and CollaborationThrough its integration with visECADTM, Mentor’s

advanced collaboration and viewing platform, PADSusers are able to easily provide design information forothers to view, perform design reviews upon, and add

mark-ups and feedback.PADS includes a data interface that provides

visECAD with the complete set of design data necessaryto effectively view, inspect, and collaborate on a productdesign – for both the schematic and layout. To completethe review process, the collaboration data created duringthe design review is fed back into PADS, where thedesigner is able to review the feedback, make any neces-sary adjustments or changes, and document the actiontaken back into the design review data; ensuring that acomplete record of accepted and rejected changes is

maintained and available for future review.This capability is unique to PADS; offering users

major improvements in the way that design review datais presented, acted upon, and ultimately dispositioned –all of which improve a designers’ effectiveness andability to reduce overall design cycle times.visECAD also offers several additional options that

create additional value for the users. There are optionsfor custom reporting, where users can create detailedcustom reports of any data contained within the design;design comparison, where users can perform detaileddesign comparisons graphically, electrically, and/or ofdata attributes – using any combination of layout andschematic data; and finally, DRC Review, where userscan review and collaborate on the disposition of DRCdata in the CCZ file.

Test and Assembly AnalysisPADS users can perform advanced Design for Test

(DFT) and Design for Assembly (DFA) analysis, basedupon actual manufacturing rules, at any point during thelayout process.PADS’ integration with Mentor’s CAMCAD

Manufacturing Flow provides PADS users the uniqueability to rapidly perform both DFT and DFA and obtainactionable results to use as they progress the product

Schematic and layout files are crosslinked in visECAD with markupannotations that have been added during a design review.

The spreadsheet view pans to individual high-speed, clearance,and manufacturing errors with clear explanations.

Interactive and automatic routing get the job done quickly,complying to Clearance and High Speed Rules. Whether routinginteractively or automatically, all design rules, including high-speedrules, will be maintained.

through the design process. With this capability,designers can check the design and validate it againstmanufacturing constraints as a part of the designprocess, catching potential manufacturing problemseven before the manufacturing organization reviewsthe design. This helps accelerate product launch cycletime through increased productivity for both thedesign and manufacturing teams.What makes this solution easy to use and elegant is

that the manufacturing team provides the test plan forthe DFT analysis and the rule script for the DFAanalysis. This approach captures and uses manufac-turing expertise during the design process withoutrequiring the design engineers to have any manufac-turing experience. In addition to the DFT and DFAanalysis capabilities available within CAMCAD,there are extensive capabilities to view, augment, andgenerate manufacturing data outputs directly from thePADS design data.

Thermal AnalysisHyperLynx Thermal allows engineers and PCB

designers to analyze board-level thermal problems onplaced, partially routed, or fully routed PCB designsfrom all popular PCB layout environments. Temperatureprofiles, gradients, and excess temperature maps enabledesigners to resolve board and component overheatingearly in the design process.

FPGA DesignThe PADS flow can be integrated with Mentor

Graphics’ industry-leading FPGA tools to provideHDL-level design definition support for SystemC,Verilog, VHDL and SystemVerilog, an integratedverification and debug environment, advancedsynthesis, and full interfacing to popular place-and-route tools.

FPGA-On-PCB Design

Complex, high pin count FPGA designs typicallyinvolve a team. FPGA, schematic and PCB designerscan come together in a single tool to solve the board-level problem of optimizing FPGA I/O assignments,and auto symbol generation of very large FPGA pincount devices.

HyperLynx Thermal provides a very easy-to-use solution for understandingand resolving thermal issues on your PCB.

Simplify and automate the concurrent design of an FPGA and PCB.

Test probes have been added during analysis of the PADS Layoutdata in CAMCAD.

04/09 LVG 1026940-w

Visit our website at www.mentor.com/padsCopyright © 2009 Mentor Graphics Corporation. All rights reserved. PADSand HyperLynx are registered trademarks of Mentor Graphics Corporation. DxDesigner, DxDatabook and I/O Designertrademarks of Mentor Graphics. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are trademarks of their respective owners.

ConfigurationsPADS solutions are available in scalable bundles

and full front-to-back suites, designed to fit every needand budget.

Optional add-ons include ODBC-compliantcomponent information management, advanced variantmanagement, and intelligent data managementfunctionality.

Platform and Operating SystemsOperating Systems• Windows XP (service pack 2)

• Vista on Intel-based systems

Memory Requirements• Windows Vista Ultimate or Business Editions2 GB or more

• Windows XP Professional (SP2): 1 GB or more

PC Hardware• Pentium IV 2+ GHz recommended• High-speed CPU recommended• Three-button mouse or mouse with scrollwheel recommended

• Minimum display 1024 x 768 with 256 colors

5 Star Customer SupportAt Mentor Graphics, our high

performance tools are backed by anaward-winning global customersupport organization that leads the way in EDA soft-ware support. A support contract with Mentor Graphicsensures success with our software by offering regularproduct enhancements and new releases to keep world-wide design teams on track and on-time, expert tech-nical support to help designers resolve issues rapidly,and SupportNet’s comprehensive online support for24/7 access to solutions athttp://supportnet.mentor.com