New videos

[two-thirds]

Sonnet has added several new “Tips and Hints” videos to explain new features introduced in Release 13. These videos are available from the Sonnet USA website. [go to video…]

We have added one new tutorial video to demonstrate the RFIC inductor analysis flow with GDSII data. [go to video…]
[/two-thirds]  [third] [/third]

New application notes

Last Update: 20. September 2011

Host-ID for node locked license with dongle on 64bit Linux

Issue: There is a known issue with node locked (not floating) licenses on 64bit Linux that are locked to a dongle. After installing the dongle driver from the Sonnet taskbar, the dongle is shown in the Admin > HostID list and some parts of Sonnet, like the xgeom editor, can be used. However, the analysis engine em complains about incorrect Host-ID.

“The hostid of this system does not match the hostid specified in the license file.”

The issue is caused by a dongle driver that does not fully support the Linux 64bit environment.
It was confirmed for dongles of type FLEXnet ID-9, but could also affect other Sonnet dongles.

Solution: Contact us to discuss alternative licensing methods.

[divider]

lmgrd: No such file or directory  (Linux)

Issue: Depending on the system setup, you might get the following error when you try start the license manager with sflexnet start

Starting FLEXnet
ERROR: License manager did not start
nohup: ignoring input
nohup: failed to run command `/home/sonnet/sonnet1352/arch/linux86/flexnet/lmgrd’: No such file or directory

although lmgrd does exist in the correct location. The issue is caused by a missing Linux library.

Solution: Use the package manager of your Linux system to install the lsb core library.
For Suse Linux, the name of the library is “lsb” and can be installed from YaST.
For Ubuntu, do sudo apt-get install lsb-core

[divider]

Newly introduced schematic view for Cadence IC5.141 gives wrong answer

[box type=error]fixed in Sonnet 13.54[/box]

Issue: The newly introduced schematic “schematic-sonnet-bbspice-spectre” gives incorrect results when used in Cadence IC5.141. However, it does work properly for IC6.14.

Release 13 of Sonnet’s Cadence Virtuoso Interface introduced a new schematic “schematic-sonnet-bbspice-spectre” that is generated for the broadband spice model and utilizes the scasubckt instance from Cadence, as shown below.

(click on screenshot to see full size)

This schematic is created when you select the Spectre checkbox under Broadband Spice in the Model Options section of the Options dialog box in Sonnet’s Cadence Virtuoso Interface and appears in your cell as “schematic-sonnet-bbspice-spectre.”

(click on screenshot to see full size)

In IC5.141, when Spectre netlists the schematic, it ignores the connection of the reference pin of the scasubckt instance. This results in wrong answers in Sonnet 13.52. Note that the schematic is configured correctly for IC6.14.

Workaround: If you are using IC5.141, please continue to use the spectre view which is also generated when using the broadband spice .scs file in ADE.

(click on screenshot to see full size)

Sonnet is working to correct this problem as quickly as possible and a patch to correct this problem should be available in the near future.

[box type=error]fixed in Sonnet 13.54[/box]

[divider]

Ref.Plane and Cal. Length are initially blank when changing port types

Issue: In the Port Properties dialog box, when you change the Type from Standard to either Autognd or Co-calibrated, both the Ref. Plane and Cal. Length text entry boxes are blank.

(click on screenshot to see full size)

Cause: The default values for these fields is 0.0 for the Ref. Plane and “Auto” for the Cal. Length. Due to a known bug in the project editor, these fields are initially displayed as blank. Once the dialog box has been closed and opened again, the correct values are displayed in the dialog box.

Workaround: You are not required to enter any values in this field if you wish to use the default values of no reference plane and having the calibration length automatically calculated by the software. To see the default values displayed, click on OK to close the dialog box and apply the port type change. When you re-open the dialog box, the correct values appear.

(click on screenshot to see full size)

[divider]

Font problem with remote display on Linux

Issue: Sonnet is supported for certain Linux systems (see here). When trying to access these Linux installations from a remote desktop, font related problems have been reported for some (unsupported) operating systems on the remote client. With this document, we will try to give some instructions how to possibly resolve these problems.

When trying to start the Sonnet from a remote system, using ssh -X or the Nomachine NX software or other remote terminal software, you might get this error message:

fatal: FATAL ERROR: MSG 0x0034b3ba [ Cat 3/4 STD 46010 ]
Category:  XVT release 3 assert (Signaled assert 4)
Function: xvt_app_create
File: ./kfont.c line: 838

Cause: Sonnet requires 75dpi and 100dpi fixed fonts on the client that displays the Sonnet window. By default, these fonts are missing on some systems, so that the Sonnet user interface can not be started.

Solution: On clients where the fonts are not installed be default, we have to install the missing fonts manually. This is described below for two systems. If your system is not listed, you might try  a variation of this procedure.

1. Nomachine NX client on Windows

To run Sonnet remotely with the Nomachine NX client on Windows, you have to install the 75dpi and 100dpi and misc font packages that are offered as separate downloads on the NX client for Windows download page. For the NX client on Windows, this solves the Sonnet startup problem described above.

(click on screenshot to see full size)

2. Ubuntu 10.4 client with ssh -X or with the Nomachine NX client for Linux

No matter if you use X forwarding or the NX client for Linux, this  Ubuntu client shows the problem described above, because the fixed fonts are not installed by default. Install the fonts from the Ubuntu Software Center. The required packages are “75dpi fonts for X” and “100dpi fonts for X”. If they are not found in the list, enable the search for “technical files” at the bottom of the window.

(click on screenshot to see full size)

Next, check your font path and make sure that 75dpi and 100dpi and misc unscaled fonts are included in the font path. To check your font path, open a terminal and run xset -q which will give some output like this:

Font Path: /usr/share/fonts/X11/misc/:unscaled,/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled,/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled,
/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1,/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi,/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi,/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType,built-ins

3. OpenSUSE 11.4 client with ssh -X or with the Nomachine NX client for Linux

This configuration works “out of the box”, the required fonts are installed by default.

[divider]

Known bugs list on the Sonnet Software website

Sonnet Software maintains a list with know bugs on their web site, which is updated when significant problems are detected.

Known bugs in the Sonnet knowledge base

Sonnet Professional 13.52

Sonnet Professional 13.52 has been released on 1. July 2011. All Sonnet Software customers with a current software maintenance agreement as of 1 June 2011, are entitled to this new release free of charge. This release is being delivered by download.

Please contact us for upgrade instructions.

[divider]

New Features

Below is a summation of the major new features in release 13 of Sonnet. For changes from release 12, refer to Changes below.

[half]

Increased Multi-threading

The number of available threads for multi-threaded processing is increasing in this release. The number of threads available for the Desktop license is increasing from 2 to 3 and for the High Performance license from 8 to 12.

Enhanced 64-bit Analysis Engine

This release introduces an even faster 64-bit analysis engine. Architectural changes to the 64-bit analysis engine have improved performance for larger jobs (those requiring over approximately 4 GB of memory) especially when using the Conformal Mesh feature.

Via Array Simplification

Release 13 includes a new Via Array Simplification feature for all Sonnet Translators. When translating via arrays, the small size of the individual vias and the large number in the array can significantly drive up Sonnet model memory and analysis time requirements. In order to improve your analysis efficiency, this often requires that you simplify the via geometry detail before performing your EM simulation. The new Simplify Via Array feature automatically performs this simplification, using controls set by the user, when translating circuits into Sonnet.

[/half]

[half]

Additional Functionality in Sonnet Interfaces

Significant functionality has been added to the Cadence Virtuoso Interface, the AWR Microwave Office Interface, and the ADS Agilent Interface allowing users to access additional Sonnet features from within their design environment. These features include remote processing, global translation options, and invoking more of Sonnet’s post-processing applications among others. For more information, please refer to the appropriate Interface chapter in Sonnet Translators manual.

Via Metal Types

In Sonnet Release 12 or earlier, only one metal type was used to model both metal polygons and via polygons. In Release 13, a new metal type was introduced so that metal polygons are now modeled using planar metal types (identical to metal types in older versions) and via polygons are modeled using via metal types. The new via metal types provide for higher accuracy in modeling vias. There are three via loss models that may be used to for via metal types: Volume, Surface and Array.

When a project created in release 12 or earlier is opened in this release, the metal types are automatically converted to the new format.

Via Properties

There have been changes in how vias are modeled in release 13, including more accurate ways of modeling loss, and how the via is subsectioned. Please see the “Vias” chapter in the Sonnet User’s Guide for more information on the changes.

Rough Metal Loss Model

This release includes a new model for planar metal loss which models the effects of surface roughness on planar metal
[/half]

[half]

Independent Reference Planes and Diagonal Ports

In previous Sonnet releases, all ports on a given box wall had to share the same reference plane, and that reference plane had to lie along either the x or y axis. Release 13 introduces independent reference planes and diagonal ports. Independent reference planes allow you to define a reference plane for a port different from the reference planes of other ports that share the same box wall. Diagonal ports allow you to extend the reference plane along a diagonal feedline instead of perpendicular to the box wall as pictured below. This feature applies to box wall ports, co-calibrated ports and components.

Connectivity Checker

There is a new feature, the Connectivity Checker, available in the project editor, that allows you to visually check for opens or shorts in your circuit. The Connectivity checker is invoked by selecting the Tools => Check Connectivity command from the project editor main menu.[/half]
[half]

View Heat Flux Density

There is a new feature in the Current Density viewer which allows you to plot the heat flux density. This plot provides the dissipated power in Watts/square meters that can be used for thermal analysis.

Example Browser

There is a new Example Browser, as well as many new examples, available in Release 13. The browser provides an easy, intuitive interface that allows you to search using Keywords or character strings.

SonnetLab Toolbox for MATLAB

This release introduces a new Sonnet-MATLAB interface. The interface consists of a new MATLAB library that provides integration between Sonnet Software’s design tools and MathWorks MATLAB scripting environment.
[/half]

[divider]

New Features in the Project Editor

[list]

• Updated and improved measuring tool
• Ellipses have been added to the palette of standard geometries
• A “make a copy” option in Modify menu commands
• New Move command in the Modify menu
• GDSII export much improved

[/list]

New Features in the Response Viewer

[list]

• The ability to modify multiple curve sets simultaneously
• Displayed measurements for added projects are matched to the existing plot
• Reset command that returns your plot to your default preference settings.

[/list]

New Features in the Current Density Viewer

[list]

• Choice of exporting magnitude or complex data
• Control resolution of exported data
• Export data for multiple metal levels simultaneously

[/list]

New Features in remote EM and emcluster

[list]

• Automatically submit and disconnect unfinished projects in a remote batch
• Automatic data recovery of remote finished batches

[/list]

[divider]

Changes

[box type=warn]Below is a summation of the major changes in release 13 of Sonnet. For new features in release 13, refer to “New Features” above.[/box]

Reference Planes/Cal Lengths

In previous releases, box wall reference planes were set using the Circuit menu. In this release, a reference plane is a property of a port. Thus, to add or change a reference plane, you select the desired port then select Modify => Port Properties to open the Port Properties dialog box.

File Format

In Sonnet Releases 12 or earlier, only one metal type was used to model both metal polygons and via polygons. In Release 13 introduces a new metal type so that metal polygons are now modeled using planar metal types (identical to metal types in older versions) and via polygons are modeled using via metal types. The new via metal types provide for higher accuracy in modeling vias.

When a project created in release 12 or earlier is opened in this release, the metal types need to be converted to the new format. There are default via metal conversion rules used to do this initially, but you may also customize how the conversions are performed controlling the creation of both planar and via metals. You may also choose to retain a copy of your original project.

[box type=success]This release is fully compatible with all prior releases. However, you may not use a release 13 project file in an earlier release of Sonnet. [/box]