ADS Session

First Steps with ADS

Start ADS and Create an Empty Project 1
• Look for a desktop icon or start menu item entitled
Advanced Design System 2011
• ADS will start up and you will see ultimately:

click for
new
project

• Close the getting started with ADS dialog box, and create a
new workspace by clicking on the indicated button bar
‘folder icon’
• Click ‘next’ to bring up the Workspace Name dialog

ECE 4670 ADS Session 1–1

First Steps with ADS

• Give the workspace a name and note where it is being placed

so you can find it again later

– ADS creates a folder structure for each workspace

– Each project holds a variety of file types placed in the sub-
folders accordingly
– For example, you can have many schematic files, plot
files, and layout files all within a single workspace
• If a workspace was already open, ADS will ask you save it
and then close it
• A sample workspace, ece467_Lab1_wrk, has already

ADS Session 1–2 ECE 4670

 Working with ece467_Lab1_wrk

been created and is available on the ECE4670 Web Site:

From http://www.eas.
uccs.edu/wickert/ece4670/

• Un-zip this into your user \hpeesof project folder

Working with ece467_Lab1_wrk

• Then from the ADS main/project window double-click this
project to open it

ECE 4670 ADS Session 1–3

First Steps with ADS

• Once open the workspace will contain four schematics and

four output files

Click to get an empty schematic window

Double-click to open an existing

document, schematic or output plot

• When you click new schematic you can title in the cell field
then click OK

Give the schematic

a title and move
on via OK

• At this point open the particular schematic under the cell

OP_Amp_LPF

ADS Session 1–4 ECE 4670

 Working with ece467_Lab1_wrk

• This schematic is set up to perform an AC analysis of an

active lowpass filter
• ADS has a number of controller blocks that are used to per-
form a given simulation type
• Here we have used an AC controller

AC
Controller

• Other components have been brought onto the schematic too,

including an AC source, resistors, grounds, an OpAmp, and a
capacitor
– To place a component click on it in the palette and then
move the cursor over the schematic and click again where
you want to place it
– The cursor stays loaded with the same component until
you hit the esc key

ECE 4670 ADS Session 1–5

First Steps with ADS

• All devices related to a simulation are brought from the pal-

ette docked at the left side of the schematic window
– In the figure above a portion of the Lumped-Compo-
nents palette is visible
– Other palettes can be selected from the pull-down just
above devices palette

– The OpAmp for example can be found under the System-

Amps & Mixers palette
• You can add wires to the schematic by clicking on the wire
button or using crl-w (always use esc to escape from a par-
ticular place or edit mode)

ADS Session 1–6 ECE 4670

 Working with ece467_Lab1_wrk

• The last step in the schematic is to configure the AC control-

ler

– Here we have set up a

log sweep from 10
Hz to 1 MHz with 50
points per decade
– New we can run the
simulation by click-
ing the shaped but-
ton

• If all goes well, that is no error messages, a plot window will

open

ECE 4670 ADS Session 1–7

First Steps with ADS

• You now
place a rectan-
gular plot ele-
ment on the
plot window
Place a rectangular and configure
plot element here
it as shown
below

• We want to plot
V_out over V_in in
dB, so we choose to
write a custom plot-
ting expression

Click here to add this expression

to the trace list
Bring up the help system for
more information on plotting
Manually enter the plot functions
expression

ADS Session 1–8 ECE 4670

 Working with ece467_Lab1_wrk

• The available functions can be found by clicking Help

• You can later configure the plot by double-clicking on the

plot element to make the x-axis log and change scales, colors,
etc, etc...

ECE 4670 ADS Session 1–9

First Steps with ADS

Double-click on the
plot and then choose
the Plot Options
tab to change the
axis type and add
custom plot labels

Double-click on the plot

trace to bring up the trace
options dialog

• The final result is shown below as a screen capture, and then

as a plot cut and pasted into this document

ADS Session 1–10 ECE 4670

 Working with ece467_Lab1_wrk

Used to fit plots on plot

page into the current
window size (just like
the schematic)

Cut and paste

into document
(below)

Multiple plots can be

added to the same plot
window

• You should save your plot window as it will be saved into the
project along with the schematic (*.dds file in workspace)
0

-10

-20
Gain (dB)

-30

-40

-50 dB(V_out/V_in)

-60
1E1 1E2 1E3 1E4 1E5 1E6

Frequency (Hz)

• If you run the simulation again, with different settings, the

ECE 4670 ADS Session 1–11

First Steps with ADS

plot window update

• Each page of a plot window can contain multiple plots of var-
ious types, and each plot window can contain multiple tabbed
pages, (nice!)
• You can put markers on your plots similar to the way markers
work on spectrum and network analyzers in the lab

Summary
• We have just scratched the surface of ADS at this point
• There are 13 total controller blocks available for running
simulations
• There are communications and DSP specific blocks
• ADS is very strong in modeling radio frequency/microwave
circuits
– There is a 2.5D electromagnetic field (EM) simulator
– A 3D field simulator (EM Pro) for antennas & structures
– There is a layout editor for PCBs and more...
• Stay tuned for more

ADS Session 1–12 ECE 4670