Engineering & Scientific Software - Circuit Design & Simulation
Manufacturers & Services

Circuit simulators listed here apply primarily to those used for analog, RF, and microwave circuits. Designing high frequency circuits for first-pass success requires a very high level of sophistication by the software. It must contain component models (including substrates and enclosures) that accurately compute values that take into account the many parasitic effects of lead inductance, interwinding capacitance, resistance of the component, etc. Generally, price correlates directly to the capability of the software.

Here is a mixture of Payware, Shareware and Freeware for science and engineering.
Antenna, EM & Transmission Line Simulators | Circuit Simulators | System Simulators

Schematic Capture, Layout, Block Diagram | Photonics Simulators | Everything Else


Keysight Technologies | 800-452-4844 | Santa Clara, CA

Test equipment, racks, cables, adapters, amplifiers, cables, RF switches, EEsof EDA products.

ALK Engineering | 410-546-5573 | Salisbury, MD

These filter design programs claim to be the most powerful available, and are written by a team of industry experts. S/FILSYN for Windows. PCFilt for DOS.

Analog Devices | 800-262-5643 | Norwood, MA

Op amps, switches, A/D, D/A, S&H, AD8347 direct conversion RFIC (800 MHz to 2.7 GHz), ADIsimPLL synthesizer circuit simulation software.

AnaSoft Ltd | +44 07764 449471 | UK

SuperSpice has been designed from the ground up to meet the requirements of professional analog design engineers for both integrated circuit and board level applications at an unparalleled level of affordability. Edit schematic -> simulate-> view waveforms cycle of any Spice simulator.

Ansoft | 412-261-3200 | Pittsburgh, PA

Ansoft Designer is the seamless solution for physics-based RF, high-speed, & communication design. By linking physical attributes to electrical performance, Ansoft Designer makes it possible to get it right the first time. With Ansoft’s Solver on Demand™ technology & seamless integration, the software eliminates design risk & uncertainty by providing engineers with the information necessary to make correct decisions during all stages of the design process. Student/Demo version available.

APLAC Corporation (now NI/AWR)

Applied Wave Research (now NI/AWR)

ARK RF Systems | +44(0)1983 400340 | UK

SPsim: Analogue, RF and Microwave simulator designed to be intuitive. A slick user interface which has no legacy code and operates using standard windows controls and keystrokes allowing circuits and simulations to be entered and set up in seconds. Compatible with Sonnet for EM simulation. SPview2: Visual S-Parameter extraction and analysis w/support for VNAs, spectrum and scalar analysers. AutolabNF: NF measurement  via many supported spectrum analysers. Features a real time measurement mode. Autolab: Automated Laboratory Measurements. Includes NF, P1dB, IMD, ACPR, harmonic distortion. Tests 2 and 3 port devices. Drivers for most spectrum & scalar analysers, signal generators & power meters.

Automated Circuit Design (ACD) | Florida

A new software with so much high technology it can be use by millions of engineers and non-engineers to design 100s of electronic circuits One Million times faster than normal including RF design.

Beige Bag Software | 734-332-0487 | Ann Arbor, MI

Spice A/D - electronic circuit design & circuit simulation software SPICE simulation for Windows & Macintosh. Student/Demo version available.

Cadence Design Systems | 800-746-6223 | San Jose, CA

SpectreRF - Virtuoso Spectre® RF Simulation Option for Virtuoso Spectre Circuit Simulator provides fast, accurate simulations for RF & high-frequency ICs, OrCad PCB layout, Linear simulator.

CST Computer Simulation Technology

CST STUDIO SUITE™ - comprises CST's full 3D electromagnetic simulation as well as other tools, dedicated to specific problems such as cable harness or EM/circuit co-simulation. Antenna Magus – the first antenna design tool of its kind – has a huge database of antennas that can be explored to find, design and export models of designed antennas to CST MICROWAVE STUDIO®. Micro-Stripes is the most powerful electromagnetic simulation software for microwave, antenna design and installed antenna performance. Its 64-bit parallel-executing TLM technology enables you to solve complex electromagnetic problems beyond the scope of other EM analysis tools.

DesignSoft | 866-571-6402 | Annapolis, MD (based in Hungary)

TINA Pro - powerful yet affordable software package for designing, simulating, & analyzing analog, digital & mixed electronic circuits. Analysis results can be displayed as sophisticated diagrams or on a range of virtual instruments. Available in many languages, free demo, Edison - photorealistic educational circuit experimentation software.

Electronics Workbench National Instruments

800-263-5552 | Cheektowaga, NY

Multicap capture program, suitable for pure schematic entry, driving simulation, or feeding PCB layout, Multisim integrated desktop design entry & simulation system, Ultiboard PCB layout, Ultiroute autorouting & autoplacement tool, Commsim used for modeling end-to-end communication systems at the signal or physical level. Student/Demo version available.

EMWonder | Norcross, GA

EMtoSPICE S-parameter to SPICE model converter, generates SPICE macromodels (or subcircuits) using S-parameter data, allowing SPICE simulation of S-parameters in time & frequency domain, unprecedented accuracy over broadband frequencies.

FM Ingenierie (now ORMELABS) | +33 951486698 | France

Programmable attenuators, frequency synthesizers, RF filters, ISM-band ID systems, custom design, Smith Chart software.

Guided Wave Technology | +45 20 88 58 30 | Denmark

Filter and Coupling Matrix Synthesis Software. Get an overview of main filter parameters in seconds, without complex circuit models and modeling. Our Coupling Matrix Synthesis™ software facilitates synthesis of N+2 coupling matrices for Chebyshev bandpass filtering functions, with arbitrary finite-position transmission zeroes. The software also facilitates coupling matrix synthesis through topology matrix definition. It gives a fast and accurate overview of insertion loss, isolation, group delay and coupling coefficients versus filter order, return loss and transmission zero positions. The software allows placement of complex transmission zeroes, which opens up for group delay shaping and analysis.

Helic | 408-356-2423 | Los Gatos CA

VeloceRF - EDA tool that enables rapid, whole-chip RF modeling for RFICs & systems-in-package. RF IP - PolyRadio multi-mode silicon transceivers.

HyDesign | 01763 26 11 33 | UK

RFSim99 schematic capture, S parameter files, stability circles, auto match, filter designer, attenuator designer and RF Calculator, free.

Interactive Products Corp | 919-932-3033 | Cary, NC

IPC focuses on the development of Electromagnetic and Signal Integrity Computer Aided Engineering tools that offer accurate and quick solutions. Our tools solve the field equations by use of the boundary element method. Our user interface is designed for speed allowing you to choose from Stack Up Templates, Pseudo Arbitrary Design, and Completely Arbitrary Design using your CAD tool DXF exports.

Intusoft | 310-329-3295 | Gardena CA

ICAP/4 analog & mixed-signal simulation software, IsSpice4 Server - configurable multi-kernel IsSpice4 SPICE simulation, primarily intended for client-server networking applications. Student/Demo version available.

Lorentz Solution | 408-922-0765 | Milpitas, CA

Lorentz Solution is an EDA company delivering the industry's first IC-focused EM Design & Verification solution. The company's product suite, PeakView™, provides a fully automatic 3D EM Synthesis and flexible EM Design Verification for users of the Cadence™ custom IC design and circuit simulation environments.

Manfred Kanther | Matching Network Designer for Excel

This very fine Excel spreadsheet available for download by RF Cafe visitors. It is written in the Excel 2000 environment, so any version from 2000 up through Excel 2007 will support it. Click the screen image to the right to download the ZIP file. If you did not know better, you would believe that this is actually a stand-alone application, and not a spreadsheet. All of the coding appears to be implemented in the VBA code.

Manitoba HVDC Research Centre | 204-989-1240 | Canada

PS-CAD - fast, accurate, & easy-to-use power system simulator for the design & verification of all types of power systems.

Matheonics Technology | 519-578 2092 | Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

FAZA software tool for the analog filters design - free demo. Also a very extensive filter design tutorial.

Mentor Graphics | 800-547-3000 | Wilsonville, OR

SystemVision mixed-signal modeling & simulation environment using the power of VHDL-AMS & SPICE to verify control & mechatronic systemsludes graphical design entry, VHDL-AMS modeling & library tools, leading-edge simulation technology, powerful waveform viewing & analysis tools, HyperLynx - signal integrity & EMI analysis, PowerPCB design environment for complex, high-speed printed circuit boards, shape-based, rules-driven design layout solution.

Modelithics | 888-359-6359 | Tampa, FL

Device characterization, modeling and validation services. Large library of capacitor, resistor, inductor and diode models for CAE. Variety of body sizes and part values. Many application notes.

National Instruments (Formerly AWR Corporation) | 310-726-3000 | El Segundo, CA

NI AWR Design Environment is a portfolio of software products that RF/microwave designers can use to design, develop, and realize microwave/RF components, circuits, and systems including monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs), RF printed circuit boards (PCBs), microwave modules, RF integrated circuits (RFICs), communication systems, radar systems, and antennas. It consists of high-frequency design environments inclusive of System simulation (Visual System Simulator™), Circuit simulation (Microwave Office and Analog Office), Electromagnetic analysis (AXIEM and Analyst™) and also AWR Connected™ modules which expands functionality through 3rd party tool collaboration.

numGuru Technologies | 0091-011-43022506 | Delhi, India

Industry's first RF and Microwave simulator with circuit synthesis using evolutionary algorithms.

Protel (Altium Limited) | 800-544-4186 | Provo, UT

Protel 2004 features hierarchical, multi-channel schematic capture for both PCB & FPGA implementation, mixed-signal simulation, & signal integrity analysis, through to rules-driven board layout, Situs Topological autorouting & CAM file checking & editing.

RF Cool Tools' Real Time Design | A slick Java-based applet (which means it works on any platform) that allows you to build RLC circuits with drag-n-drop interface and plots results on a Cartesian (Bode) or Smith Chart. "What is so slick about it," you ask? The truly slick part is that you can drag points on the response curve to where you would like them to be, and the program automatically adjusts your RLC components to accommodate the curve.

Spectrum Software | 408-738-4387 | Sunnyvale, CA

Micro-Cap 8 - an integrated schematic editor & mixed analog/digital simulator that provides an interactive sketch & simulate environment for electronics engineers. Student/Demo version available.

tree Circuit Simulator | 408-480-7927 | Jeff Furman | OCS.

Symbolic analysis for linear circuits. This Freeware takes spice-like net lists as input and computes symbolic z, y, h, g, abcd, ABCD, s and f two-port parameters. Any selection from these two-port parameters may be specified for output. The output is in the form of rational functions. Your favorite circuit elements: R, G, L, C are usable, two-port active and passive elements: gm (vcis), rm (icvs), U (vcvs), B (icis) , GY (gyrator), M (mutual inductance), O (nullor type opamp) are available. Any component may optionally be assigned a numeric value. The furnished program executable runs on the dos command line accepting input from stdin and sending output to stdout. Detailed help including simple input examples, such as Sallen-Key active filters is output with an h in the input stream. Definitions of the two-port parameters, netlist definitions, and references to the method of analysis are also in the help output. The C source, ready to compile with gcc is also furnished, as is a help file.

Zeni EDA | 626-552-4155 | Pasadena, CA

Full custom analog mixed signal IC design software. Tools include schematic capture, SPICE Simulation, IC layout, physical verification, parasitic extraction and signal integrity.