Academics

Back to Basics
The AWR Design Environment platform, inclusive of Microwave Office, Visual System Simulator™, AXIEM, and Analyst™ software, is provided to colleges and universities through a number of programs that support both teaching and public research interests. The software offering encompasses linear, nonlinear, transient, electromagnetic (EM), and system simulation engines, as well as full layout capabilities for students and researchers developing RF/microwave components and communications systems technology.

Experience the industry's most intuitive and user-friendly software, which helps new users learn how to perform all phases of design and providing instructors with a valuable teaching aid.

Develop essential design skills, from schematic entry and circuit design to EM analysis for parasitic extraction and verification, as well as system-level analysis for link and spurious analysis, digital modulation, and end-to-end system design.

All the functionality needed to understand basic RF theory and techniques or work on the most complex new technology research projects.
Solution Highlights
Students/Professors
Universities are supported with AWR software donations for qualified programs, eligibility being contingent on the use of AWR Design Environment products in a teaching environment. Available tools cover the full range of our product offerings: linear, nonlinear, transient, EM, and system simulation engines, as well as full layout capabilities.
University professors developing teaching materials for their undergraduate and graduate students have ready access to AWR software and university support.
Case Studies
The intuitive nature of the AWR Design Environment platform enables students to rapidly become proficient with the software and start designing immediately. Because of its ease of use, Dr. David Ricketts of North Carolina State University chose AWR software to develop his world-class interactive workshop in which participants learn the basic theory of modern digital radios, as well as the RF circuits used to build them. Following a series of mini-classes on each of the RF components in a 920-MHz radio design, each participant uses AWR software to design, build, and test the individual RF components in a single day, concluding with a full radio test of a transmitter and receiver.
RF/Microwave Skill Development
AWR software is widely used by engineering students participating in school- and conference-sponsored design competitions. NI and Xidian University of Electronic Science and Technology in Beijing jointly held an RF/microwave circuit design competition in November 2018 in which over 116 teams with 2-3 students each participated. Free software training and support was provided during the competition to ensure the highest level of design success. Student comments regarding their experience reflect that they are more confident in their mastery of AWR software and will be more familiar with the design process in the future.
AWR software donations are awarded to student design competitions throughout the world. For example, students from the University of Bristol, one of the most popular and successful universities in the UK, won the 2016 IMS High-Efficiency Power Amplifier Student Design Challenge using Microwave Office software. They developed an amplifier that maximized the overall power-added efficiency (PAE) while amplifying a time-varying envelope signal, without compromising the linearity performance.