Applied Wave Research
Encyclopedia
AWR Corporation is an electronic design automation
(EDA) software company, founded by Dr. Joseph E. Pekarek, with Ted A. Miracco and Dr. Stephen A. Maas. The company, formerly known as Applied Wave Research, Inc., is a National Instruments company. Other locations include research and development centers in: San Jose, California
; Boulder, Colorado
; Helsinki, Finland; and Mequon, Wisconsin
. The company has additional subsidiaries operating in the United Kingdom, France and Japan. Investors in AWR include CMEA Ventures, Intel Capital and Synopsys
Inc.
The company develops, markets, sells and supports engineering software, which provides a computer-based environment for the design of hardware for wireless and high speed digital products. AWR software is used for radio frequency (RF), microwave and high frequency analog circuit and system design. Typical applications include cellular and satellite communications systems and defense electronics including radar, electronic warfare and guidance systems.
AWR's product portfolio includes Microwave Office, Visual System Simulator (VSS), Analog Office, APLAC, AXIEM and Analyst. AWR's worldwide customers include companies involved in the design and development of analog and mixed signal semiconductors, wireless communications equipment, aerospace and defense systems.
, California
. First established as Applied Wave Research, AWR was founded to improve the design efficiency for RF and microwave circuit and system design. The vision of the company was to provide a modern object-oriented EDA environment that could streamline high frequency electronic design by integrating schematic entry and layout; electromagnetic (EM) and circuit theory; and frequency and time-domain methods.
In 1998 the company demonstrated the Microwave Office software, which included EM, circuit simulation and schematic capture, at the International Microwave Symposium in Baltimore, Maryland. The software became a popular alternative to mainstream EDA products and the company experienced significant growth. In 2010 the company has more than 100 employees worldwide in North America
, Europe
, Japan
, and the Asia Pacific Region.
As of 2010, AWR Corporation's major competitors include the EEsof
EDA division of Agilent Technologies
, Ansoft Corporation, and Cadence Design Systems
.
It was acquired by National Instruments
in 2011.
Electronic design automation
Electronic design automation is a category of software tools for designing electronic systems such as printed circuit boards and integrated circuits...
(EDA) software company, founded by Dr. Joseph E. Pekarek, with Ted A. Miracco and Dr. Stephen A. Maas. The company, formerly known as Applied Wave Research, Inc., is a National Instruments company. Other locations include research and development centers in: San Jose, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
; Boulder, Colorado
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...
; Helsinki, Finland; and Mequon, Wisconsin
Mequon, Wisconsin
Mequon is a city in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. It had a population of 21,823 at the 2000 census, and an estimated population of 23,739 in July 2009...
. The company has additional subsidiaries operating in the United Kingdom, France and Japan. Investors in AWR include CMEA Ventures, Intel Capital and Synopsys
Synopsys
Synopsys, Inc. is one of the largest companies in the Electronic Design Automation industry. Synopsys' first and best-known product is Design Compiler, a logic-synthesis tool. Synopsys offers a wide range of other products used in the design of an application-specific integrated circuit...
Inc.
The company develops, markets, sells and supports engineering software, which provides a computer-based environment for the design of hardware for wireless and high speed digital products. AWR software is used for radio frequency (RF), microwave and high frequency analog circuit and system design. Typical applications include cellular and satellite communications systems and defense electronics including radar, electronic warfare and guidance systems.
AWR's product portfolio includes Microwave Office, Visual System Simulator (VSS), Analog Office, APLAC, AXIEM and Analyst. AWR's worldwide customers include companies involved in the design and development of analog and mixed signal semiconductors, wireless communications equipment, aerospace and defense systems.
History
The company was founded in 1994 by Dr. Joseph E. Pekarek and a team of MMIC design engineers, including Paul Cameron, from Hughes Aircraft Co. in FullertonFullerton
-Locations:Australia* Fullerton Cove, New South WalesCanada* Cape Fullerton, NunavutUnited States* Fullerton, California, a city in Orange County...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. First established as Applied Wave Research, AWR was founded to improve the design efficiency for RF and microwave circuit and system design. The vision of the company was to provide a modern object-oriented EDA environment that could streamline high frequency electronic design by integrating schematic entry and layout; electromagnetic (EM) and circuit theory; and frequency and time-domain methods.
In 1998 the company demonstrated the Microwave Office software, which included EM, circuit simulation and schematic capture, at the International Microwave Symposium in Baltimore, Maryland. The software became a popular alternative to mainstream EDA products and the company experienced significant growth. In 2010 the company has more than 100 employees worldwide in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, and the Asia Pacific Region.
As of 2010, AWR Corporation's major competitors include the EEsof
EEsof
EEsof is an EDA company founded in 1983 by an entrepreneur, Charles J. Abronson, and a former Compact Software employee, Bill Childs.-History:...
EDA division of Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies , or Agilent, is a company that designs and manufactures electronic and bio-analytical measurement instruments and equipment for measurement and evaluation...
, Ansoft Corporation, and Cadence Design Systems
Cadence Design Systems
Cadence Design Systems, Inc is an electronic design automation software and engineering services company, founded in 1988 by the merger of SDA Systems and ECAD, Inc...
.
Acquisitions
- 1999: Acquired ICUCOM Corporation, Troy, New York. Through this acquisition AWR acquired the communication systems simulation software called ACOLADE. ACOLADE stood for Advanced Communication Link Analysis and Design Environment. AWR re-engineered the software and evolved the technology and libraries into a new tool: Visual System Simulator (VSS), which was introduced in 2002.
- 2005: Acquired APLAC Solutions, Oy, Espoo, Finland. AWR acquired APLAC, which developed simulation and analysis software for analog and radio-frequency (RF) design. APLAC's RF design technology, used by Nokia Mobile Phones for years, has been used in designing mobile phone RF integrated circuits (ICs) worldwide. The merger of the two electronic design automation (EDA) software developers was driven by key customer demand for APLAC's high-performance, foundry-approved circuit simulation strength combined with the open, integrated AWR Design Environment(TM) technology.
- 2008: Acquired STAAR Corporation, Mequon, Wisconsin. STAAR developed proprietary parallelized 3D FEM EM simulation and analysis capability, which is embodied in the Analyst™ software. The Analyst software is the result of more than a decade of development at STAAR in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense and U. S. Department of Energy, and has been employed to analyze extremely complex RF and microwave structures at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, and Naval Research Laboratory.
It was acquired by National Instruments
National Instruments
National Instruments Corporation, or NI , is an American company with over 5,000 employees and direct operations in 41 countries. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, it is a producer of automated test equipment and virtual instrumentation software...
in 2011.