Those are good intros sources BTW.
Honestly the biggest issues:
Building things - NOTHING in engineering is meaningful without building things and verifying their operation empirically. This is especially true in RF/µW.
Testing things (without the right test equipment building things can be hit-or-miss - which is how RF/µW gives the illusions of being "black art"). This means having access to certain equipment like VNAs and SAs plus a lot of the connector and calibration paraphernalia (which is $$$). Find a lab at school that has these if possible. Or a local company. I really solidified my RF/µW knowledge working for HP T&M (divorced/remarried as Agilent, soon to be divorced/remarried as Keysight). I'd done ham radio and even worked with radar systems for the Navy but I had gaps.
Getting familiar with "distributed model" as this trumps lumped model elements in RF/µW circuits. Get familiar about things like return loss, source mismatch and noise figure which come up all the time as "fundamentals" akin to KVL/KCL or mesh analysis in lumped model circuits.
SPICE's closest approximation to distributed modeling are transmission line devices which don't actually do things like s-parameter types of transmission/reflection; you have to go to sim tools like Agilent's ADS or other harmonic balance simulators like Qucs to really have meaningful simulation capability. SPICE is fundamentally a lumped model simulator only.
Learn the system level architectures and circuit level design patterns. Low frequency lumped circuits have these but there are a whole other set for RF/µW. Many are "radio" models (this is where ARRL pubs are useful even for digital SDR). But there are also other oddments you should know such as circulators, directional couplers, waveguide types and modes, etc.
qucs is another option for free filter design software. It has a filter calculator buried in the tools menu capable of calculating Butterworth/Chebyshev high/low/band pass filters.
For very simple system level stuff like gain, noise figure, and worst-case cascaded IIP3 you can do all of that with excel, or a pencil and paper. Microwaves101 has some useful pre-made spreadsheets for cascade analysis in their downloads section.
If you want to actually simulate things QUCS can do a fair amount, and it's free. It's not the same style of tool as AWR system simulator or Simulink in Matlab, but might be sufficient for your tasks. I don't have much personal experience with it.
I don't think frequency really affects the accuracy of any of these tools. What affects the accuracy is having high-frequency models of the building block circuits and the interconnecting transmission lines, and QUCs built-in models for T-lines should be pretty good.
Also keep in mind the Python toolset. Personally I use PythonXY distribution with Scikit-RF library. Very handy, and totally free. You can read in and analyze touchstone files and cascade two-port networks in here.
If you are at a university and can get access to ADS and HFSS / other software, that would be best.
Depending on how complicated your circuits are, you can probably get close enough with hand calculations followed by trial and error experimentation.
If you understand the systems well, you might be able to get by with Qucs and/or LTspice.
Microwaves 101 has a bunch of resources such as spreadsheet calculators that will get you close enough to an answer to prototype.
I haven't found any good, free/open source FEA software for microwave / antenna engineering yet.
You will need access to test equipment to pull off your project, simulation will only get you so far. It's possible to make it yourself, but that's a huge project in itself.
So its looking like your s-parameter matrix is assuming 50 ohm ports for all of its s-parameters right? Just do a parameter conversion to whatever other matrix you want (Z, Y, A, etc.) This might help, but its too late for me to be crunching the numbers myself:
QUCS is a free program which can do a variety of RF circuit simulations, but it has no layout capabilities. It seems good but I've only played around with it a few times.
I don't know of anything single software solution that meets all of your criteria and budget, but you can always do the layout in another program.
I would imagine Qucs has the capability. I haven't used it in a while, but I know you can load LTSpice files on it and it has some similar capabilities (to some extend) to ADS.
Qucs (Quite Universal Circuit Simulator) has a very good documentation including mathematical background and theory how the simulator works.
Here is part about nodal analysis : click. It skips graph part and goes from circuit directly to matrices, though it might help you.
Yes, exactly the concept! You can easily play "what if" games with this free tool http://tools.rfdude.com/RFdude_Smith_Chart_Program/RFdude_smith_chart_program.html .....Tell it the center frequency, and starting impedance. Turn on "Q arcs" and play with component values and network topology. You can make the match "Q" anything you like, but beware of component losses, more parts make more loss..... anyway the tool is free and easy to use for just such matching emergencies..... sorry it runs in Windows, I don't know if it works in WINE.... edit... also, after you figure out the topology you like, you can do real simulations in QUCS, it's free too.... http://qucs.sourceforge.net/ Agilent will have kittens when they figure out a free tool is about as good as ADS for most easy simulations.
This is more a r/ECE question.
I would recommend LTSpice since it is maintained by analog. Also, Qucs can be somewhat interesting if you have other needs (QUCStudio for RF stuff as well)
This might be useful.
For PCB use KiCad
One I might recommend as a tool to go along with KiCAD/Eagle is gerb2etch. It's a shell script that simplifies converting a gerber to a PDF mask for doing toner transfer / UV exposure. I use it all the time to make PCBs and it's way simpler than going through it manually.
Qucs is also pretty nice program for doing circuit simulation and analysis.
All About Circuits has a great online textbook for learning theory, with nice diagrams and clear explanations.
The company I work for uses ADS and HFSS. Both of these packages are too expensive for "casual" use, or teaching yourself about RF circuit simulation. QUCS does a fine job replacing ADS in most situations, and it's free. I don't know any free replacement for HFSS http://qucs.sourceforge.net/
Your goal is to learn about transistor and opamp circuits, there are some great books out there and your uncle can probably do quite a lot to get you started. Today there are some pretty amazingly good modelers which can make understanding what a circuit does a lot easier. You can basically "build" a circuit without actually building it quickly, as well as see the effect changing components has. Qucs works nice and is simple, but doesn't support tubes.
Umm...Labview doesn't "simulate chips." Labview is for test and measurement.
Here are some general purpose open source circuit simulators:
I have only used QUCS a handful of times, but I can see several issues with this simulation setup:
I strongly suggest to visit the QUCS Documentation, and try all the tutorials before attempting your own designs. They are quite thorough, and you will have a much better understanding of how to get the most out of the software.
++ on LT Spice
also, the relatively popular Micro-cap is now free:
http://www.spectrum-soft.com/download/download.shtm
Also, some people like QUCS. This tool will do spice-like simulations but is also capable of S-Parameter sims:
There's lots of free or cheap stuff to learn from these days from the web. Such as udemy $15 courses. Bunch of free/express versions of design or coding software out there. (example) Just doing something a little bit starting each day could help. Our computers are like tens of thousands times more powerful than what scientists had as computer labs in the 60's and 70's.
Kind of like the "Count of Monte Cristo" in his cell for 14 years but 8 years or so in he had a tunnel with a learned monk the cell over and was a resource in learning about all kinds of knowledge before he escaped. And yes, keep up the workouts. I wouldn't worry about the looks , just getting active and more physically capable.
Yes, I have made a VNA too.
When I was still student I used AWR with student license to design some of the RF stuff for radar and VNA projects. I don't have a student license anymore, but I still use AWR a lot at work and I really like it.
Qucs is a good open source schematic level RF design software. I have used it in some of my own projects. Haven't really found any good open source EM simulators though.
if you don't know a sim yet its a good time to start a new one! try qucs for a nice gui interface, or ltspice as others have mentioned. learning to use a sim, is like any other tool, takes time but can be very useful. to put it into perspective- you now have the answer key to most of your intro books.
qucs is a circuit simulator which (barely) can do various simulations of transmission lines and microstrips.
What you are suggesting is to go hardcore and do circuit simulation/calculation by hand. That's actually my ultimate goal but I cannot say that I'm proficient with it yet. Thanks for a code, I will look at it.
Maybe Qucs would work for you.
Also you can do anything on Windows via having Parallels. Then the universe of Windows CAD packages is available.
BTW, from you Reddit history, pi would be rational and terminating in a base-pi number system. Who says a number system must be based on whole numbers?? The latter is just an artifact of us having distinct fingers and a whole number obsession. Perhaps a different kind of life form would see mathematics in terms of an irrational number like pi or e instead. E.g. where Euler's Identity was the equivalent of 1+1=2.
Well you should be able to calculate 50Ohm sparams with LTSpice (based on voltages/currents) and then renormalize them to your ((30-j25), (50+j0)) impedances, see e.g. http://qucs.sourceforge.net/tech/node98.html#SECTION001611000000000000000 (might involve some calculations by hand/external to LTSpice)
just BTW: Another Paper I can always recommend regarding matching network synthesis is Dawson, Dale E., "Closed-Form Solutions for the Design of Optimum Matching Networks," in Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on , vol.57, no.1, pp.121-129, Jan. 2009 doi: 10.1109/TMTT.2008.2009041
You should try/use QUCS (Quite Universal Circuit Simulator) It's quite complete and you can simulate (via S parameter) your passive filter of synthesize them.
You should start to read the get started :
If you have college level electrical engineering experience, take a look at QUCS http://qucs.sourceforge.net/ and LTSpice http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/?gclid=CK_OwbzV0sACFY17fgodcSsA6g#LTspice They are both free, QUCS is an open source project, LTSpice is free from Linear Technology, but isn't open source. I've used both to simulate radio circuits, I like QUCS better, but reasonable engineers disagree with me. If you look on YouTube, there are tutorials for both programs. Good luck.
QUCS is a great open-source circuit simulator. I've had several classes that used it extensively for AC circuit analysis.
It also has some filter-design tools, which are pretty neat.
That was what a friend was telling me also. But evidently, because of costs, they often ignore it and just hope for good luck.
I wish I knew more about this stuff because it could make or break the success of several (inherently balanced designs) antenna projects Ive wanted to test out for a long, long time.
BTW, just found this.. looks useful.. (its in the Qucs docs)
For microstrip: http://qucs.sourceforge.net/tech/node74.html
For coplanar: http://qucs.sourceforge.net/tech/node85.html
BTW this might interest you, although a little late: you can simulate pretty easily that kind of stuff with software. I don't know if everything is functionnal on windows, but Qucs allows to do simple digital electronics simulations. There are a lot of examples on the download page, including for digital simulations.
I do think that making modifications to a circuit and looking at the output graphs can be a good way to learn more about electronics. While I don't really run simulations any more, I used QUCS while I was in school.
I use the "Quite Universal Circuit Simulator." I found it after Googling "circuit schematic software" or something like that, and found this Wikipedia page which had a list of software -- the best looking one was QUCS, as it seems to support the design of both digital and analog circuits.
It looks like it's pretty similar to the one you've got here, I thought you had screencapped the program I'd recently downloaded and used to design an LED panel... but then I looked at the title bar.
I'm not sure what the differences are, but QUCS seemed to work for everything I needed. Also, it's GPL software, meaning you don't need to find a "free" copy, this is the Free-est copy you can find. :)