Working with Components

Components are added to the current system page by clicking the appropriate Toolbar buttons. If you hold down the shift key before clicking the toolbar, the component is inserted before the currently selected component; otherwise, the new component is added to the end of the chain. Once placed, the component can be dragged to a new position on the page by using the mouse. With the exception of the AGC component, all the components are functionally about the same; however, different parameters are enabled by default for each newly placed component. You can easily enable, disable or modify any component parameter using the Component Properties dialog box (see Component Modeling for further guidelines). Below is a description of each component and the corresponding button image.

		Gain Component
		By default NF, OIP2 and OIP3 are enabled.
		Mixer Component
		By default NF, OIP2 and OIP3 are enabled.
		Filter Component
		By default NF tracks the gain as abs( gain ). This feature can be disabled in the Component Properties dialog box.
		Attenuator Component
		By default NF tracks the gain as abs( gain ). This feature can be disabled in the Component Properties dialog box.
		Generic Component
		Represents a generic block. By default NF, OIP2 and OIP3 are enabled.
		AGC Component
		Represents an AGC block. This component is actually a combination of a detector plus one or more controlled blocks forming a closed loop. The gain (or loss) of the controlled block(s) is dynamically adjusted to keep the level at the detector constant. When an AGC component is added, a dialog box prompts you to enter the number and model style of the controlled blocks associated with the detector. The controlled blocks come in two styles gain and attenuator. The gain control is modeled as an ideal gain block by default. Non-ideal characteristics such as NF and OIP3 can be explicitly defined if desired. The attenuator control is modeled as variable resistive pad. The NF of the attenuator control automatically tracks the loss by default. When a gain or attenuator block has reached its lower or upper limit, a small red square will be drawn in the lower or upper part of the block respectively as a visual warning. Likewise, the detector will have an opposite red square indicating that its output is lower or higher than the target value. Using the Component Properties dialog box, the controlled blocks can be individually customized. Multiple AGC loops can be added to a project; however, the loops must not physically overlap. A unique group number displayed on the images identifies the Controls and detector belonging to a loop. If a detector is deleted from the loop, a new one can be created and attached to any of the remaining controlled blocks by right-mouse clicking one of the blocks and selecting Create Detector from the popup menu. Any number of additional controls can be added to an existing detector by right-mouse clicking the detector and choosing Add AGC control from the popup menu
		Summer Component
		A component allowing you to sum in additional noise expressed as Te, NF or PSD (Power Spectral Density). By default, PSD is enabled.

Tolerance parameters

Each parameter of a component can have associated tolerance information. This additional information is only used in the Yield Report ; otherwise, it is ignored. See Component Properties for more details.

Temperature Coefficients

Each parameter of a component can have an associated (linear) temperature coefficient. This coefficient is utilized whenever the system temperature changes on the page where the component resides. See Component Properties for more details.

Component Context Sensitive Menu

When you right-mouse click anywhere over a component, a popup menu is displayed with various choices:

	Component Properties	displays the Component Properties dialog box.
	Delete Component	deletes the component.
	Link to System	displays a dialog box displaying other system pages to which the component could be linked. When a component is linked to another page, all component parameters are derived from the linked page and are therefore not directly editable. Link to System is disabled if no system pages are available to link.
	Unlink System	breaks the link between the component and a linked page.
	Goto linked System	makes the linked page become selected (displayed). Disabled if the component is not linked to another page.
	Cut Component	removes the component from the page into a temporary buffer. The component can then be copied to some other page or project.
	Copy Component	copies the component into a temporary buffer. The component can then be copied to some other page or project.
	Add AGC Control	adds another controlled block (gain or attenuator) to the currently selected detector. This menu item is only available if a detector block is currently selected.
	Create Detector	adds a detector to the currently selected AGC control block. This menu item is only available if an AGC control block is currently selected and is without a corresponding detector.