Chapter 3

Harmonic Balance (HB) Simulation

PathWave Advanced Design System (ADS)

Harmonic balance basics

Harmonic balance is a frequency-domain analysis technique for simulating distortion in
nonlinear circuits and systems. It is well-suited for simulating analog RF and microwave
problems since these are most naturally handled in the frequency domain. You can
analyze power amplifiers, frequency multipliers, mixers, modulators, and many more
designs under large-signal sinusoidal drive.

Harmonic balance simulation enables the multi-tone simulation of circuits that exhibit
inter-modulation frequency conversion. This includes frequency conversion between
harmonics. Not only can the circuit itself produce harmonics, but each signal source
(stimulus) can also produce harmonics or small-signal sidebands. The stimulus can
consist of up to 12 non-harmonically related sources. The total number of frequencies in
the system is limited only by such practical considerations as memory, swap space, and
simulation speed.

The harmonic balance method is iterative. It is based on the assumption that for a given
sinusoidal excitation there exist steady-state solutions that can be approximated to
satisfactory accuracy by means of a finite Fourier series. Consequently, the circuit node
voltages take on a set of amplitudes and phases for all frequency components. The
currents flowing from nodes into linear elements, including all distributed elements, are
calculated by means of a straightforward frequency-domain linear analysis. Currents from
nodes into nonlinear elements are calculated in the time-domain. Generalized Fourier
analysis is used to transform from the time-domain to the frequency-domain.

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The Harmonic Balance solution is approximated by truncated Fourier series and this method is inherently
incapable of representing transient behavior. The time-derivative can be computed exactly with boundary
conditions, v(0)=v(t), automatically satisfied for all iterations.

The truncated Fourier approximation + N circuit equations results in a residual function that is minimized.

N x M nonlinear algebraic equations are solved for the Fourier coefficients using Newton’s method and
the inner linear problem is solved by:

• Direct method (Gaussian elimination) for small problems.

• Krylov-subspace method (e.g. GMRES) for larger problems.
Nonlinear devices (transistors, diodes, etc.) in Harmonic Balance are evaluated (sampled) in the time-
domain and converted to frequency-domain via the FFT.

For a successful HB analysis

1. Add the Harmonic Balance simulation component to the schematic and double-click to edit it. Fill in
the fields under the Freq tab.

• Enter at least one fundamental frequency and the number (order) of harmonics to be considered
in the simulation.
• Make sure the frequency definitions are established for all of the fundamentals of interest in a
design. For example, mixers should include definitions for RF and LO frequencies.
• If more than one fundamental is entered, set the maximum mixing order. This limits the number of
mixing products to be considered in the simulation. For more information on this parameter, see
“Harmonics and Maximum Mixing Order” section under PathWave Advanced Design System
(ADS) HB Simulation documentation.
2. You can use previous simulation solutions to speed the simulation process. For more information, see
“Reusing Simulation Solutions” under PathWave ADS documentation of Harmonic Balance.

3. You can perform budget calculations as part of the simulation. For information on budget analysis,
see the chapter “Using Circuit Simulators for RF System Analysis” in the Using Circuit Simulators
documentation.

4. You can perform small-signal analysis. Enable the Small-signal option and fill in the fields under the
Small-Sig tab. For details, see Harmonic Balance for Mixers.

5. You can perform nonlinear noise analysis. Select the Noise tab, enable the Nonlinear noise option,
and fill in the fields in the Noise (1) and Noise (2) dialog boxes.

6. If your design includes NoiseCon components, select the Noise tab, enable the NoiseCons option
and fill in the fields.

7. If your design includes an OscPort component, enable Oscillator and fill in the fields under the Osc
tab. Harmonic Balance for Oscillator Simulation focuses specifically on simulating oscillator designs.

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 Lab: HB Simulation Flow
1. Create a new workspace with name Lab2_HBSimulation_wrk.

a. If you only have PathWave ADS Analog/RF, PathWave ADS DSP in your Included Libraries,
such as is shown in Figure 1, you will need to click Change Libraries…, then click on Add User
Favorite Library shown in Figure 2. Then, navigate in your computer’s directory to the
additional libraries 1, shown in Figure 3.

Figure 1. Screenshot of currently included Libraries

Figure 2. Screenshot of window to Add User Favorite Library/PDK. Included Libraries

1. The file location is C:/Program Files/Keysight/<ADS version name>/oalibs/componentLib.

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 b. For this lab, you will need to include the libraries RF_Transistors_vendor_kit and
RF_Passive_SMT_vendor_kit, in addition to the currently included libraries.

Figure 3. File path for the additional libraries

c. Once you select your desired file, click Open, and you will be asked to unzip the file
somewhere. Put this in whatever file location you want; an example is shown in Figure 4 2.

Figure 4. An already existing location to unzip the file to

2. The file location must exist before you started creating this new workspace.

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 d. Once you find your desired folder, click Select Folder. Once unzipping has finished, you will be
asked to enter a name for the design kit. Use the default name, shown in Figure 5 as an
example, and click OK.

Figure 5. A name for the design kit

e. Once this library is shown in the PathWave ADS User Favorite Libraries and PDKs, import the
other file you need. Once you have the libraries selected as shown in Figure 6, click OK, then
click Create Workspace.

Figure 6. Finished ADS included libraries screen

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2. Create a new schematic and give it a name, such as SystemAmp.

3. Inside the schematic window, place the Amp model, shown in Figure 7, from the System-
Amps and Mixers palette onto the schematic. Double click the Amp component and set the
Amplifier model parameters as shown below:

S21 = dbpolar(20,0)
S11 = polar(-20,0)
S22 = polar(-20,180)
S12 = dbpolar(-35,0)
TOI 3 = 20

Figure 7. Location of Amp within the System- Amps & Mixers palette

4. Place the P_1Tone source from the Sources- Freq Domain palette and set its parameters
as shown below:

P = polar(dbmtow(pin),0) 4
Freq = 5 GHz

3. If TOI or any other parameter is not listed along with your component, it might not be displayed with the component title. You
can double click on the component and change TOI on the parameter list and mark display parameter on schematic .
4. dbmtow() is a function that converts the dBm power we enter in the source to watts for internal calculation purposes .

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5. Place the Term component from the Simulation-HB palette after the amplifier. Connect as shown in
Figure 8.

Figure 8. Set-up and connections for P_1Tone, Amplifier, and Term components

6. Click the Wire Label icon, shown in Figure 9. If you get a message about the New Insert Wire Label
Tool, click OK. Then, click the Term component’s “+” pin blue color node and enter the name as
vout. You should get what is shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10. Schematic showing vout added

Figure 9. Location of the Wire Label icon in ADS

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Figure 10. Schematic showing vout added

7. Place the HB simulation controller from the Simulation-HB palette and set Freq = 5 GHz (same as
defined in the 1-Tone source).

8. Click the VAR icon on the toolbar (next to the ground icon). Define a new variable with a pin value of
-20, as shown in Figure 11.

9. Once done, the schematic will look as shown in Figure 12.

10. Run the simulation and plot a graph in data display. Select vout from the available list, select units
as Spectrum in dBm, and observe the data display as shown in Figure 13.

Please note that you can add a marker to the plot in order to see more detailed information for the plot.
Markers are found in the Marker tab, shown at the top of Figure 13. To get a marker for a specific spot
on a plot, go to Marker > New…, then click somewhere on the red output. For example, since we looked
at the frequency of 5 GHz, put a marker on the output spike that happens at 5 GHz. The result is shown
in Figure 14.

Figure 11. Window demonstrating how to create a new variable

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Figure 12. Finished schematic pictured

Figure 13. Output from simulation

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Figure 14. Output with added marker

Lab: Power Sweep Simulation

1. Make a copy of the cell by right clicking on the existing cell and selecting Copy Cell..., as shown in
Figure 15.

Figure 15. How to copy a cell

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2. Give it a new name, e.g. SystemAmp_PSweep.

3. Open the schematic of the copied cell and double click the HB Simulation controller, which is labeled
HarmonicBalance.

4. Go to the Sweep tab and enter:

Parameter to Sweep = pin

Start = -30
Stop = 0
Step-size = 1

These settings are shown in Figure 16.

Figure 16. Harmonic Balance controller settings

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5. Run the simulation. Insert a new rectangular plot. Plot vout and select Fundamental tone in dBm
over all sweep values. The data display should look like Figure 17.

Figure 17. Output of simulation

6. Insert an Eqn on the data display. Enter the equation for calculating the gain curve of the amplifier:
Gain = dBm(vout[::, 1])-pinInsert

7. Insert a new rectangular plot, click the Datasets and Equations drop down menu shown in Figure 18,
and select Equations. Select Gain (or whatever name you gave in the equation).

Figure 18. The Datasets and Equations drop down menu, currently showing SystemAmp_PSweep output of simulation

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8. Click OK to plot the Gain response, illustrated in Figure 19.

Figure 19. Gain response

Notes:

1. Take some time to think about Y-axis value dBm(vout[::, 1]). Data available at ‘vout’ is a 2-dimensional
array, with the 1st argument being swept power (pin) and the 2nd argument being frequency tones
(5 harmonics as selected in the HB controller, i.e. Order = 5).

2. In order to get more clarity on the array indexing, double-click the graph, select vout, and click the
Variable Info button in the center to see details of the data available at the ‘vout’ node, as shown in
Figure 20.

Figure 20. Vout variable information

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3. Add vout on the graph and select the option of adding a Fundamental tone in dBm over all
sweep values.

4. Now two traces are visible on the graph. Click the Y-axis label for one of the plots, which will make
the field editable. Change the label to dBm(vout[::, 3]) to see traces of the fundamental frequency
and the third harmonic along with the fundamental.

5. Place a Line Marker to see values of the traces. This can be done by going to Marker > New Line….
Note the slope of the fundamental and third harmonic (three times higher than the fundamental).

Conclusion
Congratulations! You have completed Harmonic Balance Simulation! Check out more examples:
www.keysight.com/find/eesof-ads-rfmw-examples.

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please contact your local Keysight office. The complete list is available at:
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This information is subject to change without notice. © Keysight Technologies, 2016 - 2021, Published in USA, May 7, 2021, 5992-1453EN