# Keysight ADS Reviews **Vendor:** Keysight Technologies **Category:** [Simulation & CAE Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/simulation-cae) **Average Rating:** 4.6/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 16 ## About Keysight ADS Keysight's Advanced Design System (ADS) is a premier electronic design automation (EDA) software suite tailored for RF, microwave, and high-speed digital applications. It offers a comprehensive environment that integrates schematic capture, layout, design rule checking, and both frequency-domain and time-domain circuit simulations. ADS is widely adopted in industries such as wireless communications, aerospace, and defense, enabling engineers to design and optimize complex electronic products efficiently. Key Features and Functionality: - Integrated Design Workflow: ADS provides a seamless workflow encompassing schematic capture, layout, and simulation, facilitating efficient design processes. - Advanced Simulation Capabilities: The software includes robust electromagnetic (EM) simulation tools, such as Momentum and FEM Element, allowing for accurate analysis of 3D structures and passive components. - Multi-Technology Support: ADS supports the integration of various technologies, including chips, packaging, interconnects, shielding, boards, and I/O connectors, enabling comprehensive multi-technology design. - AI-Powered Assistants: The latest versions of ADS incorporate AI-driven Chat and Copilot assistants, which automate repetitive tasks and streamline complex workflows, enhancing design productivity. - Electro-Thermal Simulation: ADS offers electro-thermal simulation capabilities to validate dynamic device operating temperatures under different conditions, ensuring reliability and performance. Primary Value and User Solutions: ADS addresses the challenges of designing high-frequency and high-speed digital components by providing an integrated platform that combines circuit, system, and EM simulation. This integration reduces the need for multiple tools, minimizes data translation errors, and accelerates the design iteration process. The inclusion of AI-powered assistants further enhances productivity by automating routine tasks and simplifying complex workflows. By offering comprehensive simulation and design capabilities, ADS enables engineers to develop innovative products with confidence, reducing time-to-market and improving overall design efficiency. ## Keysight ADS Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users value the **diverse simulation tools** in ADS, enhancing their ability to perform various levels of analysis effectively. (1 reviews) - Users appreciate the **wide range of simulation tools** in Keysight ADS, enhancing their design and analysis capabilities. (1 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users feel that the **learning curve** for Keysight ADS can be steep, making proficiency difficult for newcomers. (1 reviews) - Users find the **interface overwhelming** , requiring significant time and training to navigate effectively. (1 reviews) ## Keysight ADS Reviews ### 1. great **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Amin H. | Consultant, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 15, 2025 **What do you like best about Keysight ADS?** ADS offers a wide range of simulation tools, including circuit, electromagnetic (EM), and system-level simulations **What do you dislike about Keysight ADS?** New users may find the interface and extensive features overwhelming, requiring significant time and training to become proficient. **What problems is Keysight ADS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Simulation for ESD systems ### 2. User friendly interface **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Hari P. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 10, 2023 **What do you like best about Keysight ADS?** Simple interface, best tool to learn the design of RF circuits. There were many inbuilt test benches are available which will help in the design of circuits like power amplifiers. **What do you dislike about Keysight ADS?** Each and every time we need to select the type of simulator and we need to define the measurement equations, especially parameters of PA like PAE, drain efficiency and gain, etc. **What problems is Keysight ADS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Design of power amplifier circuits, circuit simulation, and EM simulation. Also verifying its performance by applying modulated signals and measuring the parameters like ACLR, EVM, and IMD, etc. ### 3. Great for design **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Semiconductors | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 23, 2023 **What do you like best about Keysight ADS?** Lots of templates that cover almost all design aspects in a modern system **What do you dislike about Keysight ADS?** the analog and digital parts are sometimes a bit confusing. **What problems is Keysight ADS solving and how is that benefiting you?** helps with quick prototyping and architecture verification ### 4. The most professional high frequency design software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Max M. | Electronics Engineer / Information Technology and Communication Trainer / LabVIEW-MatLab Programmer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 16, 2021 **What do you like best about Keysight ADS?** Its easy integration with other electromagnetic simulators, comprehensive component libraries and capabilities of co-simulation in other platforms, including Hardware Description Language (VHDL & Verilog). It is a unique tool both for analysis and synthesis, specially for RF and Microwave designers. **What do you dislike about Keysight ADS?** HDL co-simulation restricted to ModelSim; and Verilog XL no longer supported since 2014. **Recommendations to others considering Keysight ADS:** I would recommend having a minimum (basic) knowledge of programming C. C++, VHDL, MatLab, Simulink and LabView (G-programming). **What problems is Keysight ADS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am doing research on clean renewable sources of energy, specially marine electrostatic energy conversion, where I am interested in process modeling within a plasma, with equivalent electrodynamic and electronic components, and control of processes by integration of hardware and software, all of which requires, if possible, a robust software with a maximum capability of simulation, co-simulation and integration of analog, digital and control systems. ### 5. Great EDA Tool for RF/Microwave Designing **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 29, 2021 **What do you like best about Keysight ADS?** It has too many features, from implementing a design using layout to Smith-chart plots, it had everything required in one EDA Tool itself. I attended a workshop by Keysight where they gave a session on ADS. I also designed a directional coupler, microstrip LPF using this tool. **What do you dislike about Keysight ADS?** It is not very user-friendly for beginners. If you don't know RF/Microwave, then you can not directly use this advanced software. **What problems is Keysight ADS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used Keysight ADS during my college days. I used it in one of my projects which was the design and implementation of the directional coupler and microstrip LPF. Keysight ADS is so good that I completed the entire development phase in the same EDA tool itself and got the final Gerber file for fabrication using CNC machines. ### 6. My experience with ADS is incredible as I am from RF Microwave domain. Recommended to all. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 31, 2021 **What do you like best about Keysight ADS?** I really like the way ADS have Schematic as well as EM simulation which is far better than any other softwares. **What do you dislike about Keysight ADS?** Not much but i want to see some complex 3D structures like horn antennas to be simulated by this software in future. **Recommendations to others considering Keysight ADS:** Totally recommended to all. **What problems is Keysight ADS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am solving all problems related to RF Microwave domain. The benefits which i have realised while using this software is the Accuracy of simulated components when we fabricate it. It gives almost those results which we have simulated. ### 7. Designing some harmonic tags with ADS, **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Neda N. | RF Engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 04, 2021 **What do you like best about Keysight ADS?** Simplicity and manual are helpful. It could solve several RF problems easily **What do you dislike about Keysight ADS?** Installing the software was hard. Also, it is hard sometimes to follow the manual **Recommendations to others considering Keysight ADS:** solving unsolvable problems in RF engineering **What problems is Keysight ADS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Balancing the harmonics and calculating s-parameters ### 8. Fast and intuitive **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Wireless | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 18, 2021 **What do you like best about Keysight ADS?** Its utility, its speed and how easy it is to use. **What do you dislike about Keysight ADS?** There is nothing that I dislike for ADS. **Recommendations to others considering Keysight ADS:** It is very intuitive, and the learning curve is not steep. **What problems is Keysight ADS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Learning purposes (student) . Solving RF circuit simulations and EM simulations ### 9. Powerful, Easier and Advanced level RF,MW and High-Speed Simulations **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ramlal B. | Senior Lead Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 21, 2021 **What do you like best about Keysight ADS?** The best in ADS is Circuit Simulator,Optimizer and Momentum **What do you dislike about Keysight ADS?** Takes more time to simulate when structure is large. Should be linked with GPU **Recommendations to others considering Keysight ADS:** ADS has more advantages in finding the solutions for RF&MW. The optimizer in ADS helps to tune the circuit and component. The layout design in Momentum is incredible. **What problems is Keysight ADS solving and how is that benefiting you?** RF&MW Circuit Based Simulations ### 10. Masterthesis Project fully accomplished on Keysight ADS **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consumer Electronics | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 17, 2021 **What do you like best about Keysight ADS?** The logicness of the whole circuits drawn and analysed. **What do you dislike about Keysight ADS?** The unexplicitness of some functions such as inductor and capacitor creation, the optimization tool is not perfect **Recommendations to others considering Keysight ADS:** One of the best software to do electromagnetic simulations and to create system level designs **What problems is Keysight ADS solving and how is that benefiting you?** 80 GHz antenna design with passives, common centroid Gilbert Cells, amplifiers ### 11. User Friendly and Powerful **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Semiconductors | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 14, 2021 **What do you like best about Keysight ADS?** It is very user friendly and the learning curve is the best among EDA competitors **What do you dislike about Keysight ADS?** The cross integration with Cadence (especially Virtuoso) should be improved. **What problems is Keysight ADS solving and how is that benefiting you?** PCB parasites extraction and estimation for DC-DC converters and PMIC applications. ### 12. It is very user friendly and easy to use. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Semiconductors | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 23, 2021 **What do you like best about Keysight ADS?** we can perform various simulations at a time. **What do you dislike about Keysight ADS?** Checking transistor parameter given by foundry **What problems is Keysight ADS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Impedance matching ### 13. Keysight ADS review **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 15, 2021 **What do you like best about Keysight ADS?** The ease of making the circuits with practical constraints and see their behavior. **What do you dislike about Keysight ADS?** Few of the ground lines are little confusing. **What problems is Keysight ADS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Mostly, High frequency and open circuit problems. ### 14. Can execute any type of SI/PI/RF Simulations **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 19, 2021 **What do you like best about Keysight ADS?** RFIC Inductor Synthesis with Agilent ADS **What do you dislike about Keysight ADS?** I never came across any dislikes till now. **What problems is Keysight ADS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Tuning and Optimization & Smart Mount for Multi-Technology Designs ### 15. Very powerful and multitasking RF CAD software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Taras P. | RF Design Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 27, 2021 **What do you like best about Keysight ADS?** I like the variety of different tools available for RF simulations, high speed and precision of calculations, visibility of results demonstratons and so on. There are lots of differnts solvers, you may use vendors libraries and create your own. **What do you dislike about Keysight ADS?** It takes some time to get used working in it **Recommendations to others considering Keysight ADS:** It is one of the best in class CAD software for RF simulations **What problems is Keysight ADS solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use this software for RF simulations of lumped cicuits, microstrip devices, active devices as amplifies, impedance calculations and matching ### 16. Worked on Keysight ADS for 5g filter implementation and front end LNA design for SDR **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 27, 2021 **What do you like best about Keysight ADS?** Updated library for 5g modules. Availability of model transistors. **What do you dislike about Keysight ADS?** Nothing so far. Working on ADS is quite smooth and it gives accurate results. **What problems is Keysight ADS solving and how is that benefiting you?** Problems related to implementation of front end of Receiever and 5g filters. ## Keysight ADS Discussions - [What is Keysight PathWave?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-keysight-pathwave) - [How do I download ads from Keysight?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-do-i-download-ads-from-keysight) - [What is ads2021?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-ads2021) - [What is ADS Keysight?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-ads-keysight) - [View Keysight ADS pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/keysight-ads/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-15+22%3A11%3A12+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=a80efe29-f6a2-4abc-888c-07bb2f495616&secure%5Btoken%5D=d247278b28616bf1e40c93fdc61e5fa2bb4d143d912f994c4a86eae1c42965e3&format=llm_user) ## Keysight ADS Features **Design** - 3D/solid modeling Tools - Drawing Tools - Editing Tools - Rendering tools **Tools** - Fluid analysis - Finite element analysis - Multibody dynamics **Work** - Discrete event modeling - Continuous event modeling - Mechanical event simulation - Manufacturing process simulation - Integrate **Environment** - Hardware support - Task - Manage Multiple Profiles - Command Clarity ## Top Keysight ADS Alternatives - [MATLAB](https://www.g2.com/products/matlab/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (748 reviews) - [SOLIDWORKS](https://www.g2.com/products/solidworks/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (628 reviews) - [Autodesk Fusion](https://www.g2.com/products/autodesk-fusion/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (509 reviews)