Microwave Engineering Europe - October 2008 - (Page 16)

16 COVER FEATURE: PREDICTING EM ACCURATELY UP FRONT and efﬁciently creates true 3D meshes of extruded planar geometries, and the ﬁnal solution includes all x, y, and z directed currents on all surfaces. Figure 2 (courtesy of Nera Networks), illustrates AXIEM’s thick-metal capability and hybrid mesh technology for a distributed ﬁlter with ﬁnite thickness. Figure 3 shows the results of AXIEM for a curved spiral inductor whose metal width is the same dimension as its thickness. The current ﬂow for the thick metal spiral at 20 GHz can also be seen crowding on the metal edges and near the high Er substrate. Solver technology AXIEM technology has been expressly crafted to overcome the limitations of existing 3D planar formulations that rely on the Sommerfeld integral to deliver high simulation speed at the cost of accuracy and dynamic range. AXIEM is actually a collection of solvers that can either be automatically selected by the software or manually by the user. Within this collection are a dense solver for small problems and an iterative solver for larger numbers of unknowns (from tens to hundreds of thousands of unknowns). AXIEM’s solution methodology uses a proprietary technique that is similar to the fast multi-pole method yet adapted for full-wave analysis. As a result, the solver scales similarly to the fast multipole method, which makes its simulation speed orders of magnitude faster on very large structures when compared to conventional Method of Moments (MoM) codes. This capability makes AXIEM well suited for EM analysis of today’s problems as well as those likely to be encountered in the most complex circuits of the future. For example, Figure 4 shows AXIEM results (including both pass band current S-parameter measured versus simulated data) for the Nera Network ﬁlter shown in Figure 2. The solver was set to nominally weight speed over accuracy, which resulted in a solution time of less than 45 seconds per frequency for about 4,000 unknowns when performed on a single-processor PC. In addition, since the results will typically be employed by a nonlinear circuit simulator, accurate DC solutions (broadband results) are also achievable. AXIEM delivers such fast simulation times because its core solver was designed to enable parallel implementation on both multi-CPU computers and distributed clusters. This parallel implementation enables designers to solve very large designs in a very short time by dividing the computation (frequency data points or matrix computations) across multiple CPUs or computers. Design ﬂow As a stand-alone EM solver, AXIEM is a powerful addition to any highfrequency design suite because its meshing technology delivers robust representations of currents with fewer unknowns and extremely high accuracy regardless of complexity across a broad frequency range. However, it truly begins to shine when integrated within the AWR high-frequency design ﬂow. It embellishes AWR’s unique open architecture, whose sophisticated yet straightforward user interface makes it a powerful tool for novices and veterans alike. AXIEM is seamlessly tied to AWR’s circuit and system simulation, layout, and veriﬁcation through the company’s EM Socket™, which allows multiple EM solvers to be employed in the AWR design environment without leaving the Microwave Ofﬁce software environment. Summary While claims of superior performance are commonplace in the EDA industry, AXIEM is a truly a breakthrough of considerable signiﬁcance. It is the ﬁrst EM solver that can be employed early in the design ﬂow where it can help identify and solve problems that would otherwise have to be dealt with at the “back end” – where other EM solvers remain. Figure 3: High-frequency spiral inductor — current ﬂow for thick metal spiral at 20 GHz. Freq. 7.8GHz Figure 4: AXIEM results for Nera ﬁlter — pass band current (left) and |S11| & |S21| simulated versus measured data. Microwave Engineering Europe ● October 2008 ● www.mwee.com 015_to_16_MWEE.indd 16 6/10/08 16:29:35 http://www.mwee.com

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Microwave Engineering Europe - October 2008 Contents Comment News Cover Feature: AWR's AXIEM Software Brings 3D Planar Electromagnetic (EM) Simulation "Up Front" RFID: Augmented Reality: Beyond RFID and QR Codes for Mobile Phone Platforms Filters & Frequency Synthesis ZigBee Goes Green with Support for Smart Energy Simplify Mobile Data Applications and Services Test Enabling the State-of-the-Art in Automatic Test Equipment National Physical Laboratory Test Facility Aids Development of Next-Generation Antennas Selecting the Synthetic Test Environment for Transmit-Receive (T-R) Modules in a Phased Array Radar System Products Calendar

Microwave Engineering Europe - October 2008

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