2. High efficiency, high accuracy and low cost electromagnetic simulation tools on PCs with Windows based graphic interface.
Running on PCs, our simulator is faster than other field solvers on high end workstations.
3. The menu-driven graphic interface allows interactive construction
of 3D and multi-layered metallic structures as a set of polygons. Numerous
editing capabilities are implemented to ease the construction and manipulation
of polygons and vertices.
4. Build-in library for construction of complicated structures such as,
circles, rings, spheres, rectangular and circular spirals, cylindrical and
conical vias, cylindrical and conical helices. You can build complicated
3D and multi-layered structures in seconds or minutes.
5. Automatic non-uniform mesh generator with rectangular and triangular cells.
Numerical simulation requires sub-dividing a circuit into small cells. Both rectangular
and triangular cells are employed in the IE3D. Rectangular cells are used in the regular
region for the best efficiency (each rectangular cell is equivalent to at least 2 triangles).
Triangular cells are utilized to fit the irregular boundary. The efficiency of rectangular
cells and flexibility of triangular cells are combined to yield the best result.
6. Automatic Edge Cell feature lets the IE3D to yield expert results for novice users.
It is well known that current is concentrating on the edges of metallic strips. Precise modeling
of the high current concentration along the edges is critical to accurate simulation of printed circuits,
especially coupled structures. Adding small cells along the edges usually can guarantee simulation accuracy.
How to add edge cells and simultaneously minimize the number of cells in a simulation has been a skillful
work. Starting from the IE3D 3.15, we have an option to create small cells on the edges automatically.
Users of little numerical modeling knowledge can get accurate results easily with the automatic edge cell
feature.
Non-uniform rectangular and triangular Uniform meshing in other simulators meshing in IE3D
yields high accuracy result create large number of redundant cells with minimum number
of cells even for simple structures
7. Flexible de-embedding of circuit parameters.
A few different de-embedding schemes implemented into the IE3D to achieve accurate and flexible
parameter extraction. There is no limitation on where the ports are defined. The Extension de-embedding
schemes allow fast and accurate parameter extraction. The Waves de-embedding schemes use the pure
electromagnetic wave concepts and yield the most accurate results. The Localized de-embedding
schemes allow parameter extraction in highly packed structures.
8. Modeling structures with finite ground planes and differential feed structures.
Most field solvers assume infinite ground planes in solving circuit and antenna problems.
In many microwave and RF applications, you may not be able to find a big ground plane
where you can define 0 potential. Therefore, infinite ground plane assumption is not applicable.
IE3D is able to model structures with finite ground planes. The key to modeling finite ground planes
is the differential feed. Most of the de-embedding schemes in IE3D can be used for differential feed.
9. Accurate modeling of true 3D metallic structures and metal thickness.
Most method of moment simulators assume infinitely thin metallic structures in the modeling,
although they accept the thickness information for correction of metallic loss. They can not model
the structure effects of metallic thickness. The IE3D can optionally allow users to model the
thickness exactly.
For wide microstrip structures, current concentrates on the bottom surface of the metallic strips.
Good result can be obtained for wide microstrip structures without modeling the thickness effect.
For stripline and suspended stripline structures, current concentrates on both the bottom and top
surfaces of the metallic strips. Without modeling the structure effects of the thickness, the
simulation result will be much off the actual result. The IE3D can model current on the 4 sides
of a metallic strip exactly. It opens the door for single pass design of stripline filters.
10. Modeling of thin, lossy and high dielectric constant dielectric substrates.
Thin dielectric substrates are used quite frequently in MMIC circuits such as MIM capacitors and
spiral inductors. The IE3D is specially formulated for modeling dielectric layers as thin as 0.1 microns.
High dielectric constant substrate is used in HTS filter and circuit design. Thin dielectric layers with
dielectric constant as high as 1000 are used in the design of HTS circuits. The IE3D provides accurate
modeling of high dielectric constant materials. The IE3D also has accurate modeling for the HTS printed
strips and ground planes.
Doping is used in semi-conductor process to control the conductivity of the dielectric material. The IE3D
is formulated with complex dielectric permittivity, permeability and conductivity. The IE3D allows accurate
modeling of lossy dielectric material.
11. Mixed Electromagnetic and nodal analysis.
With the capability to de-embed circuit parameters locally, we are able to model highly packed circuits
with lumped elements. For a highly packed circuit, we are able to embed the s-parameters of the lumped
elements into the full wave simulation.
12. Electromagnetic optimization.
The IE3D allows users to define the shape of a circuit as optimization variables. The built-in optimizer
will be able to optimize the shape of a structure for best performance.
13. Efficient matrix solvers.
Standard LU decomposition yields accurate and efficient full matrix solution (FMS). Its solution time is
proportional to N3. Symmetrical matrix solver (SMS) reduce the RAM requirement to half of the requirement
for FMS. Partial matrix solver (PMS) only considers the strong coupling and reduces the RAM requirement
and simulation time significantly. Iterative matrix solver (IMS) uses the external memory to save the big
matrices. Its simulation time is proportional to N2. It saves time and yields accurate results.
14. Visual display of S, Y, and Z-parameters.
IE3D comes with the MODUA post processor for display of S, Y, and Z-parameters in data list, rectangular
graphs and Smith Chart. The MODUA is also a circuit simulator. A user can graphically connect different
S-parameter modules and lumped elements together and perform a nodal simulation.
15. SPICE parameters extraction and RLC-equivalent circuits.
The primary simulation results of the IE3D are the S-parameters. The S-parameters can optionally converted
into a SPICE netlist. The SPICE netlist can be imported into a SPICE simulator for time domain simulation.
16. 3D and 2D display of current distribution, radiation patterns and near field.
The CURVIEW post processor of the IE3D provides colorful 3D and 2D display of current distribution and
radiation patterns. The CURVIEW also provides complete information on the directivity, return loss,
efficiency, axial ratio, 3 dB beam width. It allows a user to specify the excitation and load condition to
investigate the radiation patterns of loaded antennas. The colorful pictures can be saved into files for
design documentation. The post processor provides display of linear polarization patterns, left and right
hand circular polarizatoin patterns, axial ratio, 2D rectangular pattern curves and 2D polar pattern curves.
It also provides information such as directivity, return loss, polarization loss, efficiency, mono-static RCS
and bi-static RCS.
17. Magnetic current modeling of slot structures.
For slotted structures such as co-planar waveguides (CPWs), CPW antennas and slot coupled patch antennas,
we can model the electric field distribution on the aperture of the slots. It saves simulation time and memory.
The 3D mapped radiation pattern of a 5 by 5 antenna array.
18. "Simulate and Find Excitation" feature allowing monitoring of array power distributution on network.
The "Simulate and Find Excitation" feature is special for design of antenna arrays and structures with complicated
lumped elements. It allows the users to access the power, voltage and current distribution at each port of the
structure you are simulating. It is extremely valuable for antenna array designers because it can tell you how
good your design is. The feature is also good for the design of structures with lumped elements. For example,
you can find out the radiation pattern and current distribution of an antenna with complicated lumped elements.
19. Adaptive Intelli-Fit scheme provides fast and accurate simulation results for wide bandwidth structures.
The Intelli-Fit is a proprietary curve-fitting scheme employing both mathematical and physical principles. It
can extract detailed frequency response of a complicated structure with multiple resonances by using the simulation
results at just a few frequency points. We have implemented the adaptive Intelli-Fit scheme into the simulation
engine. For a specific simulation, the simulator adaptively selects the frequency points for actual field simulation.
The detail frequency response with multiple resonances is then extracted out. The scheme is very robust,
efficient and accurate. It does not have any limitation and easy to use. A user just selects a button in
the simulation setup. The IE3D simulation will yield accurate results in just 10% of the expected simulation time.
Building this 4 ´ 4 array in 20 minutes and simulating it at 20 minutes per frequency. You can also find out the
power, voltage and current distribution at each element.
The smooth frequency response of the multiple resonant patch antenna in (a) takes 321 data points. The adaptive
Intelli-Fit can extract the 321 data points using the 23 data points in (b). The procedure is adaptively and
automatically done without any user interference. It is always accurate and robust with absolutely no limitation.
20. Adaptive frequency sweep (AFS)
AFS allows the IE3D simulator to adaptively select the frequency points to simulate for a smooth curve.
21. Flexible utility features and built-in circuit simulator.
The IE3D comes with a simple and user-friendly circuit simulator. It includes many simple and sophisticated
utilities such as finding characteristic impedance of a transmission line, creating the s-parameters for
a idealized transmission line, and back simulation to extract the s-parameters of part of the circuit from
a whole circuit.
A lead frame with wire bonds in high speed digital circuit packaging
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