• Modeling true 3D metallic structures in layered dielectric environments.
There are no limitations on the shape and orientation of the metallic structures. You can model true 3D structures such as conical vias, conical helix antennas, wire bonds and other 3D structures of general shapes. IE3Dcan be used to build and simulate a wide range of planar and 3D microwave and RF structures.
• High efficiency, high accuracy and low cost electromagnetic simulation tools on PCs with Windows based graphic interface. Running on PCs, IE3D is faster than other field solvers operating on high end workstations.
• 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.
• 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 are available. You can build complicated 3D and multi-layered structures in just seconds.
• 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 IE3D. Rectangular cells are used in the regular region for the best efficiency (each rectangular cell is equivalent to at least 2 triangles). Any angle triangular cells are utilized to fit the irregular boundary. The efficiency of rectangular cells and flexibility of any angle triangular cells are combined to yield the best result. This is the main reason IE3D can complete simulation faster other solvers operating on high end workstations.
• Automatic Edge Cell feature lets the IE3D to yield expert results for casual users.
It is well known that current concentrates 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 required a skill user. IE3D Release 3 added the ability to create small cells on the edges automatically. Users of little numerical modeling knowledge can now 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
• Flexible de-embedding of circuit parameters.
A few different de-embedding schemes implemented into IE3D 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. While 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.
• 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 large 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.
• 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 properties for correction of metallic loss. They can not model the structure effects of metallic thickness. IE3D allows 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 surface so f the metallic strips. Without modeling the structure effects of the thickness, the simulation results will not match the actual results. IE3D can model current on the 4 sides of a metallic strip exactly. It opens the door for single pass design of stripline filters.
• 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. 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. IE3D provides accurate modeling of high dielectric constant materials. 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. IE3D is formulated with complex dielectric permittivity, permeability and conductivity. IE3D allows accurate modeling of lossy dielectric material.
• 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.
• Electromagnetic optimization.
IE3D allows users to define the shape of a circuit as optimization variables. The built-in optimizer is able to optimize the shape of a structure for best performance.
• 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.
• 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. MODUA is also a circuit simulator. A user can graphically connect different S-parameter modules and lumped elements together and perform a nodal simulation.
• SPICE parameters extraction and RLC-equivalentcircuits.
The primary simulation results of IE3D are the S-parameters. The S-parameters can be converted into a SPICE netlist. The SPICE netlist can be imported into a SPICE simulator for time domain simulation.
• 3D and 2D display of current distribution, radiation patterns and near field.
The CURVIEW post processor of IE3D provides color 3D and 2D display of current distribution and radiation patterns. CURVIEW also provides complete information on the directivity, return loss, efficiency, axial ratio, 3dB beam width. It allows a user to specify the excitation and load condition to investigate the radiation patterns of loaded antennas. The color display can be saved into files for design documentation. The post processor provides display of linear polarization patterns, left and right hand circular polarization 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.
• Magnetic current modeling of slot structures.
For slotted structures such as co-planar waveguides (CPWs), CPW antennas and slot coupled patch antennas, users can model the electric field distribution on the aperture of the slots. It saves simulation time and memory.
• "Simulate and Find Excitation" feature allowing monitoring of array power distribution on network.
The "Simulate and Find Excitation" feature is special for design of antenna arrays and structures with complicated lumped elements. It allows users to access the power, voltage and current distribution at each port of the structure being simulating. It is extremely valuable for antenna array designers because it can how the antenna’s electrical parameters. 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.
• Adaptive Intelli-Fit scheme provides fast and accurate simulation results for wide bandwidth structures.
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. The Intelli-Fit scheme has been implemented 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 is easy to use. A user just selects a button in the simulation setup menu. The simulation will yield accurate results in just10% of the expected simulation time.
The smooth frequency response of the multiple resonant patch antenna in (a) takes 321 data points. The adaptive Intelli-Fit can extract the321 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.
• Adaptive frequency sweep (AFS)
AFS allows the IE3D simulator to adaptively select the frequency points to simulate for a smooth curve.
• Flexible utility features and built-in circuit simulator.
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.
Lead frame with bonds wires in high speed package has option to create small cells on edges automatically. Users of little numerical modeling knowledge can get accurate results easily with the automatic edge cell feature. Bond wires are automatically created by defining start and stop locations of bond wire and then defining the bond wire parameters in a simple window as shown below. Ribbon or circular bond wires are available. All bond wires for the circuit can be created with a single entry.
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