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Interactive operation with accuracy from EM software

Applied Wave Research (AWR) has announced Axiem, an electromagnetic- design-software package that the company says can provide you with an interactive design facility that is fast enough to use early in the design cycle, while also being accurate. AWR designed the product for three-dimensional planar applications such as RF PCBs (printed-circuit boards) and modules, LTCC (low-temperature co-fired ceramic) substrates, MMICs (monolithic microwave integrated circuits), and RFIC designs. Because EM (electromagnetic) design tools carry out mathematical solutions to field equations, they have tended to offer either accuracy or speed. Accuracy requires the software to solve equations on a fine spatial grid (many points) and with short time steps: this implies computation times that you associate with using the tools in a verification mode. Conversely, tools that allow you to explore design alternatives interactively have required approximations that limit accuracy and dynamic range. Now, AWR claims, you can have both: it describes Axiem as an open-boundary, non-gridded, MoM (methodof- moments) solver that supports true “thick metal” in layered dielectric media. The software uses recent advances in EM-solver and -meshing algorithms and exploits newer computer architectures to improve speed and accuracy; the benefits become as design complexity grows and the number of unknowns increases. The solver also simulates to DC to obtain correct bias conditions and DC operating points for active structures: this gives you a reference to check for anomalies that might arise from subsequent harmonic balance or transient simulations. For setting up an analysis, the product has a hybrid meshing technology that automatically fractures structures with triangular and rectangular elements in a way that—AWR says—maximises accuracy with minimal unknowns, making it particularly useful for signal-integrity analysis of large RF PCBdesigns.

One feature of the softwareis that it supports thick metal, taking full account ofall three dimensions of metaltracks and x-, y-, and z-directedcurrents on all surfaces.You need this capability, AWRclaims, to correctly analyseCMOS structures at 90 nmand below and to investigatecomplex passive componentson MMICs.

You can use the product stand-alone or as part of AWR’s tool chain; in combination with the company’s ACET technology, which provides fast, automatic interconnect model extraction, you can modify and design the same EM structures in seconds with ACE and then more accurately model them with Axiem. It is now available in beta versions; AWR anticipates a full release of the tool in early 2008 at a cost of $30,000 per licence.

Applied Wave Research, www.appwave.com.