The Hierarchical Elctromagnetic Modeler

The Hierarchical Electromagnetic Modeler exploits a new numerical method which allows the generation of an equivalent circuit that represents the electrical response of a generic electromagnetic problem (microwave, optical ..).

The circuit is generated in a direct path without going trough an electromagnetic simulation and a subsequent circuit extraction process as it happens with the macro-modeling techniques based on the zero-pole fitting of response curves.

The new method is more robust than the zero-pole fitting which does not scale well when the number of ports becomes large. The new method can in fact handle very large electromagnetic structures excited by a large number of input ports.

The generated circuit may be exported in the standard Spice format assuring the interoperability with most circuit simulators. It preserves the fundamental properties (such as passivity, causality, reciprocity..) of the actual device so that it can be exploited for reliable and stable time domain simulations.

The Hierarchical Electromagnetic Modeler is designed to achieve the maximum efficiency when executed in a distributed environment and to exploit the full power offered by the modern cloud computing architectures. In this way it is able to tackle the complex electromagnetic problems which arise in the design flow of modern microwave/electronic industry and to overcome the constraints imposed by limited local resources.

Because of the steady increase of system performance, operating frequencies and miniaturization, the need of accurate modeling of electromagnetic interactions occurring inside the electronic circuits is becoming always more important. With higher frequencies and smaller spaces the electromagnetic interactions are intensified causing a degradation of the quality of electrical signals (noise effects, crosstalk..).

These adverse effects need to be properly simulated at system level in order to appreciate their global effect on the system performances. The Hierarchical Electromagnetic Modeler responds to these needs trough the generation of circuit models that capture all the relevant electromagnetic effects and are well suited to be exploited in any kind of simulation in the time or in the frequency domain..

The generated model can be included in a complex system (which may include non linear devices) providing a better interoperability than the simulated responses generated by traditional Electromagnetic Solvers. These responses are indeed typically given in the frequency domain and their utilization in the time domain requires the application of heavy numerical algorithms (domain transforms and convolutions).

The most distinguishing property which puts the Hierarchical Electromagnetic Modeler aside of competition is nevertheless given by the adoption of a very efficient domain decomposition strategy. This technique allows to overcome the fundamental drawback of all other current general purpose full-wave simulators which, by going against the hierarchical (top-down) design methodologies that the electronics industry is accustomed to, treat the electromagnetic device as an unstructured black box.

The Hierarchical Electromagnetic Modeler decomposes the device in its constituent parts (sub-domains) which are subjected to independent modelizations. As a result there is a one to one relationship between the hierarchical structure of the electromagnetic problem and the hierarchical structure of the circuital model. This property allows a dramatic improvement in the computational speed of the repetitive tasks which are typically required in the design/optimization phase. In fact a local change in the geometrical or physical parameters of a given subcomponent affects only the related subcircuit and there is no need to recompute the circuital models of the other (unchanged) parts.