Product category:
Design and Development Software
News Release from: Ansoft Europe | Subject: HFSS 8.5
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 12 April 2002
64bit code boosts electromagnetic
simulation
The latest version of Ansoft's HFSS full-wave finite-element electromagnetic simulator exploits the processing power of 64bit code.
The latest version of Ansoft's HFSS full-wave finite-element electromagnetic simulator exploits the processing power of 64bit code HFSS 8.5 strips away the limitations posed by 32bit code to deliver a tenfold increase in the size and complexity of the structures HFSS can simulate
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 8 Nov 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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Ansoft has announced version 8.0 of the Ansoft High Frequency Structure Simulator (Ansoft HFSS).
For the first time, designers can use the power and huge memories of 64bit RISC-based Unix computing platforms to analyse large, complex structures, such as multiple-array antenna systems and high-speed IC packages.
All previous commercial EM simulators use 32bit code, which limits memory size to approximately 2Gbyte and restricts their ability to handle the most complex structures.
With its new capabilities, HFSS lets designers tackle highly complex three-dimensional, high-frequency structures, such as microwave filters, connectors, waveguides, IC packages, and antennas.
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HFSS 8.5 implements key sections of code using 64bit features, increasing its accessible memory space to accommodate the large memories typical of high-end workstations, up to about 16Gbyte.
Ansoft will implement this same capability in its other design software in upcoming releases.
This new version of HFSS also can consider the frequency variation of any arbitrary material property and uses a significantly improved method for importing geometries from mechanical design packages, such as Pro/Engineer and AutoCAD.
More and more designers today are limited by the 2Gbyte of 32bit EM codes.
For example, the memory limitation posed by 32bit code may support analysis of a complex antenna but may preclude the possibility of analysing this antenna as part of a four-element array.
In addition, someone designing a 40Gbit/s OC-768 optical communications system would be limited by 32bit EM code to characterise only a small number of critical nets.
With HFSS 8.5, more traces and irregularly shaped power/ground planes may be considered for more complete prediction of signal integrity for rise times of less than 25ps.
HFSS 8.5 also has the ability to automatically consider the broadband frequency variation of material properties, such as dielectric constant and loss.
As HFSS computes the frequency-dependent response of a structure, designers can easily consider arbitrary variations of any material property with respect to frequency.
These spectral effects are then automatically considered in the time-domain response subsequently produced by Ansoft's Full-Wave Spice tool for broadband Spice model generation.
For example, these new capabilities let designers determine whether they can use the inexpensive circuit-board material FR4 in a high-frequency design, or whether they must employ more stable (and more expensive) microwave laminates.
Many microwave components begin their design in a mechanical-engineering CAD package or three-dimensional solid modelling code.
While HFSS can directly import files from many CAD tools, the project files often have duplicate points, misaligned edges, or incorrect surface normal vector definitions that make it impossible to create an adequate definition of geometry for EM simulation.
HFSS 8.5 automates the ability to detect and fix these issues through a process called "healing".
If the conditions are beyond repair by the multiple healing techniques implemented in HFSS 8.5, a description of the solid objects and their condition is provided to support modification in the source mechanical engineering CAD code.
HFSS 8.5 is the first version of the product to support a seamless transition to the Ansoft HFSS drawing environment from projects created with HFSS previously offered by Agilent Technologies.
Ansoft licensed the Agilent version of HFSS software with the goal of supporting Agilent's existing customers while gradually integrating them into Ansoft HFSS.
To simplify this integration, HFSS 8.5 streamlines this process while retaining conventions familiar to users of Agilent HFSS.
Ansoft's new HFSS 8.5 electromagnetic simulation software is priced from $41,900 and will be available Q2 2002.
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