Electromagnetic simulations using the partial element equivalent circuit (PEEC) approach

Electromagnetic Simulations Using the Partial Element Equivalent Circuit (PEEC) Approach

Jonas Ekman

Lule˚a University of Technology, Sweden

The three important techniques within the area of computational electromagnetics are the finite element method (FEM), the moment method (MoM), and the finite difference (FD) method all have their strengths and weaknesses. The FEM and FD methods are both based on a differential formulation of Maxwells equations making them feasible for complex geome- tries and materials. In contrast to the FEM and

FD methods are the MoM and PEEC integral based formulations useful for open-air problems.

The main feature with the PEEC method is the transformation of the electromagnetic problem to the circuit domain. This simplifies the extraction of equivalent circuits for discontinuities and of- fers the solution both in the time and frequency domain for the same equivalent circuit.

This paper offers an introduction to the PEEC method where each part of a PEEC based com- bined circuitand EM simulation tool, Fig. 1, is discussed. Special attention is given to the calcu- lation of the partial elements and the formulation of the final equation system. The efficiency of the partial element calculation routines are becoming more important with the recent extension to the non-orthogonal PEEC formulation (NO-PEEC) [1]. The NO-PEEC offers improved modelling capabilities and accuracy but excludes the use of analytical solutions to the partial element values.

In the paper, the recent proposed multifunction approach [2, 3] is shown to be suitable also for the non-orthogonal partial element calculations.

Graphical tool

Graph viewer Discretization

Partial Element Calculation

Matrix Formulation

Matrix solution

Stable

Unstable Improve Accuracy in Partial Element

Calculations Improve Discretization

Use Different Matrix Formulation

Figure 1: Flowchart describing a general PEEC based electromagnetic simulation tool.

REFERENCES

[1] Ruehli, A. E., et al., “Non-orthogonal PEEC formulation for time and frequency domain modeling,” to be published in IEEE Transactions on EMC, Special issue on “Advanced EMC Numerical Modeling”, May 2003.

[2] Antonini, G., J. Ekman, and A. Orlandi, “Integration order selection rules for full wave PEEC solver,” Proc. of The 15th International Zurich Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility, Zurich, Switzerland, Feb. 2003.

[3] Antonini, G., J. Ekman, A. Ciccomancini, and A. E. Ruehli, “A comparative study in

PEEC circuit elements computation,” Proc. of The 2003 Int. Symposium on Electromag-

netic Compatibility, Istanbul, Turkey, May 2003.