Designer’s Guide Community

novice_designer New Member Offline Posts: 7	3D simulator? Sep 17^th, 2007, 8:17am Hi, Can you please let me know if there are any 3D field simulators out there which I could use? Are there any available free? If not what would you recommend? I need to study the on-chip inductor behavior in the presence of a metal ground plane. Thanks.
Back to top	IP Logged

Frank Wiedmann Community Fellow Offline Posts: 678 Munich, Germany	Re: 3D simulator? Reply #1 - Sep 17^th, 2007, 8:30am Take a look at http://www.sonnetsoftware.com/products/lite/.
Back to top	IP Logged

novice_designer

New Member

Offline

Posts: 7

Re: 3D simulator?
Reply #2 - Sep 17^th, 2007, 9:25am

Thanks a lot for that quick response Frank. Will take a loot at it.

Also, I am little confused when they say 3D planar field solver.

Why do they term it planar? Does it mean that structures are planar and the solver is 3D?

Does 3D refer to spatial dimensions? What exactly is the difference between 2D and 3D solvers?

I would really appreciate if you can throw some light on that.

Thanks again.

Back to top

IP Logged

didac

Senior Member

Offline

There's a million
ways to see the
things in life

Posts: 247
manresa,spain

Re: 3D simulator?
Reply #3 - Sep 17^th, 2007, 10:09am

Hi,
Check http://www.designers-guide.org/Forum/YaBB.pl?num=1095265293 where t Frank himself clarifies this issue, basically 3D planar solver (also called as 2.5D solvers) are limited to planar geometries like microstrip,coplanar transmission lines or like your case an integrated inductor, for designing something like a dish antenna or a waveguide it should be used a 3D solver like Ansoft HFSS.
Hope it helps,

Back to top

IP Logged

novice_designer New Member Offline Posts: 7	Re: 3D simulator? Reply #4 - Sep 17^th, 2007, 10:39am Thanks for pointing out that link, will read through that. Although i am looking at inductors, I am trying to study the effect of having thick metal strips on the sides of the chip, connecting to ground plane, and its effect on inductors and RF circuits.
Back to top	IP Logged

didac Senior Member Offline There's a million ways to see the things in life Posts: 247 manresa,spain	Re: 3D simulator? Reply #5 - Sep 18^th, 2007, 11:58am Hi, This case of study I think fits right into planar EM, I think that everything that can be view in a cross-section like a "sandwich"-i.e. different layers of metals over dielectrics- can be simulated with programs like Sonnet and Momentum. Hope it helps,
Back to top	IP Logged