IE3D FastEM Design Kit for Real-Time Full-

Wave EM Tuning, Optimization and Synthesis

Zeland Software, Inc.

48834 Kato Road, 103A
Fremont, CA 94538, U.S.A.
E-mail: info@zeland.com
www.zeland.com
 Introduction
• Zeland Software, Inc. was founded in 1992 to develop
powerful and practical EM design tools.
• IE3D EM Simulation and Optimization Package was
introduced in 1993.
• EM Simulation becomes common practice for modern
electronic designs (microwave circuits, MMIC, RFIC, RF
PCB, RFID, antennas and signal integrity).
• Reduced design cycles call for accurate and efficient EM
design tools for real-time tuning, optimization and
synthesis.
• IE3D FastEM Design Kit introduced in Version 12 to
meet the design challenge.

IE3D FastEM Design Kit for Real-

Real-Time Full-
Full-Wave EM Tuning, Optimization and Synthesis
 Capabilities of IE3D Release 11

• IE3D has been proven by many designers to be

an accurate, efficient and powerful EM simulator
for many different applications.
• Designers are able to simulate complicated planar
and 3D structures for high accuracy results.

IE3D FastEM Design Kit for Real-

Real-Time Full-
Full-Wave EM Tuning, Optimization and Synthesis
 Capabilities of IE3D Release 11
• IE3D 11 also allows designers to optimize the
dimensions of a structure to achieve specified s-
parameter performances.
• For the simple hairpin filter shown below, you can
allow IE3D 11 to optimize the lengths of the pins and
the widths of the gaps for the best performance in
minutes.

IE3D FastEM Design Kit for Real-

Real-Time Full-
Full-Wave EM Tuning, Optimization and Synthesis
 Demands from Designers
• Designers want more capabilities. For example,
they want to handle more complicated shapes.
• Shown below is a UWB antenna with 4 elliptical shapes
(2 shapes are the arms of the dipole and 2 shapes are the
apertures on them). The designer wants to change all the
dimensions of the ovals with maintained symmetry.

IE3D FastEM Design Kit for Real-

Real-Time Full-
Full-Wave EM Tuning, Optimization and Synthesis
 Demands from Designers
• Designers want to tune and optimize both planar
and 3D structures.
• Shown below is a pair of coupled wire bonds. Designers
want to see how the performance of the wire bonds
change with varying L, W, H and D.

IE3D FastEM Design Kit for Real-

Real-Time Full-
Full-Wave EM Tuning, Optimization and Synthesis
 Demands from Designers
• Designers want to tune structures for other
parameters in addition to s-parameters.
• Shown below is differential octagonal spiral. The
designer wants to change the size, the trace width and
gap width and see how the L and Q change.

IE3D FastEM Design Kit for Real-

Real-Time Full-
Full-Wave EM Tuning, Optimization and Synthesis
 Can They Be Done On IE3D 11?
• It is possible that designers can achieve what are
mentioned in the previous pages on IE3D 11.
• IE3D is a full-wave EM simulator accurate and efficient
for both planar and 3D structures.
• Given the dimensions, it can simulate the structure.
Designers can change the shapes and dimensions of a
structure, and find the s-parameters, and/or the R, L and
Q-values.
• However, the process can be tedious and it may require
many manual operations.
• Reduced design cycles require designers to be able to
perform real-time EM tuning and synthesis.

IE3D FastEM Design Kit for Real-

Real-Time Full-
Full-Wave EM Tuning, Optimization and Synthesis
FastEM Design Kit in IE3D Release 12

• To meet the demands of designers, we have

introduced the FastEM Design Kit in IE3D V12.
• Compared to IE3D V11, IE3D V12 EM engine is
improved by a big factor without losing accuracy. It
makes use of multi-core CPUs.
• Implementation of equation-based geometry modeling
with high-level parameterization.
• Implementation of advanced Boolean operations.
• Implementation of an advanced scheme to extract the
“signature” of a structure with varying dimensions.

IE3D FastEM Design Kit for Real-

Real-Time Full-
Full-Wave EM Tuning, Optimization and Synthesis
 What Can FastEM Do?
• It allows a designer to parameterize a complicated
planar or 3D structure.
• It allows the designer to perform an IE3D FastEM
preparation.
• After the parameterization and FastEM preparation,
it allows the designer to obtain real-time full-wave
IE3D EM results with varying parameters. The
results can be s, y, z-parameters or equivalent
circuits (R, L, C, and Q, etc.).
• It allows users to tune and optimize the structure
for specified goals in real time.

IE3D FastEM Design Kit for Real-

Real-Time Full-
Full-Wave EM Tuning, Optimization and Synthesis
FastEM Example: A UWB Antenna (1)
• You build the model as parameterized objects.
You specify a port at the gap and connect the 2
elliptical patches to it. An elliptical aperture is of
the same object type as an elliptical patch but
with Boolean nature to create the aperture.

IE3D FastEM Design Kit for Real-

Real-Time Full-
Full-Wave EM Tuning, Optimization and Synthesis
FastEM Example: A UWB Antenna (2)
• The parameters of an object is defined as
equations of Tuning Variables.
Shown on the right is
the property pages of
the Left Hole object.
You define the
semimajor axis and
the semiminor axis of
the elliptical shape as
equations of tuning
variables. You define
the object as Boolean
object for creating a
aperture on other
objects.

IE3D FastEM Design Kit for Real-

Real-Time Full-
Full-Wave EM Tuning, Optimization and Synthesis
FastEM Example: A UWB Antenna (3)
• After Parameterization and Preparation, you are able to
slide the bars for the tuning variables and get the tuned
geometry and results in real time.

IE3D FastEM Design Kit for Real-

Real-Time Full-
Full-Wave EM Tuning, Optimization and Synthesis
FastEM Example: A UWB Antenna (4)
• You can specify the goals and allow the optimizer on IE3D
FastEM to optimize the structure in seconds.

IE3D FastEM Design Kit for Real-

Real-Time Full-
Full-Wave EM Tuning, Optimization and Synthesis
FastEM Example: A Spiral Inductor (1)

• A differential octagonal spiral inductor is parameterized.

You can define the strip width, the gap width and the
size of the spiral as equations of tuning variables.

IE3D FastEM Design Kit for Real-

Real-Time Full-
Full-Wave EM Tuning, Optimization and Synthesis
FastEM Example: A Spiral Inductor (2)
• You can specify the equivalent circuit and goals for your
equivalent circuits. You are able to manually tune or
automatically optimize the spiral in real time.
• RFIC designers
require not only
accurate but also
real-time
synthesis tool.
The IE3D FastEM
Design Kit is a
good answer to
their requests.
FastEM can serve
as a spiral
synthesizer for
RFIC designers.
IE3D FastEM Design Kit for Real-
Real-Time Full-
Full-Wave EM Tuning, Optimization and Synthesis
FastEM Example: Coupled Wire Bonds (1)
• A pair of coupled wire bonds with the height, the
length and the separation parameterized.

• The height, length and

separation of the wire bonds
are parameterized and FastEM
prepared.

IE3D FastEM Design Kit for Real-

Real-Time Full-
Full-Wave EM Tuning, Optimization and Synthesis
FastEM Example: Coupled Wire Bonds (2)
• While we are varying the different parameters, we are
able to see the changes in the results in real time.
Certainly, you can also optimize them in real time.

IE3D FastEM Design Kit for Real-

Real-Time Full-
Full-Wave EM Tuning, Optimization and Synthesis
 Summary
• IE3D Release 12 with FastEM Design Kit gives
new definition to full-wave EM designs – real-time
full-wave tuning, optimization and synthesis.
• It is a general tool allowing users to parameterize a
general structure and extract the “signature” of the
structure with high-accuracy IE3D full-wave EM
simulations.
• The extracted FastEM data or full-wave EM
“signature” allows users to perform real-time full-
wave tuning, optimization and synthesis.

IE3D FastEM Design Kit for Real-

Real-Time Full-
Full-Wave EM Tuning, Optimization and Synthesis