HFSS

Tips and
Tricks
Asad Ali
5/9/16

Few Handy Shortcuts

Ctrl+D

Fit view

Ctrl+click

Set reference point at pointer location

Shift+mouse

PAN

Alt+mouse

Rotate

Shift+Alt+mo
use

Dynamic zoom

F6

View wireframes

F7

View whole object

Object selection

Face selection

Vertex selection

Edge selection

5/9/16

1. While drawing, use X, Y, Z to restrict movement in x,y and z axis

respectively
2. If a object comes in front of some other object and blocks its view,
press B to see the object behind.
3. Use O to select object, F to select face, E to select edge and V to
select vertex
4. HFSS> List shows all objects. Nice option!
5. By default, SOLVE INSIDE is uncheck for conductors. Check it if you
want to solve fields inside conductors as well.
6. View>Modify Attributes>Backgroundto change background color

5/9/16

Press Alt and double click on top or bottom etc

etc to view it from top or bottom etc etc
respectively

Click on this eye to set visibility of each object

5/9/16

Local Co-ordinate System

By default coordinate system is global. But you can define local co-ordinate system and refer to it
while drawing objects.
In this way, whenever you move your local coordinate system origin, your whole design will
move.
1.
2.
3.
4.

Goto Modeler>Coordinate System>Create>Relative CS

Point and click on the location where you want your new origin to be
New coordinate system is created
Beware! Take care of which coordinate system is selected while you are drawing objects

You can exploit this feature to make a object defined coordinate systemIn that case whenever
your object movesthings defined with reference to that object will also move. That is rest of
your things are tied to that object!
5. Select desired object..goto Modeler>coordinate system>create>object CS>offset
6. Point and click on the desired point on that object
7. New coordinate system is createdany object defined through that coordinate system will
automatically move when that object moves
5/9/16

Wave Port
Port solver assumes that Wave port you define is connected to semi infinite waveguide
that has the same cross section area and material properties as the port
Wave ports calculates Generalized S-parameters
Normally wave port solver solves for perfect matched conditionsthat means
whatever impedance you are getting at a port, it excites that port with matched
impedanceputting in other words it calculates generalized S-parameters
Generally, wave port should be Renormalized to 50ohms in order to calculate Sparam or so because in laboratory you are always measuring with fixed reference
impedance (50ohms) which may be in mismatch with your port impedance

5/9/16

Wave Port Area

When wave port is assigned to any quasi-TEM line such as microstrip, we need to
include some area around such TR lineusually the area of port should be greater
than (5*Width x 4*Height)otherwise higher order modes may start propagating
incurring more losses and mismatches
More permittivity of material, lesser fields will propagate in air and shorted the
port can be made
Narrower the width, more fields will couple to side walls of port
Wider the ports, higher order modes may start propagatingso if you think that
higher order modes should not existsize the port properly

5/9/16

Generalized S-Parameters
Some time your N-port network may have different
impedances of transmission lines at different ports, in
that case even if you terminate each port with
respective impedance and there is no reflected wave,
still your definition of s-parameters is flawed
S21 is simply not equal to wave coming out of port 2
divided by wave going into port 1rather you need to
take impedances into account as well
So you define generalized S-param which give correct
answer in any case
Generalized S-param are defined in terms of a n and bn
that is you divide the wave with impedance of port from
where it is coming
Note that S-param gets equal to generalized S-param
when we have same impedance TR lines at each port
On the side note, we didnt need to go through this
hasslewe could have defined S-param as ratio of only
voltages without including impedances, afterall it is
upto us how do we interpret thingsbut we had to
include impedances because mathematics says that
sum of all the magnitude of S-param of a port for a
lossless device should be equal to 1which only
happens if s-param are generalized(this is called
being unitary)
5/9/16