Customer Training Material

Chapter 3.1 Boundary Conditions Primer

Introduction to HFSS

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary 2011 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved.

L3.1-1

Release 13.0 January 2011

Introduction to HFSS

Excitations and Boundary Conditions

Excitations and Boundary Conditions

Customer Training Material

Majority of HFSS errors are related to improper usage of excitations and boundary conditions Boundary conditions are important because they significantly impact electromagnetic solution They determine model scope To truncate infinite space to finite volume, HFSS applies PEC boundary to surface surrounding geometric model They can reduce model complexity Boundary conditions can be used to reduce solution time and computing resource demands

TE10 Cavity Resonator

Pyramidal Horn Antenna

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary 2011 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved.

L3.1-2

Release 13.0 January 2011

Introduction to HFSS

User-Defined Boundary Conditions

Surface approximations
Perfect E surface Perfect H surface Finite conductivity surface Impedance surface Layered impedance Lumped RLC boundary Symmetry planes Radiation (absorbing) boundary surface Perfectly matched layer (PML) Strictly not boundary condition, but effectively behaves like one Master/slave (linked or periodic) boundaries Screening impedance

Customer Training Material

Excitations
Wave ports (external) Lumped ports (internal)

E =

B t D H = J + t D = B =0

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary 2011 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved.

L3.1-3

Release 13.0 January 2011

Introduction to HFSS

Perfect E and Perfect H Boundaries

Perfect E is perfect electrical conductor (PEC)

Customer Training Material

Forces E-field perpendicular to surface Represents metal surfaces, ground planes, ideal cavity walls, etc. Infinite ground plane option simulates effects of infinite ground plane in post-processing radiated fields

Perfect H is perfect magnetic conductor (PMC)

Forces H-field perpendicular to surface and E-field tangential Does not exist in real world Useful boundary constraint for electromagnetic models Represents openings in metal surfaces, etc.

Parameters
None

E-field Perpendicular to surface E-field Parallel to surface

Perfect E Boundary When you define a solid object as a perf_conductor, a Perfect E boundary condition is applied to its exterior surfaces. Perfect H Boundary

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary 2011 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved.

L3.1-4

Release 13.0 January 2011

Introduction to HFSS

Excitations
Provide means for energy to enter and exit model Types of excitations
Ports Wave ports Lumped ports Floquet ports Voltage sources Current sources Magnetic biases Incident waves Plane waves Hertzian dipole Cylindrical wave Gaussian beam Linear antenna wave Far-field wave Near-field wave

Customer Training Material

Only ports provide S-parameters

This presentation will focus on this type of excitation

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary 2011 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved.

L3.1-5

Release 13.0 January 2011

Introduction to HFSS

Driven Modal vs Driven Terminal Solutions

Driven modal

Customer Training Material

S-matrix solution expressed in terms of incident and reflected powers of waveguide modes Always used by wave solver Integration lines set phase between ports and modal voltage integration path (Zpv and Zvi) Use for modal-based S-parameters of passive, high-frequency structures such as microstrips, waveguides, and transmission lines

Driven terminal
S-matrix solution expressed in terms of linear combination of nodal voltages and currents for wave port Equivalent modes-to-nodes transformation performed from modal solution Use for terminal-based S-parameters of multi-conductor transmission line ports (with several quasi-TEM modes, etc.)

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary 2011 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved.

L3.1-6

Release 13.0 January 2011

Introduction to HFSS

Excitations
Example Solution Types:

Customer Training Material

Mode 1 (Even Mode)

Integration Line

Mode 2 (Odd Mode)

Integration Line Port1 2 Modes

Modal

Port2 2 Modes

Modes to Nodes Transformation

T1

T2 T1 Port1 T2 T1

SPICE Differential Pairs

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary 2011 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved.

Terminal

Port2 T2
Release 13.0 January 2011

L3.1-7

Introduction to HFSS

Ports
Ports are unique type of boundary condition
Allow energy to flow into and out of structure Defined on 2D planar surface 2D field patterns serve as boundary conditions for full 3D problem

Customer Training Material

Incorrect port setup will produce incorrect results

If port fields are incorrect, then solution will be incorrect Assumed boundary condition on port edges should always be considered

Initial Mesh

Seeding and Lambda Refinement (Single Frequency)

Port Solution (Adaptive)

Full Volumetric Solution

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary 2011 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved.

L3.1-8

Release 13.0 January 2011

Introduction to HFSS

Wave Ports

Customer Training Material

External port type Arbitrary port solver calculates natural waveguide field patterns (modes)
Assumes semi-infinitely long waveguide with same cross-section and material properties as port surface

Recommended only for surfaces exposed to background object Supports multiple modes, de-embedding, and re-normalization Computes generalized S-parameters
Frequency-dependent characteristic impedance Perfectly matched at every frequency

Port 1

Port 4

Port 3 Port 2

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary 2011 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved.

L3.1-9

Release 13.0 January 2011

Introduction to HFSS

Port Solver

Customer Training Material

Wave port solver solves two-dimensional wave equation Field pattern of traveling wave inside waveguide can be determined by solving Maxwells equations Wave equation is derived directly from Maxwells equations
1 2 E (x , y ) k0 r E ( x, y ) = 0 r

where
E(x,y) is phasor representing oscillating electric field k0 is free space wave number r is complex relative permeability r is complex relative permittivity

2D solver obtains excitation field pattern in form of phasor solution E(x,y)

Phasor solutions are independent of z and time Only after being multiplied by e-z do they become traveling waves Different excitation field pattern is computed for each frequency point of interest

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary 2011 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved.

L3.1-10

Release 13.0 January 2011

Introduction to HFSS

Wave Port Boundary Conditions

All outer edges are assigned Perfect E boundary by default
Port is defined within waveguide Simple setup for enclosed transmission lines (coax, waveguide, etc.) Challenging setup for unbalanced or non-enclosed lines (microstrip, CPW, slotline, etc.)

Customer Training Material

Symmetry or impedance boundaries also recognized at port edges For port on same surface as radiation boundary, default interface is Perfect E boundary
Can set option to use radiation boundary on port edges during port solution

Creating port edges too close to current-carrying lines will allow coupling from trace to port walls
Causes incorrect modal solution which will suffer immediate discontinuity as energy is injected past port into model

Correct port size

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary 2011 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved.

Port too narrow (fields coupled to sidewalls)

L3.1-11
Release 13.0 January 2011

Introduction to HFSS

Wave Port Sizing Guidelines

Microstrip port height between 6h and 10h
Tend towards upper limit as dielectric constant drops and fringing fields increase Make bottom edge of port co-planar with upper face of ground plane

Customer Training Material

Extend stripline port height from upper to lower groundplane (h) Stripline port width
8w for w h 5w, or on order of 3h to 4h, for w < h

Microstrip port width

10w for w h 5w, or on order of 3h to 4h, for w < h
10w, w h or 5w (3h to 4h), w < h

Can also make side walls of port Perfect H boundaries

8w, w h or 5w (3h to 4h), w < h

w h 6h to 10h w h Port sizing guidelines are not inviolable rules. If meeting height and width requirements result in rectangular aperture larger than /2 in one dimension, the substrate and trace may be ignored in favor of a waveguide mode. When in doubt, run a ports-only solution to determine which modes are propagating.
L3.1-12
Release 13.0 January 2011

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary 2011 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved.

Introduction to HFSS

Wave Port Sizing Guidelines

Slotline port height at least 4h or 4g (whichever is larger)
Include air above and below substrate If ground plane is present, port should terminate at ground plane

Customer Training Material

Coplanar waveguide port height at least 4h or 4g (whichever is larger)

Include air above and below substrate If ground plane is present, port should terminate at ground plane

Port width should contain at least 3g to either side of slot or 7g total minimum
Port boundary must intersect both side ground planes or they will float and become signal conductors
Approx 7g minimum Larger of 4h or 4g g h

Port width should contain 3-5g or 3-5s of side grounds (whichever is larger)
Total width ~10g or ~10s Port outline must intersect both side grounds or they will float and become signal conductors
Larger of approx. 10g or 10s

Larger of 4h or 4g s h g

For Driven Modal solutions, use Zpv for impedance calculation

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary 2011 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved.

L3.1-13

Release 13.0 January 2011

Introduction to HFSS

Lumped Ports
Recommended only for surfaces internal to model
Single TEM mode with no de-embedding Uniform electric field on port surface Normalized to constant user-defined Z0

Customer Training Material

Lumped port boundary conditions

Perfect E or finite conductivity boundary for port edges which interface with conductor or another port edge Perfect H for all remaining port edges

Dipole element with lumped port

Zo

Uniform electric field User-defined Zo

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary 2011 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved.

L3.1-14

Release 13.0 January 2011

Introduction to HFSS

Lumped vs Wave Ports for Planar Filters

Lumped ports can be used to feed printed transmission lines
S-parameters normalized to userspecified characteristic impedance Single mode propagation No de-embedding operations available Must be located inside model

Customer Training Material

Wave ports can be used to feed printed transmission lines

S-parameters normalized to computed characteristic impedance Multiple propagating modes possible De-embedding available as postprocessing operation Must touch background object (or be backed by conducting object)

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary 2011 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved.

L3.1-15

Release 13.0 January 2011

Introduction to HFSS

Lumped vs Wave Ports for Planar Filters

Same results obtained from both port types

Customer Training Material

Lumped Ports

Wave Ports

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary 2011 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved.

L3.1-16

Release 13.0 January 2011

Introduction to HFSS

Wave Ports vs Lumped Ports

Customer Training Material

Wave port
Accessibility Higher order modes De-embedding Re-normalization Setup complexity External Faces Yes Yes Yes Moderate

Lumped port Internal to Model No No Yes Low

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary 2011 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved.

L3.1-17

Release 13.0 January 2011