1/13/2020

Computational Science:
Introduction to Finite-Difference Time-Domain

Rules & Procedures

Lecture Outline
• Course Overview
• Mission
• Course Objectives
• Course Outline
• Policies and Procedures
• Grading
• Homework
• Final Project
• Policies & Best Practices
for Coding

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Course Overview

Mission of This Class

The mission of this class is to begin teaching the art

of computational electromagnetics using MATLAB.
The course will take a slow and methodical approach
to teach finite-difference time-domain (FDTD)
including theory, formulation of the equations, and
implementation in MATLAB.

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Course Objectives
• Teach the finite-difference time-domain method.
• Teach students the art of computation and visualization in
MATLAB.
• Teach best practices for developing and implementing new
numerical algorithms.
• Motivate students in the areas of simulation and
electromagnetics.
• Provide the students with real skills that are in high
demand in industry.
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Course Outline
• Review of MATLAB
• Graphics, movies, and helpful tidbits.
• Building geometries in arrays.
• Introduction to FDTD
• One-Dimensional FDTD
• Formulation, implementation, and examples.
• Two-Dimensional FDTD
• Formulation, implementation, and examples.
• Advanced Concepts
• Perfectly match layer boundary condition
• Grid strategies and alternatives
• Periodic structures in FDTD
• Modeling waveguide devices
• Three-dimensional FDTD
• Near-field-to-far-field transformation
• More…

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Policies and
Procedures

The Book
Allen Taflove, Susan C. Hagness, Computational Electrodynamics, the
Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method, 3rd edition, Artech House, 2005.

• Good aspects of the book

• This is the most rigorous and
comprehensive book on FDTD available.
• Many topics and references are provided.

• Drawbacks of the book

• This is not a good book to learn
FDTD from scratch.

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The Syllabus (1 of 4)

• Instructor Information
• Dr. Raymond C. Rumpf
• E-Mail: [email protected]
• Course website: https://empossible.net/academics/emp5304/
• Prerequisites
• Basic electromagnetics
• Differential equations
• Programming / MATLAB

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The Syllabus (2 of 4)
• Course Objectives
• Be able to use the FDTD method to model electromagnetic devices
• Strengthen MATLAB and graphics skills

• Attendance
• Attendance is required
• Attendance is accounted for in participation grade
• Coordinate with instructor ahead of time if you need to miss a class
• In some cases, absence can be excused if coordinated with instructor
well before the lecture is missed.

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The Syllabus (3 of 4)
• Exam Policy
• Exams represent 20% of final grade
• Two midterm exams and one final exam
• May be take-home or in-class
• In-class exams, students can have a calculator and a single 8.5”x11” paper with whatever
they wish
• Take home exams will require working FDTD codes!!!!

• Homework
• Worth 40% of final grade
• Homework will build on prior homework so keeping up is essential
• Homework is due by midnight on the due date
• Subtract 10% from homework for every day late
• 12:01am will be considered late
• Do you own work. Do not copy from other students.
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The Syllabus (4 of 4)
• List of Topics
• MATLAB
• Programming and graphics
• Representing devices on a grid
• Finite-Difference Time-Domain
• One-Dimensional FDTD
• Formulation, implementation, visualization, post processing
• Two-Dimensional FDTD
• Formulation, implementation, PML, sources, visualization
• Modal sources, analysis of waveguide devices
• Advanced Topics
• Boundary conditions, periodic structures, PML, and more.

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Grading

HOMEWORK IS 40%
OF YOUR FINAL GRADE!!!!!!!

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Homework Policy
• Due before midnight on due date. 12:01am is late.
• Submit a single PDF file
• Neat, organized, answers provided in the order they are
asked.
• Unless specifically requested otherwise, all codes must be
in an appendix placed at the end of your homework
document.
• Cover page: name, ID#, date, assignment #, etc.
• Do your own work. Do not ever copy from other students.

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The Final Project

• Purpose – to learn, practice, and share something outside of what
was taught in class.
• Project should be summarized in Power Point.
• Must be complete enough that instructor can reproduce your work if
needed.
• Projects will be presented during the final exam period. Duration ~10
minutes for presentation.
• May work alone or in teams, but teams must do proportionally more
work.
• Must submit all electronic files (i.e. slides, codes, movies, etc.) to
course instructor or project will be given a grade of zero.
• Get started on this early!!
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Project Ideas
• Optimize PML parameters
• Implement a different boundary condition
• Implement higher-order accurate derivatives
• Implement a different type of source
• Model a new device
• Implement 3D FDTD
• Use FDTD to calculate a band diagram
• Do part of your research as this project!
• Others…
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Graphics
• All figures and graphics must be of professional quality and
easy to understand and use.
• The best figure is made as small as possible so that it is still
neat and reads clearly
• Lines should be thick enough to be identified, but not
awkwardly thick
• Fonts should be large enough to be read easily, but not
awkwardly large
• All entities of the figure should be labeled and given proper
units

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Policies and Best

Practices for
Coding

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Structure of the Ideal Code

Initialize MATLAB
- close all unnecessary windows
- clear memory
- define units and constants
- open a figure window

Dashboard
- Define device parameters
- Define source parameters
Only numbers.
- Define what is to be learned
No calculations!
- Define FDTD parameters

Rest of Code Only calculations.

No numbers!

Show and Save Results

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Coding Requirements
• Codes must be clean, commented, and well organized.
• Codes must follow the block diagrams in the lecture notes
exactly.
• Constants must include units and as many significant digits as
possible.
• Do not breakup codes into subroutines (i.e. functions) unless
instructed specifically to do so.
• No calculations in the dashboard, unless absolutely necessary.
• All hard-coded numbers should appear only once within the
“dashboard” at the start of your code.

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Coding Best Practices

• Do not hard code any numbers you may want to

change.
• If you have to change more than one thing in your
code or change something outside of your dashboard
to alter a devices dimensions, material properties,
etc., you are probably doing something wrong.
• Develop your codes in small increments that you can
benchmark at each step.
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