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As designs are becoming more and more compact, EM simulation is becoming more prevalent not just for design verification, but but also is being used in the design/redesign cycle. Shape modifiers make parameterizing existing artwork easy so designs can be easily modified to meet new specifications.
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- Client Machine - Computer where the user is designing in AWR.
- Remote Simulation - Simulation on a machine other than the client.
- Distributed Simulation - Simulation on more than one machine, simultaneously.
Remote/Distributed Example
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<input type="button" class="gh-button" value="Open Project" onclick="jscript:runAwrScript('openProject_RemoteEM');" /> |
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<script src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/downloads.awrcorp.com/gh/Distributed_EM_Example/distributed_em_active_content.bas" type="text/awrscript"> </script> |
What is Simulating?
The output matching network is a three section stepped impedance matching network. Shape modifiers are used to increase/decrease the length and width of the first two sections of the matching network. A total of 625 unique EM structures were simulated to explore this design space.
The target impedance is a specified region on the smith Smith chart representing an area where this device achieves a certain output power and efficiency. It's important to note the smith Smith chart is a 4 Ohm smith chart, giving us a larger picture of the goal and matching network impedance.
Remote Simulation Benefits
Simulation of these 625 EM structures took about 10 hours on the local machine. Simulating remotely on a single, faster, machine reduces that time by about 4.5X, all the while not tying up resources on my machine for 10 hours.
Distributed Simulation Benefits
When the same 625 EM structures were remotely simulated and distributed across 6 identical machines, the total simulation time was cut down by around 25X. A simulation that would have occupied the local machine for an entire work day is now completed in less than half an hour.
Interpolating in the Design Space
The sweeps of the EM structure were pre-defined and simulated giving us a dataset containing the results for every combination of geometry modification. This allows us to interpolate between the simulation points and fine tune the matching network requirements without having had simulated every point.
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Note: The EM structure sweep step sizes are 40 mils but we are tuning on a ten mil grid.
Verification
Once the EM structure was tuned in to meet the efficiency and output power specifications, we can verify the circuit performance to ensure we've met those goals.
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<input type="button" class="gh-button" value="Simulate Amp" onclick="jscript:runAwrScript('nonLinearSim_RemoteEM');" /> |
Other
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<input type="button" class="gh-button" value="Restore Initial View" onclick="jscript:runAwrScript('showResults_RemoteEM');" /> |