Automatic Adaptive Meshing

A key benefit of Q3D software is its automatic adaptive meshing techniques so that you are only required to specify geometry, material properties and the desired output. The meshing process uses a highly robust volumetric meshing (TAU) technique and includes multi-threading capability that reduces the amount of memory used and speeds the simulation time. This proven technology eliminates the complexity of building and refining a finite element mesh and makes advanced numerical analysis practical for all levels of your organization.

Advanced 3D Quasi-Static Solvers

Q3D contains an advanced quasistatic 3-D electromagnetic field solver based on the method of moments (MoM) accelerated by the fast multipole method (FMM). The results provided by this solver include proximity and skin effect, dielectric and ohmic loss and frequency dependencies. The Q3D tool easily and quickly provides 3-D extraction of resistance (R), partial inductance (L), capacitance (C) and conductance (G).

If desired all models can also include an infinite ground plane.

Sophisticated 2-D Transmission Line Solver

Q3D also includes a quasi-static 2-D electromagnetic field solver that uses the finite element method (FEM) to quickly determine the per-unit-length RLCG parameters for transmission lines, characteristic impedance (Z0) matrices, propagation speed, delay, attenuation, effective permittivity, differential and common-mode parameters and near- and far-end crosstalk coefficients.

Powerful 3-D Solid Modeling

Q3D Extractor includes a full-featured solid modeler for creating 3-D models of connectors, vias, wirebonds, solder balls, signal traces, power and ground planes, AC drive power bus, DC link, and IGBT module packaging structures.

Signal- and Power-Integrity Analysis

The ability to generate highly accurate reduced-order models for use in a circuit simulation makes Q3D Extractor the ideal software to perform signal- and power-integrity analysis to study crosstalk, ground bounce, interconnect delays and ringing and to understand the performance of high-speed electronic designs such as multi-layer printed circuit boards, advanced electronic packages and 3-D on-chip passive components. In addition, Q3D Extractor is essential for extracting accurate electrical parasitics of critical interconnect components in the package (bondwires) or on the board (critical nets) and for the connection path between the chip, package, and board (i.e., connectors, cables, sockets, and transmission lines). By leveraging Q3D Extractor dynamic links to Ansoft Designer, engineers benefit from an advanced design flow so you can easily investigate the effects that electrical parasitics have on circuit performance.

Power Electronic Design

Q3D Extractor is ideal for the design of power electronic equipment used in hybrid-electric technologies and power distribution applications to optimize inverter architectures and minimize bus inductance, over voltages and short circuit currents. Q3D Extractor can extract resistance, partial inductance and capacitance parasitics from high-power bus bars, cables and high-power inverter/converter packages and input them into ANSYS Simplorer to study the EMI/EMC performance of a power system. New links to ANSYS Mechanical structural mechanics software deliver the ability to study mechanical and thermal stresses caused by electrical currents.

State of the Art EM Circuit Cosimulation

Dynamic links to Ansoft Designer and ANSYS Simplorer create an advanced design flow ideal for predicting signal- and power- integrity performance. Designers can easily investigate the effects that electrical parasitics have on circuit performance.

Equivalent Circuit Creation

ANSYS Q3D Extractor can be used to create equivalent circuit models (SPICE sub-circuits/ladder-type lumped models). The type of model produced by Q3D Extractor depends on which solver was used. The 2-D solver creates ANSYS Simplorer sml, Berkeley Spice, Cadence® DML, HSPICE®, HSPICE W Element (tabular frequency dependent), PSpice®, Spectre®, Intel® LCF, IBIS ICM and Apache CPP models. The 3-D solver creates ANSYS Simplorer sml, Berkeley Spice, Cadence DML, HSPICE, IBIS Package Model, Maxwell Spice, PSpice, Spectre and IBIS ICM models.

Optimization and Statistical Analysis

ANSYS Optimetrics is a versatile, optional software program that adds parametric, optimization, sensitivity and statistical analysis capabilities to HFSS. Optimetrics automates the design-optimization process for high-performance electronic devices by quickly identifying optimal values for design parameters that satisfy user-specified constraints.

Coupled to ANSYS electromagnetic-field simulation software, Optimetrics delivers optimized designs that favorably impact the bottom line.

Features:

High-Performance Computing

Q3D Extractor software leverages available computing power for fast turnaround of detailed parasitic extraction even on large design layouts. The remote simulation manager and distributed solve support Platform LSF®, Sun® Grid Engine, Altair PBS Pro™, and Windows® HPC. HPC also includes the ability to distribute by solution type CG, AC RL and DC RL solver engines over processors, cores and machines.

Superior Interoperability with Layout tools

With the addition of AnsoftLinks for ECAD, Q3D Extractor is tightly integrated with layout design tools from Cadence®, Mentor Graphics®, Synopsys®, Altium and Zuken™.

ANSYS Workbench Integration

Integration with ANSYS Workbench enables DC power loss calculated by Q3D Extractor to be used as a source for thermal analysis performed by the ANSYS solvers. This is particularly useful for DC power connectors and DC bus bars. Statistical yield analysis and design of experiment studies for six sigma analysis can be done using ANSYS DesignXplorer.

CAD Import

Using AnsoftLinks for MCAD or ANSYS Workbench, Maxwell can import 3-D geometry from Mechanical CAD (MCAD) including IGES, STEP, ACIS®, Parasolid®, NASTRAN®, Pro/ENGINEER®, AutoCAD®, CATIA®, and Siemens NX™. Maxwell can bi-directionally share geometry, geometry parameters and material properties with other ANSYS solvers. This powerful functionality enables engineers to easily perform multiphysics simulations.