Cosimulation in Ansys HFSS
And in this section we are going to
detail Cosimulation as a method of design.
And by definition, the Method of Cosimulation
is when two or more
simulation types
are performed to simulate a whole system.
And you can have one simulation result
fed into another simulation tool,
sort of a cascaded scenario
- a serial simulation,
or you can have a coupled simulation
where the results between two tools
are bidirectionally
being pushed in and out
of the tools
- a dynamic linking back and forth.
And the tools
can be used within the same physics
such as an Electromagnetic simulation
coupled with an Electronic circuit simulation,
or between physics
such as Electromagnetics,
Thermal and may be perhaps
Mechanical for stress deformation
And this Cosimulation method
of combining simulation tools together
can be performed on a wide variety
of applications.
For example, take 5G
5G antenna applications.
Antennas
for 5G requires a high gain phased array.
So, Electromagnetics is
coupled with Circuit simulation for
phase matching
or impedance matching
whether it is to the feed network
or coupled to another signal trace
and this is to maximize the gain.
Perhaps you want to consider
heat from the other components
or from the environment.
This also impacts the antenna's performance.
So, adding a
Thermal or Mechanical stress simulation
may be required
and of course a dynamic link is needed here.
And for medical applications,
multi element MRI development,
HFSS combined with Circuit
allows tuning of the MRI coils
which is needs to be tuned under the near field
whether it￢ﾀﾙs the Electric or Magnetic field
and as well as
the calculation of the SAR value.
So, adding components always effects
the element design,
so, we can add a human body
to the MRI design
and this will impact the tuning of the coils again,
again, requiring the elements
a bidirectional simulation
between the electromagnetics
and the circuit simulation.
Okay, now that we know
what co-simulation is,
where can I use it?
Let's take a look at
the 5G phased array application.
Now, with the proliferation of
so many wireless devices
any connected device
- all transmitting signals
that are being bounced around, being reflected
and interfering with each other.
And the need for a controlled beam
from the antenna, both in magnitude and phase
is necessary.
And the beam will be
formed by some radiating element
driven by the electronics
that feed that element.
So, and additional active devices will be used,
such as amplifiers or phase shifters.
And, each driven component has its own
load impedance
and as we all know
at every point or boundary
if there is a mismatch in the impedance
it will distort the signal,
hence reducing the gain.
And to help eliminate this distortion
in order to design for maximum gain
we need to be sure that each component
- is matched to whatever other device
its attached to.
So, we need to consider impedance and load.
Load can be from
different elements or from the physical change
of the element.
That antenna
probably needs to be
attached to some small device,
such as the side wall of the smart phone.
And the folding of this device
can also create other parasitics.
Let's take a look at this scenario.
And in this module, we will use HFSS
as the EM simulation tool
and HFSS circuit to match
and tune the antenna element.
We can use a simple planar patch antenna
and bend it and fold it 90 degrees.
And again, using HFSS electromagnetic
simulation design the antenna element,
again
using the HFSS circuit
to design a matching circuit
to include the modification
of that physical layout that bending.
And this method of using
the two tools of Cosimulation
will give you some quick insights
for you to gather
some information about
what is going on in your model geometry
- and perhaps the parasitics
from the adjacent components
or from the platform
and what its physically installed on.
Thank You for watching this video
and we welcome feedbacks and comments.
Please go ahead and watch our
other additional video modules
that demonstrates
our coupled Cosimulation
for antennas
or any other 5G applications.