*IE3D v11.5 Announced

ie3d.exe

Dear all,

Zeland just announced IE3D Ver 11.15

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Yes. It is IE3D 11.15 with many new features:
1. Cadence Virtuoso to IE3D Flow for automated IE3D EM simulaitons directly from Cadence Vurtouos for RFIC (Linux).
2. Cadence Allegro to IE3D Flow for automated IE3D model generations directly from Cadence Allegro. Ports are autonmatically created on the models and the resulting models are ready for IE3D simulaitons.
3. Refined Automatic GDSII to IE3D Flow for streamlined IE3D model creations and simulations directly from GDSII files.
4. IE3D for Windows 64 on EM64T and AMD64 allowing users to simulate structures requiring more than 4 GB RAM.

Dear Jian,

Please check the following cases with your latest release. At least to me, there seem to be some minor issues needed to be fixed:

1) Try to import a SAT structure in mm. The result will be in Inches?! Changing the unit to mm will scale all dimensions.

2) Try to optimize a structure whose port is of wave type. IE3D sends an error message saying that it can not find the results file of what seems to be the intermediate (temporary) file.

Best regards

Hi, Wave-maniac: Thank you very much. I will have it checked. In case it is error, we will have it fixed for the next minor release. Thank you again. I appreciate it.

Hi, Wave-maniac: I checked the optimization and everything is ok. I believe some earlier edition may have this problem. It should have been fixed in the latest one. Regarding SAT file, I will ask an engineer to check it. Regards.

Hi Jian,

I tested the latest release of IE3D and tried to optimize a very simple structure with only one variable whose port is of "extension for wave" type. The aforementioned problem still resists. Here is the content of the log file:

----------------------------------------------------------------
Optimization Geometry: *:\zel_test\waveport_test.geo
The optimization started at: Fri Oct 14 09:48:02 2005


Adaptive Optimizer:
FunctionError=0.01 LocationError=0
Optimization Variable Bounds:
No.1 Bounds=(-2, 2) (mm)
Optimization Goals:
PAR=Mag[S(1,1)], PAR=0, W=1, f=(9,10), Nf=11, Nobj=11, If=1
Total 11 objectives and 1 variables.

No. 1/4000 Calculation (No. 1 Simulation) of AdaptOptim:
V=(1.42136) (mm)
The AdaptOptim failed with error message: Failed to load s-parameters (with code = -4) from: *:\zel_test\waveport_test~1.sp
-------------------------------------------------

Your consideration would be appreciated.

Best regards

Hi, Wave-manic: When you first post the question, I did try an example and everything is ok. It seems to me it might be structure related. Can you send me the .geo and .sim file (jian@zeland.com). I want to test it without any modificaiton here. We should be able to get it fixed soon if it is causing problem.

I want to make sure you have updated all the executables. Starting from IE3D 11, the optimizer is not in the engine (IE3DOS.EXE). It is in the IE3D.EXE (dialog app for showing the simulation status) or the MGRID.EXE (where the status dialog is built-in). When the IE3DOS finishes a simulation, the optimizer (either IE3D.EXE or MGRID.EXE) will read the .sp file and do the processing. I want to make sure they are updated.

Regarding ACES support, according to the engineer working on it, ACES does not have length unit. When we import it, we need to assign a length unit to it. I tried the latest MGRID, I specify mm and the convrted geometry is also in mm. Can you try it and see whether it is ok on your side.

Thank you very much for your feedback. We appreciate it. I am looking forward to receiving the files from you.

All the files you mentioned are updated. I have attached the geo file that you had requested. The highest frequency is 10 GHz. Try to minimize the MAG(S11) for example over 9 to 10 GHz. My experience on two different systems is the error message. The problem can not be geometry related as I have tried various structures. The optimization works just fine only when I do not use wave type port.

As regards to SAT file, I know that it is unit-less. I have also attached a sat file of a simple geometry, i.e. cube. I tried to import it in mm. However after importing it, the unit is in inches.

Thanks for your time.

Hi Jian,

I guess I have been able to pin down the problem. I tried many times and the conclusion is as follows:

The optimizer is sensitive to the frequency step. For the file I attached before, I tried frequency steps of 1GHz for a given band, say 7 to 9 GHz, and there was no problem. Once I change it to o.1 or 0.2 GHZ, the error message shows up.

I hope this is going to help.

Hi, Wave-maniac: Thanks! I will have it checked. We are busy right now. We may have more time in the afternoon. Thanks!

Hi, Wave-maniac: I checked the optimization on the patch antenna. I tried to optimize S11 < - 20 dB at 0.1 and 0.2. The optimization works very well. Can you send me the .sim file too. I want to duplicate exactly the condition at your side. Regarding the .SAT, the engineer checked it. He said there is a length unit in your file and it is in inch. When you import it, you need to specify inch. If you use the default value of mm, it will scale it incorrectly. It is a bug. We will fix it. When it is imported into IE3D, we will try to use the original unit. If the user choose other unit, we will convert it is that the size will not change. This should be an easy fix. Thank you very much.

Hi Jian,

I have attached the files. Also included is a screen-capture of a newly introduced bug. Whenever I do some optimization and stop and then re-start it, I face the shown error message. The workaround is just to click on "Ignore".

As to SAT file, as you had already mentioned before, it is unit-less. I checked the file and was not able to find any indication of "Inch"! The sat file was made using AUTOCAD and I had not considered any unit for it.

Good luck

Hi, Wave-maniac: Thank you very much. I will check the open file problem in optimization. Regarding the new error message, it is an over sensitve assertion error due to some recent change in the code. It does not cause problem if you select ignore. This over sensitve assertion error is removed from the code internally after I found it when I tried to duplicate the optimization problem. I will get back to you soon. Thanks!

The reading file problem in optimizing wave port s-parameters is fixed. It will be in the next minor release (probably next 2 weeks).

Added after 1 minutes:

Hi, Wave-maniac: I forgot to say thank you in my last e-mail. I sincerely appreciate your feedback.

Hi Jian

Why don't you put the version number of the release for the zeland product on the
site?
That the way to know if we updated. And not spending time on old version.

PL

Hi, Plasma: There is a readme.txt file can be downloaded for the version number. It is the ABOUT PATCHES. I think we may create a link with something like "Latest Updated Version" on the top for the same file so that users can get it easier. Thank you very much for the suggestion.