maxwell inductor simulation
If you are doing spiral inductors on silicon a paper I recently wrote with Rob Groves of IBM Fishskill is very important to read and understand:
A potentially significant on-wafer high-frequency measurement calibration error
Rautio, J.C.; Groves, R.;
Microwave Magazine, IEEE
Volume 6, Issue 4, Dec. 2005 Page(s):94 - 100
The described measurement error is particularly insidious because EM analysis can be modifed (by either user or vendor) to make the analysis agree with measurement, but the measurement is wrong. The article tells you how to detect and avoid this problem. I have visited numerous Si RFIC facilities over the last year, at least half of them have the described problem, and some of them have actually modified their EM software to agree with the bad measurement!
If you have circular or octagonal inductors and want a high accuracy analysis, read:
David I. Sanderson, James C. Rautio, Robert A. Groves, and Sanjay Raman, "Accurate Modeling of Monolithic Inductors Using Conformal Meshing for Reduced Computation," IEEE Microwave Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 4 December 2003, pp. 87 - 96.
For cases where you have very thick metal and narrow gaps, you should check out:
James C. Rautio, "A Space-Mapped Model of Thick, Tightly Coupled Conductors for Planar Electromagnetic Analysis," IEEE Microwave Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 3, September 2004, pp. 62 - 72.
I can email pdfs of any of these paper on request, or go to IEEE Xplore.
All the above work was done using Sonnet (I work for Sonnet), which you can try out for free with no time-out, SonnetLite at
www.sonnetsoftware.com.
As for which tool is best...they all are, depending on what you consider to be best. They all have advantages and disadvantages, which would require some time to go through. Just keep in mind that every advantage is paired with a mating disadvantage. They go together like heads and tails on a coin. If you are told an advantage without being told the mating disadvantage, you are not getting the complete story.