High Performance Computation for Time Domain Electromagnetic Simulations

Abstract

The need for global modeling of large or complex electromagnetic structures represents a formidable computational challenge, particularly when the solution must be found in both time and 3D space. Typical scenarios include the modeling of digital circuits operating at gigabit/s speeds, signal integrity and cross-talk analysis, the simultaneous modeling of coupled electromagnetic/thermal/mass-transfer phenomena in material processing, the modeling of optical components that are large in terms of wavelengths, structures with a wide range of geometrical dimensions, EMI/C problems, and field-based optimization of microwave/mm-wave components. In this paper we present the results of some benchmark electromagnetic field computations performed on several platforms ranging from PCs to the IBM RS/6000 model 9076-N80 supercomputer at the University of Victoria. The time domain algorithms used in these solutions are based on Transmission Line Matrix (TLM) scattering formulations of Maxwell’s equations.