CST version 2010 Webcast

CST is excited to be presenting its brand new version 2010 software on November 18. Rather than the traditional list of new features, we'll be taking viewers through 4 complex real-world applications and highlighting new features and benefits through these examples. In particular, we'll show how our complete technology approach is becoming essential for modeling large systems.

Anyone interested in real state of the art 3D electromagnetic simulation, existing customer or not, will find this 1 hour show essential viewing.


The models used in this presentation will include a large navy frigate with multiple antenna systems, an automotive instrumentation panel, an Airbus jet and a combined high-speed PCB & package system. With these examples, we'll be looking at installed antenna performance, EMC/EMI, lightning strike and signal integrity.

We are really looking forward to showing off the amazing capabilities of this new version, hope you are able to join us.

Online registration is now available.

Jonathan

New Electrically Small Antennas Webcast

I've just had confirmation of when the next Electrically Small Antennas webinar will take place. It's the latest in the series from Microwave Journal and Besser Associates and this tutorial will be presented by instructor Steven Best, and sponsored by CST.

According to Besser, this 45 minute presentation is designed to provide an understanding of basic antenna property definitions such as impedance, bandwidth and quality factor with a focus on electrically small antennas. Anyone working within the field of general RF systems, wireless, cellular and microwave systems will benefit by attending. Don't miss out on this opportunity to see the presentation and ask questions in the Q&A session that follows.

The webinar will run on Tuesday, October 20, 2009; 8:00 am PDT, which is 11:00 am EDT and 3 pm UTC.

You can sign up for the webinar using this link.

Previous webcasts in the series can still be viewed "on-demand", so take a look at the Microwave Journal webpage for more details.

Ruth

3 Days of Power Electronics in Barcelona

Last week I enjoyed 3 days in Barcelona, but it wasn't all Gaudi and Catalan cuisine. I was there to attend EPE 2009 which was held in the Palau de Congressos / Fira de Barcelona close to the Placa d'Espanya, one of the city's biggest squares.

This year's "European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications" attracted more than 1000 engineers and scientists, and over 750 contributions were presented in lecture and dialogue sessions. A wide range of power electronics applications were covered, including measurement and control, electrical machines, and transimission and distribution of electrical energy. EPE also hosted a technic

3D EM Simulation of a resistance spot welding gun

al exhibition which gave its visitors a great opportunitiy to see the latest innovations of over 40 leading companies, as well as to make some new contacts with people focused on power electronics.

Our booth was pretty popular. We had visitors interested in the simulation of transformers, electrical machines as well as in sensors and actuators. I've got to admit that I really enjoyed "showing off" with how fast the setup of a transient electromagnetic simulation could be done in CST EM STUDIO® (CST EMS). Let's see if any of the evaluation copies I was asked for get turned into long-term licenses.

On the second day of the conference I had been invited to present CST EMS in a vendor session. The schedule wasn't exactly advantageous, as I had been placed between the poster sessions in the afternoon and the Gala dinner in the evening. Now Barcelona is a glamerous city, so most people were preparing for the Gala dinner in their hotels. This meant my session didn't attract as many attendees as I would have liked, but I do hope that those who did attend, found it interesting. I feel strongly that conference organisers need take all scheduling conflicts into consideration before organising similar sessions, preferably moving them closer to the main scientific presentations. During my session I demonstrated which kind of low frequency applications we've solved in CST EMS so far, highlighted the user-friendy interface and our solver technologies, including what's coming in the next release. If you couldn't attend but would like a copy of my presentation, please feel free to send me an e-mail to "frank (dot) weiand (at) cst (dot) com".

The next conference on Power Electronics will be the EPE-PEMC 2010 in Ohrid, Macedonia, in September 2010. Looking forward to meeting you there!

Frank
PS If you are interested in learning more, you can find worked examples of static and low frequency applications on our website.

Technical Talks and Party Time

I’ve been head down, working hard preparing for European Microwave Week, so have neglected to write anything recently. We’ve got a pretty full programme set-up with 3 days of application and simulation talks on the stand, plus your run-of-the-mill demonstrations and announcements of our new product release, and our annual EuMW customer appreciation party.

Talks at the booth will include MIMO and UWB antennas, and other RF components. We also have one afternoon dedicated to customer presentations and there will be a series of talks covering the upcoming release of CST STUDIO SUITE 2010. You can download the full agenda from our website.

The "Italian Afternoon" on Wednesday 30th October has a particularly interesting line-up of customer presentations:

• 13:00 Multi-Objective Optimization for Antenna Design, Marcello Zolesi, Thales Alenia Space


• 13:30 Analysis and Design of Large Slotted Waveguide Arrays with SWAN and CST MWS, Roberto Gatti, RF Microtech


• 14:00 UWB Double Polarized Sinuous Antenna Design, Antonio Manna, ELETTRONICA S.p.a


• 14:30 Design of Wideband Corrugated Horns, Andrea Giacomini, Lucia Scialacqua, SATIMO


• 15:00 Induced Currents due to Nearby Lightning Strike to a Mobile Radar System: an Hybrid 3D/Circuit Analysis, Antonio Orlandi, UMR AQ, University of L’Aquila


• 15:30 Phase Stable Waveguide Structure for Extreme Thermal Conditions, Rodolfo Ravanelli, Thales Alenia Space

Oh, and the party.... that's going to be on Tuesday 29th October, from 4.30pm, so if you are going to be in Rome it would be great if you could join us.

Martin
http://www.cst.com/

First Day at DAC 2009 is over, roll on day 2

The first day of our first appearance at DAC is over. It was a busy day at the booth (#3155), and I've got to admit that I was pleasantly surprised by the response from the show floor. We decided to exhibit this year because our involvement in the EDA market is increasing continuously and DAC is still the top exhibition for this market.
One thing I've definitely noticed so far is that we are by far not so well known in the EDA world as we thought.
It seems to have been a good decision to participate and I am particularly looking forward to the wine tasting Tuesday evening! See you there?

Martin

CST's at DAC 2009

For the first time CST will be actively participating in the annual DAC show with a large booth presence and a conference presentation.

We'll also be making it a fun event with a booth wine tasting running Tuesday afternoon and beer being served on Monday and Wednesday afternoon.

Despite the economic downturn, I feel that 3D electromagnetics is becoming an essential part of many EDA workflows. We want to showcase our very strong capabilites in this area which include seamless import of layout, fast simulation for SI and PI design and very strong optimization and post processing to achieve design goals.

My colleague, Dr. Antionio Ciccomancini will present: "A Hierarchical Approach for Full-system Signal Integrity and EMC Analysis"

This is a bit of a step into the unknown for us, but we are all excited by the buzz around the show and getting our products even more widely known in the community

Jonathan

The battle of the methods

EM simulation provokes strong feelings amongst true believers, particularly when discussing which tools should be used and the merits of different methods. Amongst the main points of contention are time domain versus frequency domain and hexahedral vs. tetrahedral. I have come to the conclusion that the only "right" method is the one that fits your application. All the better if you can easily switch between them to find out.

If you fancy reading more, then you can check out the Microwave Journal Expert Advice column "A Brief Explanation of 3D EM Simulation Methods" this month.

Here's an abstract:

It is widely accepted that three dimensional numerical simulations of electromagnetic fields are essential to passive component design success. Obviously simulating a virtual prototype is much cheaper than building hardware and measuring it, in particular if you take the design cycle time into consideration. If we look at modern optimized antenna designs, for example, it is arguable whether these designs would have been possible at all without electromagnetic (EM) field simulation tools, without automatic optimization, without the possibility to visualize the previously invisible. But saying “all right, let’s go and buy a 3D EM field simulator and everything will be fine” is probably not enough to guarantee success.

I believe the first five people to comment on the article on the MWJ site will receive a copy of the Electrical Engineering Handbook (very generous, those MWJ guys) so get reading.

Please feel free to add your thoughts to this post.
Martin

CST University Publication Award

It's that time of year again. The CST University Award 2010 has been announced our website.

Over the last couple of years we have enjoyed reading an increasing number of interesting papers on diverse topics from the world's upcoming university researchers. Prerequisites for participation are that the papers are authored or co-authored by academic researchers, published either in scientific journals or conference proceedings, and the numerical results are entirely or in part obtained through simulation using CST software products. Submissions are evaluated on a number of criteria including originality of the application or the theory, clarity of presentation, as well as the skilful usage of CST software features.

The selection process for the 2009 award is still going on, but I'll post the winning submissions as soon as they have been announced. You can take a look at the winners from the past 4 years here (copyright permitting):

• CST Uni Award 2008


• CST Uni Award 2007


• CST Uni Award 2006


• CST Uni Award 2005

If you are an academic researcher and have penned a paper, in English, that was published in either in scientific journals or conference proceedings between April 1st 2009 and March 31st 2010 , and the numerical results are entirely or in part obtained through simulation using CST software products, then please send me a copy. You never know, maybe you will be among the winners of an upgraded CST STUDIO SUITE licence for one year.

Martin

Signal Integrity Webinar (for free)

Eric Bogatin is offering a new webinar exploring "Link Analysis with Return Path Discontinuities".
Scheduled for JULY 7, 1 pm eastern time, this webinar will explore "the impact of return path gaps and via transitions on high speed serial signals using VNA measurements, 3D full wave simulations, behavioral models and circuit simulations, comparing predicted and measured eye patterns from FPGA drivers."
You need to register to attend no later than 12 noon Eastern on July 6.

Can you trust your simulations?

The reliability of EM simulation results is always in discussion, so you can imagine I was interested to read a piece on "The importance of full wave simulation validation" on the Interference technology website (Bruce Archambault and Samuel Connor) this month. They put forward the case for validation, arguing that "regardless of the accuracy of the modeling tool, each modeling exercise requires some level of validation before simulation results can be trusted." In the summany, they stress that "Multiple simulation techniques applied to the same model is a good way to insure that the correct physics are included in the model and that the appropriate physics are modeled correctly."

Take a look and read it for yourself.

Martin Timm

What's this all about

Welcome to CST's new technology blog. I'm going to be posting on all things EM simulation related.

Working for a leading 3D EM simulation vendor (http://www.cst.com/) gives me a great opportunity to pass-on our latest product information, but I am going to try to offer more in the form of articles from leaders in the industry, both theoretical and application oriented, as well as thoughts on the general state of play in the world we work in.

That's it for now.