Oct 27, 2020
SEMCAD X Matterhorn Major Release V19.0
SPEAG are pleased to announce SEMCAD X Matterhorn V19.0, our full-wave 3D electromagnetic (EM) simulation software and specialized subpackage of Sim4Life V6.0.
SEMCAD X Matterhorn V19.0 is our latest answer to market and customer requirements for both new, effective R&D features and enhanced compliance evaluation tools. The highlights are:
-
more reliable wireless power transfer (WPT) R&D and compliance testing by importing measured files of DASY6/8 Module WPT that increase confidence in your results, reduce uncertainty, and eliminate the need for WPT device validation
-
significant speedup and improved workflows for 5G transmitter design with a streamlined general-purpose Surface-Averaged Power Density Evaluator that is fully compliant with the latest draft of IEC/IEEE 63195
-
full support of anisotropic materials
-
upgraded Python 3 application user interface (API)
-
fastest HPC/CUDA solvers for immediate results of complex configurations
Finally, the new release also comes with new productivity features and general improvements as well as bug fixes, making your simulations more effective again.
Feedback, as always, is welcome – we listen!
WPT Compliance Assessment
NEW: SIMULATIONS USING MEASURED WPT FIELDS
- Magnetic fields measurements obtained with DASY6/8 Module WPT can now be imported into SEMCAD X Matterhorn V19.0 and converted to incident fields.
- Measurements can be used to simulate the induced electric field and peak spatial specific absorption rate (SAR) inside any phantom, from simple box phantoms to complex anatomical phantoms.
- To assess the hand exposure, a dedicated Virtual Population (ViP, IT’IS Foundation) Hands Library, consisting of 12 right hands and parts of the forearm, are available (Sim4Life V6.0 only).
- WPT devices do not have to be simulated and validated for exposure and compliance evaluations, saving days of simulation time and eliminating the need for multiple measurements required for device validation. Most importantly, the use of DASY6/8 Module WPT files reduces the assessment uncertainty.
- The simulation and analysis process is entirely automated and follows a simple drag and drop of the measurement file, providing a concise summary of WPT exposure levels.
- All simulation settings are readily available and can easily be changed to explore different scenarios and understand how they affect exposure levels.
- This seamless integration between measurement and simulation systems uses the best of both worlds, leveraging the shared software infrastructure.
SAR inside ViP model Ella's hand from currents induced by a commercial WPT coil simulated by using the imported field distribution measured by DASY6/8 Module WPT as the incident field.
New ViP Hand Library consisting of 12 right hands and parts of the forearm: suited for dedicated simulation of the exposure of hands while grabbing the charging device (Hand library available in Sim4Life V6.0 only).
Always Up-to-Speed with the 5G Simulation Toolbox
mmWAVE COMPLIANCE ASSESSMENT: POWER DENSITY EVALUATORS
In SEMCAD X Matterhorn V19.0, the power density (PD) evaluators were thoroughly revised and unified in a single powerful postprocessing algorithm:
-
The new PD algorithm replaces the existing ones and is fully compliant with the latest draft of IEC/IEEE 63195 on both flat and curved surfaces.
-
Power density evaluation is now significantly faster (up to 100 times), thanks to a more efficient workflow and streamlined data structures and pipelines.
-
EM field data are first interpolated onto the discretized evaluation surface before surface averages are computed, in compliance with IEC/IEEE 63195. This discretization is created on the fly and its resolution can be easily controlled.
-
The PD algorithm can process data from SPEAG’s DASY6/8 Module mmWave and ICEy-mmW. Interoperability between the best exposure assessment products has never been higher!
Exposure assessment of a 5G device with SEMCAD X V19.0 and DASY6 Module mmWave 2.2: Watch the movie here.
mmWave compliance assessment in SEMCAD X Matterhorn V19.0: surface-averaged power density radiated by a mobile phone equipped with a 5G NR FR2 antenna array on the mmW-HEAD-P10 head phantom.
5G Toolbox of SEMCAD X Matterhorn V19.0 in action: simulation of the incident power density from a 25 GHz CPE router using beamforming.
Unstructured LF FEM Solver – Mesher Enhancements
OCTREE-BASED MESHER
-
Our robust octree-based meshing solution now supports refinement regions, which define areas where a higher refinement is requested. To allow for a smooth user experience during large meshing tasks, we have moved the meshing process to a secondary thread.
-
New Boolean operations have been added in SEMCAD X Matterhorn V19.0. The “Merge” operation can be used to create a multi-material 2D model from 2D outlines/covered regions. For use cases where, for example, devices and CAD/mesh parts must be meshed conformally to a tissue triangle mesh entity, a new Boolean imprint-like operation to create a patch on the target has been added.
-
Based on the great feedback about our “Image Slice Meshing” tool, which generates adaptive triangle meshes from a 2D (slice of a 3D) segmentation, we decided to incorporate the same automatic sizing into the Local Surface Remeshing tool.
The new “Automatic Sizing” of the “Local Surface Remeshing” tool within SEMCAD X Matterhorn V19.0 in action. It estimates the gap size in order to locally adapt the mesh size to fit a user-specified number of elements in the gap.
Solvers/Material Models: Important New Features
ANISOTROPIC MATERIAL MODELS
EM FDTD CUDA SOLVERS
- SEMCAD X Matterhorn V19.0 provides anisotropic materials support for EM FDTD CUDA accelerated solvers. Relative permittivity and electric conductivity can be specified to be anisotropic and entered through the diagonal elements of the corresponding tensors.
- With anisotropic materials support for EM FDTD CUDA accelerated solvers, V19.0 supports users to make their applications catch any real-world scenario.
EM LF FEM SOLVERS
- SEMCAD X Matterhorn V19.0 also adds an important set of tools to create anisotropic conductivity distributions that are particularly important in the low frequency regime, where the longitudinal conductivity can be up to ten times higher than the transversal conductivity.
LOSSES IN SURFACE IMPEDANCE BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
- SEMCAD X Matterhorn V19.0 now provides support for inclusion of losses in SIBCs.
- The user is informed via a dedicated report of the power absorbed by the SIBC surface – and SIBC losses are now fully integrated into the computation of the overall power balance.
Modeling Tools
NEW SPLINE TOOLS
- In SEMCAD X Matterhorn V19.0, new graphical user interface (GUI)/modeling tools and Python functions have been added to further improve working with splines, including a tool to smoothly join splines, and a UI tool to create spline loops with a given radius and orientation at a user-defined location (e.g., to model coils).
NEW CAD PROJECTION TOOL
- The SEMCAD X Matterhorn V19.0 release contains a new modeling tool which allows the projection of multiple solid regions (CAD assemblies, e.g., complex device parts) onto a target surface. Among other applications, this new tool is very useful for placing thin metallic layers, e.g., antenna structures onto arbitrarily shaped/curved device surfaces.
- The UI generates an instantaneous preview of where the parts will be placed and provides an interactive widget to change the orientation of the parts.
- The surface projection from SEMCAD X’s Python API can be used and is supported by other Python API extensions.
A new surface projection tool in SEMCAD X Matterhorn V19.0 allows the projection of model entities on curved surfaces, e.g., thin antenna structures onto device surfaces or an electrode array onto a model, providing highly interactive modeling and visualization functionality. In this case, a 5x5 microstrip patch array, for off-body applications in the millimeter wave frequency range, is projected onto the lateral abdomen of SPEAG POPEYE V10.
Productivity & Performance Tools
IMPROVED CUDA-BASED EM SOLVER PERFORMANCE
- All the FDTD-/CUDA-based EM solvers have been refactored and heavily optimized.
- SEMCAD X Matterhorn V19.0 now supports to run your simulations on Volta and Turing GPU architectures (device code for V10.2 CUDA toolkit).
- V19.0 comes with a noticeable boost in computation performance for the CUDA-based solvers. In some cases, speedups of a factor of 2 can be achieved (improved memory access within CUDA kernel; tuning of integer precision).
API UPGRADE TO PYTHON 3
- The API of SEMCAD X Matterhorn V19.0 now uses Python 3 by default. This makes it easier to install modern packages from the scientific computing community or to share scripts and modules between applications. The legacy Python 2.7 version of the API is still available for download upon request.
- It is now possible to use the entire SEMCAD X API programmatically without starting the GUI. Users familiar with Jupyter notebooks, for example, are now able to create, run, and postprocess SEMCAD X simulations without leaving the notebook.
- Thanks to a dedicated plugin, Python scripts for SEMCAD X can now be written, executed and debugged from Visual Studio Code, a popular and powerful integrated development environment. Developing modern programs that interface with SEMCAD X Matterhorn V19.0 is now easier than ever!
Parametric study of WPT exposure in SEMCAD X Matterhorn V19.0 with hundreds of simulations performed and analyzed from a Jupyter notebook.
ANALYSIS & VISUALIZATION
- A new sleek option to slice any CAD/mesh assembly or a model from the slice field viewer has been added to SEMCAD X Matterhorn V19.0. It generates a cross-section visualization of the (selected) model parts, either as outlines or filled areas, which overlay the field visualization. This new extension helps to communicate your insights to others by showing field distributions in relation to model regions.
A more comprehensive list of improvements, fixes, and new features is included in the Release Notes.
To experience the power and elegance of SEMCAD X Matterhorn V18.2 or for further information, please email us at semx-sales@speag.swiss or call us at +41 44 245 9700.
The relevant SEMCAD X Matterhorn installers for Win7/Win8/8.1/Win10 64-bit platforms can be downloaded here. Existing customers with an up-to-date annual maintenance and support plan will receive individually all pertinent information regarding the software installer download and updated licenses.
IMPORTANT: SEMCAD X Matterhorn V19.0 now includes the new Flex tools (upgrade to 11.17.1) thus, we kindly request all our users installing this version to uninstall their current license servers and reinstall the license using SEMCAD X Matterhorn V19.0 "Install License" tool under "Licensing Tools" in Start menu.
SPEAG is committed to empowering our customers to reach new heights of productivity and scientific achievement by providing outstanding innovative software solutions, testing equipment, and service.
We strongly recommend that users upgrade SEMCAD X to the full Version of Sim4Life. If interested, please request a special upgrade price: this offer is valid until the end of 2020.
The SEMCAD X Matterhorn and Sim4Life Teams
