Appendix 6-2: HFSS 3D Boundary Conditions

Introduction to ANSYS HFSS

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Boundary Conditions
(For more details, see Appendix 5.2 3D Boundary Conditions from the HFSS Introduction Training)

Boundary conditions can be grouped into three categories

1. Material Properties for sheets/faces: Boundary Condition include
– Finite Conductivity Surfaces
– Perfect E (Electric) or Perfect H (Magnetic) Surfaces

2. Surface Approximations for Manufacturing/Component Definitions: Boundary Condition include

– Lumped RLC Surface: a parallel combination of (ideal) lumped resistors, inductors, and/or capacitors
– Layered Impedance Surface

3. Absorbing Boundary Conditions (ABCs): By default HFSS assumes everything outside of the user geometry
(Background) as a Perfect Electric Surfaces. In many cases, the default background boundary condition needs
to be replaced by ABCs. Boundary Condition include
– Radiation Surface
• FE-BI: Finite Element Boundary Integral
– Perfectly Matched Layers (PML)
– Infinite Ground Plane

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 Boundary Conditions

1. Material Properties for sheets/faces.

2. Surface Approximation.
3. Absorbing Boundary Conditions.

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Material Properties for 2D sheets/faces
Technical Definition of Boundary Conditions
Perfect E is a perfect electrical conductor (PEC)
– E-field is always perpendicular to surface
– Used to model lossless metal surfaces, ground planes, cavity walls, etc.
– Automatic assignments of Perfect E to:
1. Object surfaces that touches the background (given boundary name outer).
2. Objects assigned the material pec (Perfect Electric Conductor) and given
boundary name smetal.

E-field Perpendicular to surface

Perfect E Boundary

Perfect H is a perfect magnetic conductor (purly theoretical).

– Forces H-field perpendicular to surface and E-field tangential
– Natural – for a Perfect H boundary that overlaps with a perfect E boundary, this
reverts the selected area to its original material, erasing the Perfect E boundary
condition. This does not affect any material assignments and can be used, for
example, to model a cut-out in a ground plane for a coax feed. E-field Parallel to surface

Perfect H Boundary

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Material Properties for 2D sheets/faces
Finite Conductivity
- Enables you to define the surface of an object as a lossy (imperfect) conductor and only valid for good conductors
- To model a lossy surface, you provide loss in Siemens/meter and permeability parameters.
- Loss is calculated as a function of frequency.

Manually define Conductivity

(Default is Copper)

Use Material
Definition to define Finite Conductivity forces the tangential
Conductivity E-Field equal to Zs(n x Htan), the surface
impedance (Zs) is equal to, (1+j)/(δσ),
where: δ is the skin depth, (2/(ωσμ))0.5 of
the conductor being modeled, ω is the
frequency of the excitation wave, σ is the
Adjust the conductivity of the conductor, μ is the
Conductivity based permeability of the conductor
on conductor
thickness

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 Boundary Conditions

1. Material Properties for sheets/faces.

2. Surface Approximation.
3. Absorbing Boundary Conditions.

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Surface Approximations for Manufacturing/Component
Definitions

Layered Impedance Lumped RLC

– Multiple thin layers in a structure can be modeled as an – a parallel combination of lumped resistor, inductor, and/or
impedance surface. See the Online Help for additional capacitor surface. The simulation is similar to the Impedance
information on how to use the Layered Impedance boundary boundary, but the software calculate the ohms/square using
the user supplied R, L, C values

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How to model conductors (3D vs 2D)
Conductor Thickness
• In many applications, the thickness of the trace has no effect on the end results.
• Thus, the efficiency of the solution problem can be increased by representing the 3D solid conductor with a 2D conductor sheet.
• Next, two examples of using a 3D and 2D conductor are showcased.

1. Patch Antenna
• Conducting traces often modeled as 2D objects for electromagnetic simulations.
• More computationally efficient since fewer meshing surfaces required.
• Good approximation for many structures operating in skin depth regime.
Frequency response of both models

Patch antenna
modeled with 2D sheet

Patch antenna
modeled with 3D object

In summary, the patch antenna shows no difference in performance for a 3D vs 2D conductor because
the edge effect of the conductor does not impact the device performance.

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Trace Thickness Effects
2. Planar filter
• Uses edge coupling to operate require 3D objects (finite thickness) for modeling conducting traces
• Applications whose performance depends upon closely-coupled traces
• End-coupled, parallel-coupled, hairpin filters, etc.

Frequency response of both models

Edge-coupled filter
modeled with 3D objects

Edge-coupled filter
modeled with 2D sheets

In the case of the coupled line filter, the edge effects of the trace thickness make a
noticeable difference and needs to be included.

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 In summary …. Surface Loss Modeling
• All methods utilize an equivalent surface impedance applied to the field as it travels across the surface
  
E tan  Z s (n H tan )

Finite Conductivity Impedance

1 j
Zs  Zs specified as W/sq

t t >> 
2


*Loss assumes current penetrates 1 skin depth
*Used implicitly for good conducting objects that
are not solved inside

Layered Impedance Lumped RLC

500 in Nickel 500 in Gold

Parallel RLC Circuit

0.7mil Copper

Zs,Au Zs,Ni Zs,Cu

LAu LNi LCu

*Models a stack up of thin materials as TL

Zs,input
*Works with metals and dielectrics

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 Boundary Conditions

1. Material Properties for sheets/faces.

2. Surface Approximation.
3. Absorbing Boundary Conditions.

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 Types of absorbing Boundary Conditions:
A. Radiation Boundary.

B. Perfectly Matched Layer (PML).

C. Finite Element-Boundary Integral (FE-BI).

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A. Radiation Boundary
This boundary types enables the user to model a surface as electrically open: waves can then radiate out of the
structure and toward the radiation boundary.

• Mimics continued propagation beyond boundary plane

• Absorption achieved via 2nd order radiation boundary
• Distance from radiating structure Boundary is /4 away from
horn aperture in all directions
– Place at least /4 from strongly radiating structure
– Place at least /10 from weakly radiating structure

• Must be concave to all incident fields from within modeled space

• Absorbs best when incident energy flow is normal to surface

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Radiation Boundary: Incidence Angle Dependency

Radiation Boundary

Radiation Boundary

Poor absorption of radiation

boundary affects radiation pattern

Conclusion: Radiation boundary functions well for incident angles less than 25°-30°

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B. Perfectly Matched Layer (PML)
Perfectly Matched Layer (PML)
• Fictitious, lossy, anisotropic material which fully absorbs electromagnetic fields
• Two types of PML applications
– “PML objects accept free radiation” if PML terminates free space
– “PML objects continue guided waves” if PML terminates transmission line
• Guidelines for assigning PML boundaries
– Use PML setup wizard for most cases
– Manually create a PML when base object is curved or inhomogeneous

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PML: Incidence Angle Dependency
PML

PML

Better absorption leads to better

consistency in the patterns

Conclusions: PML functions well for incident angles less than 65°-70°

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C. Finite Element – Boundary Integral (FEBI) FE-BI

FEBI is an alternative to Radiation and PML boundaries for radiating designs. The FEBI
boundary is a hybrid FEM (Volume) and IE solver (Radiating Surface). FEBI is a reflection-
less boundary that can be applied to arbitrarily shaped volumes.

• Mesh truncation of infinite free space into a finite computational domain

• Alternative to Radiation or PML
• Hybrid solution of FEM and IE
– IE solution on outer faces
– FEM solution inside of volume
• FE-BI Advantages
– Arbitrary shaped boundary Free space Arbitrary shape
• Conformal and discontinuous to minimize solution volume (No Solution Volume)
– Reflection-less boundary condition
• High accuracy for radiating and scattering problems Fields at outer surface
– No theoretical minimum distance from radiator
• Reduce simulation volume and simplify problem setup
– Exact solution to free space rather than the FEM Solution IE Solution
approximate solution in Volume on Outer Surface
• (Requires an HFSS-IE license)

Iterate

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Hybrid Finite Element-Integral Equation Method

Conformal radiation volume with

Integral Equations

HFSS

HFSS-IE
HFSS with FE-BI
This Finite Element-Boundary Integral hybrid method leverages the advantages
of both methods to achieve the most accurate and robust solution for radiating
and scattering problems
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How do I create these boundaries?
Creating Boundaries:
I. Manually

a) Create Box at the appropriate distance.

b) Assign boundary.

II. Create Open Region with radiation boundary, FE-BI, or PML.

III. Solution Type: Auto-Open Region (with or without FE-BI).

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II. Create Open Region

OR

Automatically adjusts to
new objects

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III. Create from Solution Type

• Invisible!

• Replaces HFSS
background from PEC
to Auto-Open Region
or Auto-Open Region
with FE-BI (no PML).

• Simple, fast and hassle

free.

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Which Absorbing Boundary should I use?
• Below is a simple selection table for choosing Absorbing boundary. In general, a Radiation Boundary is the easiest to setup and is a
good starting point.

SI applications
Antenna/EMI Array/RCS
(3D-Layout)

Radiation Radiation

PML PML

FE-BI FE-BI

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