PCB design simulation

Fundamentally, electromagnetic compatibility is tested and verified against existing models in the test darkroom. These tests are expensive and time consuming. There have been many ways to apply early software simulations in the design process to reduce the cost of testing. However, EMC is a complex discipline and it is very difficult at present to realize full 3D simulation of complex circuit boards. Because of these difficulties, experts can only focus on the simulation of critical areas of the circuit board, such as power and grounding systems or individual critical networks, to determine the causes of electromagnetic field radiation (emission) and radiation (sensitivity). The knowledge gained in these analyses will be applied to the PCB circuit designer's design principles.

In the newly developed simulation software package, users can see the complete wiring design from the most popular PCB layout tools. The wiring review function checks various design principles for all layers, networks, or traces. The software can import routing data from several routing tool providers: Altium, Cadence, Mentor, OrCAD, and Zuken. The software was jointly developed by experts from professional simulation software companies and well-known IT industry giants. The former provides interfaces to a variety of PCB layout tools, while the latter focuses on expert systems that have established and validated EMC/SI rules for decades. Over the years, the company's experts have used flexible measurement techniques to study many EMC design issues and eventually established a variety of effective design rules. According to these rules, the key design is inspected and the results are verified by testing. Ultimately, combining different functions forms a software tool that can identify common sources of major electromagnetic disturbances.

This general-purpose software does not require EMC experts. It allows PCB board designers to check if the design complies with EMC regulations. Second, the software provides wiring designers with a detailed description of the EM problems and possible solutions. The integrated browser can show the exact location in the design that violates EMC rules. In fact, the main purpose of developing this software package is to make it possible for users without relevant EMC knowledge to accurately and accurately locate EMC problems in the design earlier and thus minimize the cost of measurement and redesign.

Rule-based inspection emission or coupling is caused by violation of certain geometric rules. For example, consider the path of the current reflow. Each signal has a pre-determined path of the signal trace, but loops often appear at the power and ground planes. The loop current always selects the path with the smallest resistance; at the same time, under the high frequency conditions, the path with the lowest impedance is selected. This new software can determine which return path is not continuous. For example, this path may be interrupted due to a separate plane. If the loop cannot geometrically follow the signal path, the loop current will use a different path. Depending on the size of the area around the loop current, an antenna radiating or receiving an interference signal may occur, resulting in failure of EMC compliance or possible design failure. This software tool identifies whether such discontinuous copper in the power supply layer is connected to one or more capacitors for high frequencies (Figure 1). Those capacitors form a path with low impedance to the loop current, thereby avoiding unwanted loops.