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[[Image:Back_icon.png|30px]] '''[[EM.Cube | Back to EM.Cube Main Page]]'''

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You can add new layers to your project's stack-up or delete its layers, or move layers up or down and thus change the layer hierarchy. To add a new background layer, click the arrow symbol on the {{key|Insert…}} button at the bottom of the dialog and select '''Substrate Layer''' from the button's dropdown list. A new dialog opens up where you can enter a label for the new layer and values for its material properties and thickness in project units. You can delete a layer by selecting its row in the table and clicking the '''Delete''' button. To move a layer up and down, click on its row to select and highlight it. Then click either the '''Move Up''' or '''Move Down''' buttons consecutively to move the selected layer to the desired location in the stack-up. Note that you cannot delete or move the top or bottom half-spaces. After creating a substrate layer, you can always edit its properties in the Layer Stack-up Settings dialog. Click on any layer's row in the table to select and highlight it and then click the {{key|Edit}} button. The substrate layer dialog opens up, where you can change the layer's label and assigned color as well as its constitutive parameters.

For better visualization of your planar structure, [[EM.Picasso]] displays a virtual domain in a default orange color to represent part of the infinite background structure. The size of this virtual domain is a quarter wavelength offset from the largest bounding box that encompasses all the finite objects in the project workspace. You can change the size of the virtual domain or its display color from the Domain Settings dialog, which you can access either by clicking the '''Computational Domain''' [[File:domain_icon.png]] button of the '''Simulate Toolbar''', or using the keyboard shortcut {{key|Ctrl+A}}. Keep in mind that the virtual domain is only for visualization purposes and its size does not affect the MoM simulation. The virtual domain also shows the substrate layers in translucent colors. If you assign different colors to your substrate layers, you have get a better visualization of multilayer virtual domain box surrounding your project structure.

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| style="width:300px;" | Modeling small and short dielectric material inserts inside substrate layers

| style="width:150px;" | Only surface objects

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=== Defining Traces &amp; Embedded Object Sets ===

When you start a new project in [[EM.Picasso]], the project workspace looks empty, and there are no finite objects in it. However, a default background structure is always present. Finite objects are defined as part of traces or embedded sets. Once defined, you can see a list of project objects in the '''Physical Structure''' section of the navigation tree. Traces and object sets can be defined either from Layer Stack-up Settings dialog or from the navigation tree. In the '''Layer Stack-up Settings''' dialog, you can add a new trace to the stack-up by clicking the arrow symbol on the {{key|Insert}} button of the dialog. You have to choose from '''Metal (PEC)''', '''Slot (PMC)''' or '''Conductive Sheet''' options. A respective dialog opens up, where you can enter a label and assign a color. Once a new trace is defined, it is added, by default, to the top of the stack-up table underneath the top half-space. From here, you can move the trace down to the desired location on the layer hierarchy. Every time you define a new trace, it is also added under the respective category in the navigation tree. Alternatively, you can define a new trace from the navigation tree by right-clicking on one of the trace type names and selecting '''Insert New PEC Trace...'''or '''Insert New PMC Trace...'''or '''Insert New Conductive Sheet Trace...''' A respective dialog opens up for setting the trace properties. Once you close this dialog, it takes you directly to the Layer Stack-up Settings dialog so that you can set the right position of the trace on the stack-up.

Embedded object sets represent short material insertions inside substrate layers. They can be metal or dielectric. Metallic embedded objects can be used to model vias, plated-through holes, shorting pins and interconnects. These are called PEC via sets. Embedded dielectric objects can be used to model air voids, thin films and material inserts in metamaterial structures. Embedded objects can be defined either from the Layer Stack-up Settings dialog or directly from the navigation tree. Open the &quot;Embedded Sets&quot; tab of the stack-up dialog. This tab has a table that lists all the embedded object sets along with their material type, the host substrate layer, the host material and their height. To add a new object set, click the arrow symbol on the {{key|Insert}} button of the dialog and select one of the two options, '''PEC Via Set''' or '''Embedded Dielectric Set''', from the dropdown list. This opens up a new dialog where first you have to set the host layer of the new object set. A dropdown list labeled &quot;'''Host Layer'''&quot; gives a list of all the available finite substrate layers. You can also set the properties of the embedded object set, including its label, color and material properties. Keep in mind that you cannot control the height of embedded objects. Moreover, you cannot assign material properties to PEC via sets, while you can set values for the '''Permittivity'''(&epsilon;_r) and '''Electric Conductivity'''(&sigma;) of embedded dielectric sets. Vacuum is the default material choice. To define an embedded set from the navigation tree, right-click on the '''Embedded Object Sets''' item in the '''Physical Structure''' section of the navigation tree and select either '''Insert New PEC Via Set...''' or '''Insert New Embedded Dielectric Set...''' The respective New Embedded Object Set dialog opens up, where you can set the properties of the new object set. As soon as you close this dialog, it takes you to the Layer Stack-up Settings dialog, where you can verify the location of the new object set on the layer hierarchy.

=== Drawing Planar Objects on Horizontal Work Planes ===

As soon as you start drawing geometrical objects in the project workspace, the '''Physical Structure''' section of the navigation tree gets populated. The names of traces are added under their respective trace type category, and the names of objects appear under their respective trace group. At any time, one and only one trace is active in the project workspace. The name of the active trace in the navigation tree is always displayed in bold letters. An active trace is where all the new objects you draw belong to. By default, the last defined trace or embedded object set is active. You can immediately start drawing new objects on the active trace. You can also set any trace or object set group active at any time by right-clicking on its name on the navigation tree and selecting '''Activate''' from the contextual menu.

[[EM.Picasso]] has a special feature that makes construction of planar structures very convenient and straightforward. <u>The horizontal Z-plane of the active trace or object set group is always set as the active work plane of the project workspace.</u> That means all new objects are drawn at the Z-coordinate of the currently active trace. As you change the active trace group or add a new one, the active work plane changes accordingly.

| style="width:30px;" | [[File:huyg_src_icon.png]]

| [[Glossary of EM.Cube's Materials, Sources, Devices & Other Physical Object Types#Huygens Source |Huygens Source]]

| style="width:300px;" | Imported from a Huygens surface data file

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A short dipole provides another way of exciting a planar structure in [[EM.Picasso]]. A short dipole source acts like an infinitesimally small ideal current source. You can also use an incident plane wave to excite your planar structure in [[EM.Picasso]]. In particular, you need a plane wave source to compute the radar cross section of a planar structure. The direction of incidence is defined by the θ and φ angles of the unit propagation vector in the spherical coordinate system. The default values of the incidence angles are θ = 180° and φ = 0° corresponding to a normally incident plane wave propagating along the -Z direction with a +X-polarized E-vector. Huygens sources are virtual equivalent sources that capture the radiated electric and magnetic fields from another structure that was previously analyzed in another [[EM.Cube]] computational module.

=== Modeling Lumped Elements in EM.Picasso ===

Lumped elements are components, devices, or circuits whose overall dimensions are very small compared to the wavelength. As a result, they are considered to be dimensionless compared to the dimensions of a mesh cell. In fact, a lumped element is equivalent to an infinitesimally narrow gap that is placed in the path of current flow, across which the device's governing equations are enforced. Using Kirkhoff's laws, these device equations normally establish a relationship between the currents and voltages across the device or circuit. Crossing the bridge to Maxwell's domain, the device equations must now be cast into a from o boundary conditions that relate the electric and magnetic currents and fields. [[EM.Picasso]] allows you to define passive circuit elements: '''Resistors''' (R), '''Capacitors''' (C), '''Inductors''' (L), and series and parallel combinations of them.

[[Image:Info_icon.png|40px]] Click here for a general discussion of '''[[Preparing_Physical_Structures_for_Electromagnetic_Simulation#A_Review_of_Linear_.26_Nonlinear_Passive_.26_Active_Devices | Linear Passive Devices]]'''.

=== Calculating Scattering Parameters Using Prony's Method ===

The calculation of the scattering (S) parameters is usually an important objective of modeling planar structures especially for planar circuits like filters, couplers, etc. As you saw earlier, you can use lumped sources like gaps and probes and even active lumped elements to calculate the circuit characteristics of planar structures. The admittance / impedance calculations based on the gap voltages and currents are accurate at RF and lower microwave frequencies or when the port transmission lines are narrow. In such cases, the electric or magnetic current distributions across the width of the port line are usually smooth, and quite uniform current or voltage profiles can easily be realized. At higher frequencies, however, a more robust method is needed for calculating the port parameters.

In practical planar structures for which you want to calculate the scattering parameters, each port line normally supports one, and only one, dominant propagating mode. Multi-mode transmission lines are seldom used for practical RF and microwave applications. Nonetheless, each port line carries a superposition of incident and reflected dominant-mode propagating signals. An incident signal, by convention, is one that propagates along the line towards the discontinuity, where the phase reference plane is usually established. A reflected signal is one that propagates away from the port plane. Prony's method can be used to extract the incident and reflected propagating and evanescent exponential waves from the standing wave data. From a knowledge of the amplitudes (expansion coefficients) of the incident and reflected dominant propagating modes at all ports, the scattering matrix of the multi-port structure is then calculated. In Prony's method, the quality of the S parameter extraction results depends on the quality of the current samples and whether the port lines exhibit a dominant single-mode behavior. Clean current samples can be drawn in a region far from sources or discontinuities, typically a quarter wavelength away from the two ends of a feed line.

=== Defining Independent & Coupled Ports ===

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Even though [[EM.Picasso]]'s MoM engine does not need a radiation box, you still have to define a &quot;Far Field&quot; observable for radiation pattern calculation. This is because far field calculations take time and you have to instruct [[EM.Cube]] to perform these calculations. Once a planar MoM simulation is finished, three far field items are added under the Far Field item in the Navigation Tree. These are the far field component in &theta; direction, the far field component in &phi; direction and the &quot;Total&quot; far field. The 2D radiation pattern graphs can be plotted from the '''Data Manager'''. A total of eight 2D radiation pattern graphs are available: 4 polar and 4 Cartesian graphs for the XY, YZ, ZX and user defined plane cuts.

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== Discretizing a Planar Structure in EM.Picasso ==

The method of moments (MoM) discretizes all the finite-sized objects of a planar structure (excluding the background structure) into a set of elementary cells. Both the quality and resolution of the generated mesh greatly affect the accuracy of the MoM numerical solution. The mesh density gives a measure of the number of cells per effective wavelength that are placed in various regions of your planar structure. The higher the mesh density, the more cells are created on the finite-sized geometrical objects. As a rule of thumb, a mesh density of about 20-30 cells per effective wavelength usually yields satisfactory results. But for structures with lots of fine geometrical details or for highly resonant structures, higher mesh densities may be required. The particular output data that you seek in a simulation also influence your choice of mesh resolution. For example, far field characteristics like radiation patterns are less sensitive to the mesh density than field distributions on structures with a highly irregular shapes and boundaries.

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<td> [[Image:PMOM48H.png|thumb|left|420px|Details of the hybrid planar mesh of the slot-coupled patch array around discontinuities.]] </td>

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=== General Rules of Planar Hybrid Mesh Generator ===

* If two connected rectangular objects have the same side dimensions along their common linear edge with perfect alignment, a rectangular junction mesh is produced.

It is very important to apply the right mesh density to capture all the geometrical details of your planar structure. This is especially true for &quot;field discontinuity&quot; regions such as junction areas between connected objects, where larger current concentrations are usually observed at sharp corners, or at the junction areas between metallic traces and PEC vias, as well as the areas around gap sources and lumped elements, which create voltage or current discontinuities.

{{Note| Narrow, spiky triangular cells in a planar mesh are generally not desirable. You should get rid of the either by changing the mesh density or using the hybrid planar mesh generator's additional mesh refinement options.}}

[[EM.Picasso]] allows you to simulate doubly periodic planar structures with periodicities along the X and Y directions. Once you designate your planar structure as periodic, [[EM.Picasso]]'s Planar MoM simulation engine uses a spectral domain solver to analyze it. In this case, the dyadic Green's functions of periodic planar structure take the form of doubly infinite summations rather than integrals.

{{Note| [[EM.Picasso]] can handle both regular and skewed periodic lattices.}}

=== Defining a Periodic Structure in EM.Picasso ===

An infinite periodic structure in [[EM.Picasso]] is represented by a &quot;'''Periodic Unit Cell'''&quot;. To define a periodic structure, you must open [[EM.Picasso]]'s Periodicity Settings Dialog by right clicking the '''Periodicity''' item in the '''Computational Domain''' section of the navigation tree and selecting '''Periodicity Settings...''' from the contextual menu or by selecting '''Menu''' '''&gt;''' '''Simulate &gt; 'Computational Domain &gt; Periodicity Settings...''' from the menu bar. In the Periodicity Settings Dialog, check the box labeled '''Periodic Structure'''. This will enable the section titled''&quot;''Lattice Properties&quot;. You can define the periods along the X and Y axes using the boxes labeled '''Spacing'''. In a periodic structure, the virtual domain is replaced by a default blue periodic domain that is always centered around the origin of coordinates. Keep in mind that the periodic unit cell must always be centered at the origin of coordinates. The relative position of the structure within this centered unit cell will change the phase of the results.

In many cases, your planar structure's traces or embedded objects are entirely enclosed inside the periodic unit cell and do not touch the boundary of the unit cell. [[EM.Picasso]] allows you to define periodic structures whose unit cells are interconnected. The interconnectivity applies only to PEC, PMC and conductive sheet traces, and embedded object sets are excluded. Your objects cannot cross the periodic domain. In other words, the neighboring unit cells cannot overlap one another. However, you can arrange objects with linear edges such that one or more flat edges line up with the domain's bounding box. In such cases, [[EM.Picasso]]'s planar MoM mesh generator will take into account the continuity of the currents across the adjacent connected unit cells and will create the connection basis functions at the right and top boundaries of the unit cell. It is clear that due to periodicity, the basis functions do not need to be extended at the left or bottom boundaries of the unit cell. As an example, consider a periodic metallic screen as shown in the figure on the right. The unit cell of this structure can be defined as a rectangular aperture in a PEC ground plane (marked as Unit Cell 1). In this case, the rectangle object is defined as a slot trace. Alternatively, you can define a unit cell in the form of a microstrip cross on a metal trace. In the latter case, however, the microstrip cross should extend across the unit cell and connect to the crosses in the neighboring cells in order to provide current continuity.

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=== Exciting Periodic Structures as Radiators in EM.Picasso ===

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<td> [[Image:Period5.png|thumb|350px|Setting periodic scan angles in EM.Picasso's Gap Source dialog.]] </td>

<td> [[Image:Period6.png|thumb|350px|Setting the array factor in EM.Picasso's Radiation Pattern dialog.]] </td>

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{{Note|In the absence of any finite traces or embedded objects in the project workspace, [[EM.Picasso]] computes the reflection and transmission coefficients of the layered background structure of your project.}}

=== Running a Periodic MoM Analysis ===

[[EM.Cube]]'s Planar Modules also allows you to run an adaptive frequency sweep of periodic surfaces excited by a plane wave source. In this case, the planar MoM engine calculates the reflection and transmission coefficients of the periodic surface. Note that you can conceptually consider a periodic surface as a two-port network, where Port 1 is the top half-space and Port 2 is the bottom half-space. In that case, the reflection coefficient R is equivalent to S₁₁ parameter, while the transmission coefficient T is equivalent to S₂₁ parameter. This is, of course, the case when the periodic surface is illuminated by the plane wave source from the top half-space, corresponding to 90°&lt; &theta; = 180°. You can also illuminate the periodic surface by the plane wave source from the bottom half-space, corresponding to 0° = &theta; &lt; 90°. In this case, the reflection coefficient R and transmission coefficient T are equivalent to S₂₂ and S₁₂ parameters, respectively. Having these interpretations in mind, [[EM.Cube]] enables the &quot;'''Adaptive Frequency Sweep'''&quot; option of the '''Frequency Settings Dialog''' when your planar structure has a periodic domain together with a plane wave source.

=== Modeling Finite-Sized Periodic Arrays ===

[[Image:Info_icon.png|40px]] Click here to learn about '''[[Modeling Finite-Sized Periodic Arrays Using NCCBF Technique]]'''.

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