Meep: A flexible free-software package for electromagnetic simulations by the FDTD method (original) (raw)
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Development of an unified FDTD-FEM library for electromagnetic analysis with CPU and GPU computing
2011
We describe a C++ library for electromagnetics based on the Finite-Difference Time-Domain method for transient analysis, and the Finite Element Method for modal analysis. Both methods share the same core and also both methods are optimized for CPU and GPU computing. The FEM method is applied for solving Laplace's equation and analyzes the relation between surface curvature and electrostatic potential of a long cylindric conductor. The FDTD method is applied for analyzing Thin Film Filters in optical wavelengths. Furthermore, the performance of both CPU and GPU versions are analyzed as a function of the grid size simulation. This approach allows to analyze a wide range of electromagnetic situations taking advantage of the benefits of each numerical method and also of the modern graphics processing units.
Development of a unified FDTD-FEM library for electromagnetic analysis with CPU and GPU computing
The Journal of Supercomputing, 2013
The present paper describes an optimized C++ library for the study of Electromagnetics. The implementation is based on the Finite-Difference Time-Domain method for transient analysis, and the Finite Element Method for electrostatics. Both methods share the same core and are optimized for CPU and GPU computing. To illustrate its running, FEM method is applied for solving Laplace's equation analyzing the relation between surface curvature and electrostatic potential of a long cylindrical conductor, whereas FDTD is applied for analyzing Thin Film Filters at optical wavelengths. Furthermore, a comparison of the performance of both CPU and GPU versions is analyzed as a function of the grid size simulation. This approach allows the study of a wide range of electromagnetic problems taking advantage of the benefits of each numerical method and the computing power of the modern CPUs and GPUs.
GMES: A Python package for solving Maxwell’s equations using the FDTD method
Computer Physics Communications, 2013
This paper describes GMES, a free Python package for solving Maxwell's equations using the finitedifference time-domain (FDTD) method. The design of GMES follows the object-oriented programming (OOP) approach and adopts a unique design strategy where the voxels in the computational domain are grouped and then updated according to its material type. This piecewise updating scheme ensures that GMES can adopt OOP without losing its simple structure and time-stepping speed. The users can easily add various material types, sources, and boundary conditions into their code using the Python programming language. The key design features, along with the supported material types, excitation sources, boundary conditions and parallel calculations employed in GMES are also described in detail.
BEST: a finite difference simulator for time electromagnetics
Simulation Practice and Theory, 1999
A simulator based on the FDTD algorithm has been devised for full-wave electromagnetic computation inside domains having an arbitrarily complex shape, inhomogeneous materials and in the presence of general ®eld sources. The simulator is designed in such a way that new applications can be dealt with by simple addition of pertinent models and functions. A simulation of human tissue heating by a microwave source in view of application to hyperthermia anticancer treatment planning is reported as an example.
Computer Applications in Engineering Education, 2005
We describe a simple and intuitive implementation of the method of finitedifference time-domain (FDTD) simulations for propagating electromagnetic waves using Microsoft Excel. The method overcomes the usual obstacles of unfamiliarity with programming languages as it relies on little more than the cut and paste features of Excel. ß2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 13: 213À221, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com);
Tools for electromagnetic modeling and visualization using the FDTD technique
Symposium on Antenna Technology and Applied Electromagnetics [ANTEM 2000], 2000
Because of the invisible nature of electromagnetic waves, the tasks of analyzing, modeling, and designing of antennas and microwave devices are less manageable than the design of other types of electronic circuits or devices. Efforts have been focused on building tools for visualizing electromagnetic waves emerging from canonical and simple structures. With lesser success, there are a few modeling tools available for a true analysis of practical EM designs. However, the majority of such available tools are basically commercial in nature and are cost prohibitive to the researchers in the academic environment. This paper provides an overview of several graphical user interfaces (GUIs) developed for electromagnetic computational tools for the finite difference time domain (FDTD) technique. These user interfaces overcome the major difficulties that slow down the EM analysis process. The main tasks of these GUIs are to simplify the process of describing a composite structure to the compu...
OpenCL-based acceleration of the FDTD method in computational electromagnetics
International Journal of Numerical Modelling: Electronic Networks, Devices and Fields, 2012
The evolution of processors into multi-core architectures has led to the acceleration of scientific codes using numerous highly specialized processors, that is, multi-core central processing units (CPUs), graphics processing units (GPUs) and also devices that merge both technologies in a single-die chip. Development of parallel codes that are both scalable and portable between the processor architectures is challenging. To overcome this limitation, we investigated the acceleration of the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method in computational electromagnetics on modern computing architectures, that is, multi-core CPUs and GPUs, through the use of Open Computing Language (OpenCL). Further extension of the OpenCL parallel programing model with the Message Passing Interface allows for the targeting of standard distributed memory computer clusters as well as clusters accelerated by GPUs. Portability between hardware manufactured by different vendors and highly specialized and parallel computing architectures is the main advantage of the developed FDTD solvers. The codes were coupled with a commercial simulation platform to evaluate the performance of the solvers in real-world industrial scenarios. Although the portability resulted in a slightly reduced performance (10-35%) of the OpenCL-accelerated FDTD simulations compared with the native Compute Unified Device Architecture or Open Multiprocessing implementations, the obtained benchmarking results of the OpenCL FDTD solvers on distributed memory systems show that the communication overhead can be hidden by computations for sufficiently large simulation domains with a scaling efficiency higher than 90%.
Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) Simulations Using Graphics Processors
2007
Previous work on compact, variable, efficient, high brightness radiation sources is extended by calculating the radiated power and angular distributions for different configurations and drive sources. Figures of merit are defined in terms of efficiencies or effective impedances such as the radiation coupling impedance Zr. Characteristics of representative cases are discussed in terms of a few basic parameters. Conditions for interference are discussed and demonstrated. Finally, we discuss some further possibilities together with various impediments to realizing such devices. The differences between bound and free electrons are studied from the standpoint of the frequencies that are practicably achievable. With the ansatz that the transport physics with Maxwell's Equations are valid but modified by the material properties, a number of analogs exist between these two basic sources of radiation. In many cases, the differences are between macro and micro implementations e.g. between klystrons and klystrinos (micro or nano) or solid state and semiconductor lasers or rareearth doped transistors. Cases with no apparent analogs are ones due to unique quantum effects e.g. radiation at 3kTc in superconductors. This is well above magnetic resonance imaging MRI around 0.4 meV but well below room temperature at 25 meV. Bound and free possibilities for planar, micro undulators over this range are studied using FDTD techniques. To our knowledge, there have been no implementations of either possibility.
Novel Concepts for Differential-Equation-Based Electromagnetic Field Simulations
This thesis presents novel concepts for electromagetic field simulations via partial differential equation (PDE) solvers. A vital aspect for any successful general implementation of a PDE solver is the use of an efficient absorbing boundary condition (ABC). The perfectly matched layer (PML) is a recently introduced ABC in Cartesian coordinates which provides reflection errors orders of magnitude smaller than previously employed ABCs. In this work, a new interpretation of the PML as an analytic continuation of the coordinate space is used to extend the PML to other coordinate systems. Modified equations replace the original Maxwell's equations, mapping propagating solutions into exponentially decaying solutions. Alternative (Maxwellian) formulations are also put forth, where the PML is represented as an artificial media with complex constitutive tensors, and the form of Maxwell's equations is retained. The causality and dynamic stability of the PML is characterized through a spectral analysis. In addition, a rationale is presented to extend the PML to complex media, e.g., dispersive and/or (bi-)anisotropic. For the Maxwellian formulation, the general expressions for the PML tensors matched to any interior dispersive and/or (bi-)anisotropic linear media are obtained. A finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) algorithm in Cartesian coordinates which combines the PML ABC with piecewise-linear recursive convolution (PLRC) is proposed and implemented, allowing the simulation of electromagnetic fields in inhomogeneous and dispersive media with conductive loss. Two PML-PLRC-FDTD algorithms in cylindrical coordinates are also proposed and implemented. The first is developed through a split-field PML formulation, and the second through a Maxwellian ( unsplit) PML formulation. A comparison is made between numerical properties of these two algorithms. The PML concept is then studied within the language of differential forms to unify the various PML formulations. Finally, the language of differential forms is also utilized to provide a coordinate-free description and analyze consistency properties of the electromagnetic theory on lattice for PDE solvers such as the finite-difference, finite-volume or finite-element methods.
The topic of Maxwell's equations and applications is always an interesting, though challenging area for faculty and students. This paper outlines a fast and user-interactive MATLAB-based graphical user interface (GUI) software for electromagnetic field calculations using a finite difference time domain (FDTD) algorithm. The significant reduction in computation time is achieved through a vector-based MATLAB algorithm, and additionally, the GUI user interface facilitates the under-standing and modeling of electromagnetic field effects. This paper is primarily directed at teachers and students involved in advanced electromagnetic and RF design studies at the graduate level, for example, courses in microwave engineering, power engineering and biomedical engineering. Typical electromagnetic simulation studies are presented in this paper to illustrate the efficacy and user-friendly nature of the software.