Preview of FEKO 14.

0 under Altair
HyperWorks

Dr. Ulrich Jakobus

Vice President Electromagnetic Solutions
jakobus@altair.com

8 October 2015
Microwave Journal Webinar
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Vision of Altair

To radically change the way

organizations design products
and make decisions

James R. Scapa, Chairman & CEO, Altair

Copyright 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.

Through A Unique Blend of Software and Services

Engineering Simulation / Performance

Optimization Technology

Concept Design and

Development Technology

Altair's corporate
HPC and On-demand
Computing Technology
structure is tightly
aligned with its
Product Engineering /
brand family Development Consulting

Human-centered Industrial Design

and Product Strategy Consulting

LED products for the replacement of

fluorescent lighting
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Altair HyperWorks Solver Technology

In June 2014 acquisition of EM Software & Systems with its electromagnetic

solver FEKO by Altair Engineering, Inc.

Now complete multiphysics offering through HyperWorks:

FEKO
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FEKO Roadmap

14.0
Release
7.0.2 Expected
Feature Update Nov. 2015
February 2015
7.0.1
Feature Update
September 2014
First HWU
Suite 7.0 installations
Release January 2015
May 2014
FDTD solver, voxel mesher
MLFMM/PO hybrid solver

HWU = HyperWorks Units (Altairs patented on-demand software licensing system)

Copyright 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.

FEKO 14.0 Salient Features

Integration of FEKO into Altair HyperWorks

Faster modelling of equivalent aperture sources with RL-GO
Higher order basis function (HOBF) support for
method of moments hybridised with the uniform theory of diffraction (MoM/UTD)
method of moments with ray launching geometrical optics (MoM/RL-GO)
Curvilinear wire segment mesh support for
method of moments (MoM)
multilevel fast multipole method (MLFMM)
Finite difference time domain (FDTD) solver extended to support
multiple configurations
perfect magnetic conductor (PMC) boundary conditions
intrinsic wire radius
shared memory parallelisation
Scripting (application framework) extensions
Macro recording in CADFEKO
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HyperWorks Integration

Version number increase

Jump from FEKO Suite 7.0 to FEKO 14.0
to align with HyperWorks 14.0

Part of HyperWorks master installer

Legacy / standalone installer still available 14.0
HWU licensing (since FEKO 7.0.1)
Legacy secfeko.dat licensing mechanism still
supported

Help > About HyperWorks dialog

Link to Altair website
Link to Client Center / Altair Connect

FEKO now also part of HyperWorks Student Edition

Replacing FEKO LITE
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Transformation of Aperture Excitations for RL-GO

Often Model Decomposition is advised for RL-GO to reduce effort

The computational requirements of RL-GO simulations with aperture excitations

are proportional to the number of near field points used in the source

A new transform automatically converts an equivalent aperture excitation into its

corresponding spherical mode representation
Depending on the size of the aperture, there are limitations as how close the source
can be placed to the geometry (FEKO will check for this)
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Horn Fed Reflector Antenna RL-GO Example

1) Geometry at 12.5 GHz 2) Simulate the horn with MoM to 3) The reflector is excited with
capture the near-fields to use as an the equivalent aperture source
aperture excitation for the reflector and simulated with RL-GO

4) Aperture will be converted into the

spherical mode representation

A large number of near field samples are needed around the horn to represent
the aperture excitation accurately
The transformation of the aperture excitation to spherical modes reduces the simulation
time from several days to only 3 min!
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Recap: Curvilinear triangle support for MoM and MLFMM

HOBF (Higher Order Basis Functions) on curvilinear meshes for MoM

and MLFMM introduced in FEKO Suite 6.3 (Oct. 2013)

Number of metallic triangles: RWG = 3 774 HOBF 3.5 = 72

Number of basis functions: RWG = 5 661 HOBF 3.5 = 1 296

Sphere radius = 1

4.4 times fewer unknowns

19 times less memory
Similar run-times
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Introduction of Curvilinear Wire Meshes

Supported for MoM and MLFMM solvers

Mesh import formats

NASTRAN, ANSYS CDB, and Abaqus

Mesh export formats

NASTRAN, Gerber, and AutoCAD (DXF)

Display in GUI fully supported

Mesh elements
Ports
Mesh information
Currents and charges
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Example for Curvilinear Wire Meshes

Helix with 20 turns

radius 2.5 mm
height 50 mm
wire radius 0.2 mm
Near field computed 5 mm from the axis
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Example for Curvilinear Wire Meshes

Near field computed 5 mm from 20 turn helix

Need more linear segments to achieve the same accuracy
153 curvilinear segments
397 linear segments
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Higher Order Basis Functions Extensions

Higher order basis functions supported for the

MoM and MLFMM since FEKO Suite 6.2

Curvilinear meshes supported since Suite 6.3

Second order curvilinear triangles with 6 vertex points

Support for higher order MoM in the MoM/PO

hybrid method added in FEKO Suite 7.0

Support for higher order MoM in the MoM/UTD and

MoM/RL-GO hybrid methods added in FEKO 14.0
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Example for Higher Order Basis Function Extensions

Supported for MoM/UTD

First order (RWG) vs higher order MoM with UTD example

Electrically large flare and circular plate with electric dipole point source
UTD region: PEC flare, bottom width 8, 3 unmeshed plates
MoM region: PEC plate, radius
1232 triangles (RWG) vs 32 triangles (order 3.5)
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Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) Extensions

Support for multiple configurations

Perfect magnetic conductor (PMC) boundaries

Open and perfect electric conductor (PEC) boundaries
already supported in FEKO Suite 7.0

Intrinsic wire radius

User can opt to let the solver determine the wire radius
to improve FDTD stability (e.g. 0.208 times voxel size)

Zero impedance loads (just currents at port)

Port without source / load treated as short circuit

Similar to the MoM
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Scripting & Automation History

FEKO Suite 6.1 release

Added dataset Lua scripting
Focus on post-processing of results
in POSTFEKO

Example list of
FEKO Suite 6.2 release application macros

Added POSTFEKO automation (e.g. for

automatic report generation)

FEKO Suite 6.3 release

Dataset refactor
Third party integration (e.g. Optenni Lab)
Interactive dialogs
CADFEKO automation for geometry
creation only Example of a customised dialog
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Scripting (Application Framework) Extensions

Completed CADFEKO API in FEKO 14.0

API now also supports solution requests, etc.
Any action in CADFEKO can now be performed through scripting
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Macro Recording in CADFEKO

Interface changes
Ribbon
Status bar
Script editor

Workflow
Start recording from CADFEKO
Perform actions in CADFEKO
Stop the recording
View the recorded script in the script editor
Modify the script if required
Run the script to repeat performed actions
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Macro Recording in CADFEKO

Useful for
performing repetitive actions record once and repeat using script
advanced / custom actions record and extend script
getting started with scripting
learn syntax
become familiar with API objects and properties
Other GUI Features in FEKO 14.0
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CADFEKO

Option to rotate the elements of circular/cylindrical antenna arrays

Can create arrays with sequentially rotated arrays directly in a single setup
Previously possible through multiple (custom) arrays

notched patches horn antennas

spiral
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CADFEKO

CAD exchange library updated

Allows the latest CAD file formats to be imported and exported
Supported: ACIS R25, CATIA V5 R24 (V5 6R2014), NX 9, Pro/E / Creo 3.0
Discontinued: CATIA V5 Release 6 (from 2001)

Gerber, ODB++ and 3Di import on Linux

Selection of layers to import

Gerber, ODB++, 3Di or AutoCAD files
Copyright 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.

CAD Handling Performance Improvements

General improvements to loading and handling of CAD and

complex/detailed models with larger number of parts:
More responsive GUI in CADFEKO
Reduced times to load the models
Improved handling including faster zooming, selection, etc.

.cfx file (MByte) Opening speedup

Device 23 400%
PCB model 62 22%
Car model 95 980%
Device with anatomical
23 27%
mesh model
FSS with large number
125 280%
of elements
Copyright 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.

Extended CADFEKO Workflows

When adding a
Many dialogues in CADFEKO now source to a
configuration, the
include the icon next to dropdown port can be
created directly
menus from the dialogue
by pressing

Previously, dropdown menus needed

to populated prior, fixing the workflow
In 14.0, pressing the icon will offer a
new workflow, where the required entities
can be created directly from the dialogue
to populate the dropdown menu
The new workflows are faster and more
intuitive

When creating a layered dielectric, the

Two examples show the functionality materials can be created directly from
the dialogue by pressing
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POSTFEKO

Display relative phase of ideal receiving antenna

Received signal phase quantity

Hide a trace entry in the 2D legend

Leave trace text empty

Display impedance data for loads and general networks on Smith charts

Add math scripts and imported data to empty project

3D views, 2D graphs can be added for these results
Copyright 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.

CADFEKO and POSTFEKO

3D view font settings can be modified

Settings > Preferences
Default settings dialog

User-defined
Default fonts
fonts
Other Electromagnetic Solver
Features in FEKO 14.0
Copyright 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.

Other Electromagnetic Solver Features

Improved performance and stability

Latest libraries, math libraries and compilers
GPU CUDA version 7.0 support (Windows and Linux)
Intel MPI library for Windows upgraded to version 5.0

Impact of these upgrades for parallel MoM run:

FEKO 7.0: 31.7 GLFOPS per process
FEKO 14.0: 42.9 GLFOPS per process 35% faster!
Copyright 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.

Braided Shield Models for Cable Harnesses

Cable transfer impedances (ZT) and transfer admittances (YT)

Internal database containing 26 popular cable types
User-defined input
E.g. from datasheets or measurements
Different cable shield formulations supported
Supported cable shield types
Schelkunoff (solid) model
ZT
Since FEKO Suite 6.0
Kley (braided) formulas
ZT and YT
Since FEKO Suite 6.0
Vance (braided) formulas
ZT and YT
New in FEKO 14.0

CADFEKO Create
cable shield dialog
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Active RCS Calculations

Mono-static and bi-static RCS calculations

Traditional far field RCS computed with E0

Es

where E0 is the incident plane wave field and Es represents the scattered field.

Extension to Active RCS by including the radiated field from sources other than
plane waves in the model as part of Es
E0
~

Es
Example application:
RCS reduction by transmitting an active signal which intends to cancel the back-
scattered field
FEKO HyperStudy Integration
Copyright 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.

Overview of Altair HyperStudy

Altair HyperStudy is a multi-disciplinary design exploration, study and

optimisation software
Included methods are:
Design of Experiments (DoE) helps engineers understand the relationship
between design variables and overall system performance
Fit approach to create meta models to replace computationally expensive
simulations
Traditional optimisation
Stochastic Analysis
Post-processing and data mining
Copyright 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.

FEKO HyperStudy Integration

Integration of FEKO into the HyperStudy

optimisation platform:
FEKO model type
Browse and add the *.cfx file to the HyperStudy project
Direct import of geometric design variables

Standard response extraction in HyperStudy

Impedance, gain, efficiency, etc.
Extract from ASCII files e.g. *.out file, *.efe, *.hfe, *.ffe
or exported Touchstone files

Post-processing of responses using Lua:

Extraction of responses can also be controlled with Lua
scripts
Default script automatically generated
User modification necessary for custom responses
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Planar Monopole Optimisation HyperStudy

Y GA optimisation convergence

X trimmer
capacitor

feed port and

matching circuit
HyperStudy Fit surface

At 433 MHz, the planar monopole is relatively small (8 x 4.25 cm):

A tuning circuit and trimmer capacitor are needed to match the antenna

HyperStudy is used to optimise the performance of the antenna

3 geometric variables are considered X, Y, T for the initial full factorial DoE; S11 is used as the
response
A Fit response surface is generated using radial basis functions (RBF) based on the DoE data
The optimisation is performed on the Fit using a genetic algorithm (GA)

The optimised design offers a 15% improvement in bandwidth and 32%

improvement in radiation efficiency over the initial design
Extended FEKO Optenni Lab
Interface
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Optenni Lab

Optenni Lab is a leading professional matching circuit synthesis and

optimisation software for solving all matching problems in the RF chain
within wireless devices
Optenni Lab can optimise broadband, multiband, multiport and tunable
matching circuits for antennas, filters, amplifiers, switches, tuners and
other RF components
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Optenni Lab Plugin Improvements

Redesigned the forms using callbacks

Interactive dialogs that update based on choices selected

More advanced automation integration

Number of Touchstone file samples can be set
Improved handling of loads
Better feedback through the message window
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Optenni Lab Plugin Improvements

New run mode functionality supporting new workflows:

1) Run simulation and launch Optenni Lab
2) Use existing Touchstone file (simulation already run)
3) Provide a Touchstone file

Workflows 1) and 2) will automatically reconnect all ports when

transferring matching circuit files back to FEKO
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Optenni Lab Matching WCDMA, WLAN, BT Module

WCDMA WLAN, BT

matching circuit configuration

coupling < -15 dB

antenna geometry general network schematic

Optenni Lab multiport matching:

Simultaneous matching of antenna elements can be applied, while reducing
coupling < -15 dB between the antenna elements

FEKO - Optenni Lab link workflow:

Touchstone files for the unmatched antenna are automatically sent to Optenni Lab
Bands, efficiency and coupling goals are defined in Optenni Lab and matching
circuits are calculated
Circuit information is sent back to FEKO and automatically connected to the ports
using general networks
Other Lua Plugins
(available on www.feko.info)
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Parameter Sweep Plugin

Application macro scripts available for

parameter sweep (more intuitive than
Grid Search in OPTFEKO)
CADFEKO setup script gives the user a list
of variables to derived from the model to
select for geometric grid search investigation
POSTFEKO script combines simulation
results to plot responses as a function of the
geometry
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Co-site Interference Analysis Lua Plugin

UHF antenna,
310 MHz, blade

GPS - 1.57 GHz,

circular patch

VHF blade
antenna 126 MHz

L-band blade
antenna 1.09 GHz
Negligible coupling - < 60 dB

Coupling between -50 & -60 dB

Strong coupling > -50 dB

Application macro to calculate the co-site Interference matrix

Maxhold over frequency band for worst case coupling
3 threshold levels negligible, medium and strong coupling can be set to the
required value
Can also be used to illustrate inter-element coupling in arrays with large number of
elements
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Multi-Port Post-Processing Plugin

Variation of load impedances (impact on reflection coefficients at other

ports or also near and far fields) as part of the post-processing phase in
POSTFEKO without the need to run the FEKO solver for each changed
load configuration!
Licensing and Installation
Changes in FEKO 14.0
Copyright 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.

Installation Changes in FEKO 14.0

Integration into the HyperWorks Master Installer

Administrative rights no longer required for FEKO installations

on Windows
Exception are parallel runs using multiple Windows computers

Support for 32-bit architecture is being phased out

Support for Windows XP has been stopped

Copyright 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.

HWU Draw New Unlimited Solver Node Licensing

Installations for FEKO 14.0 are available for both legacy licensing
(i.e. secfeko.dat license file) and also for HWU (HyperWorks Units).

HyperWorks 14.0 introduces a new licensing scheme named

Unlimited Solver Node in addition to the existing Per Job Licensing
scheme, to give more flexibility to customers for solver runs:
Per Job Licensing:
Solver Node Licensing:
25 HWUs for 1 to 4 cores, with decay as more
cores are used and also decay as more concurrent
jobs are run
30 HWUs for 1st node, with decay as more
nodes are used (number of cores per node and
number of concurrent jobs irrelevant)
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HyperWorks Student Edition

HyperWorks Student Edition replaces FEKO LITE

Student Edition supports much larger models than FEKO LITE
Old Limit New Limit
Model Elements
FEKO LITE Student Edition
Number of wires in CADFEKO 40 100
Number of faces in CADFEKO 40 200
Number of mesh wire segments 500 2 500
Number of mesh triangles 500 25 000
Number of tetrahedral volume elements 300 250 000
Number of voxel elements (FDTD) 10 000 500 000
Solution Specification
Near-field observation points per request 1 000 10 000
Far-field observation directions per request 703 20 000
Number of frequency values 10 20
Solution Metrics
Main memory that can be allocated by FEKO kernel 20 MByte 1 GByte
Number of processes for parallel FEKO version 2 4
Total run-time (wall-clock time) of FEKO kernel 10 min 20 min
Number of adaptive frequency sampling points 10 101
Number of simultaneously active excitations 5 20
Number of optimisation variables (degrees of freedom) 2 3
Number of optimisation steps (iterations) 20 50
Copyright 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.

FEKO now available in Altairs HPC CAE Environment

Traditional HWUL HWUL

HPC CAE Physical Appliance Virtual Appliance

Unlimited Vendors Single Vendor Single Vendor

Limited Benefits Unlimited Benefits Unlimited Benefits
Copyright 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.

For more information visit

www.altairhyperworks.com/feko