High performance computing techniques for efficient 3D full-wave simulation of EMC problems

All electronic devices must meet electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) standards to ensure safe and reliable operations. Using simulations to investigate possible EMC issues during the design stage can be used to quickly identify possible issues. Realistic simulations may however result in very large scale problems, especially if one wants to include all possible environment effects. This article describes how to use high performance computing techniques for efficient EMC simulations, introducing different strategies that can be applied to a wide range of problems. Two examples are discussed: A large scale PCB simulation, and an ESD simulation of a cable system in a vehicle. A number of simulation techniques and technologies are shown and discussed, including domain decomposition, GPU computing, combining solver technologies, and the use of model segmentation to study how a large system can be simulated in a piece-wise fashion.