Modeling of ultra‐wideband indoor channels with the modified leapfrog ADI‐FDTD method

Full‐wave time‐domain electromagnetic methods are usually effective in rigorously modeling and evaluating ultra‐wideband (UWB) wireless channels. However, their computational expenditures are expensive, when they are used to deal with electrically large‐size problems consisting of fine structures. In order to reduce computational time, the unconditionally stable leapfrog alternating‐direction implicit finite‐difference time‐domain (leapfrog ADI‐FDTD) method has been proposed recently. In this paper, the leapfrog ADI‐FDTD algorithm is developed for simulating lossy objects, such as office walls, floors, and ceilings, for UWB communication channel characterization. It leads to effective UWB channel characterization with power‐decay time constant, path loss exponent, and probability distribution of power gain. In comparison with the conventional FDTD, the proposed method can achieve 60% saving in computational time while retaining good accuracy. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the development of efficient FDTD‐PML formulations for general dispersive media

A novel implementation of the perfectly matched layer (PML) absorbing boundary condition (ABC) to terminate the finite‐difference time‐domain (FDTD) algorithm for general dispersive and negative index materials is presented. The proposed formulation also adopts the complex frequency‐shifted (CFS) approach, involves simple FDTD expressions and avoids complex arithmetic. Several FDTD‐PML simulations with different parameters are conducted for the termination of various dispersive media validating the stability, accuracy and effectiveness of the schemes and indicating the advantage of the CFS‐PML. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parallel FETI‐DP algorithm for efficient simulation of large‐scale EM problems

An efficient parallelization of the dual‐primal finite‐element tearing and interconnecting (FETI‐DP) algorithm is presented for large‐scale electromagnetic simulations. As a nonoverlapping domain decomposition method, the FETI‐DP algorithm formulates a global interface problem, whose iterative solution is accelerated with a solution of a global corner problem. To achieve a good load balance for parallel computation, the original computational domain is decomposed into subdomains with similar sizes and shapes. The subdomains are then distributed to processors based on their close proximity to minimize inter‐processor communication. The parallel generalized minimal residual method, enhanced with the iterative classical Gram‐Schmidt orthogonalization scheme to reduce global communication, is adopted to solve the global interface problem with a fast convergence rate. The global corner‐related coarse problem is solved iteratively with a parallel communication‐avoiding biconjugate gradient stabilized method to minimize global communication, and its convergence is accelerated by a diagonal preconditioner constructed from the coarse system matrix. To alleviate neighboring communication overhead, the non‐blocking communication approach is employed in both generalized minimal residual and communication‐avoiding biconjugate gradient stabilized iterative solutions. Three numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the accuracy, scalability, and capability of the proposed parallel FETI‐DP algorithm for electromagnetic modeling of general objects and antenna arrays. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Electromagnetic radiation from vertical dipole antennas near air–lossy soil interface—a finite‐difference time‐domain simulation

Radiation from vertical dipole antennas, which are located over or under the surface of lossy earth, is analysed by the finite‐difference time‐domain (FDTD) method in cylindrical coordinates. A novel generalized perfectly matched layer (PML) has been developed and used for the truncation of the lossy soil. In order to decrease the memory requirements and for having an accurate modelling, an efficient ‘non‐uniform’ mesh generation scheme is used. The excitation is considered in the form of sine carrier modulated by Gaussian pulse (SCMGP) and in each time step, computation is limited to that part of the mesh where the radiated pulse is passing (computational window). This could considerably reduce the required CPU time. In this manner, large‐scale problems can be solved and the values of radiated field at far distances (up to 500λ₀ in this work) can be obtained directly by the FDTD method. The frequency‐domain results are calculated from the obtained time‐domain results by taking the Fourier transform. The spatial distributions of the amplitude and phase of radiated field are shown in illustrations for different types of soil and different positions of antenna. The influence of the lossy soil on dipole's admittance is also shown. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A dual‐primal finite‐element tearing and interconnecting method combined with tree‐cotree splitting for modeling electromechanical devices

The dual‐primal finite‐element tearing and interconnecting (FETI‐DP) method is combined with the tree‐cotree splitting (TCS) method to expand the capability and improve the efficiency of the finite‐element analysis of electromechanical devices. With the FETI‐DP method, an original large‐scale problem is decomposed into smaller subdomain problems and parallel computing schemes are then employed to reduce the computation time significantly. The TCS method is adopted to deal with the low‐frequency breakdown problem, which often accompanies the finite‐element analysis of electromechanical problems. On the basis of the computed magnetic field values, the force is computed with the use of the Maxwell stress tensor method. The proposed technique is applied to solve both high‐contrast magnetostatic problems and eddy‐current problems. Results are compared with both measurement data and brute‐force finite‐element calculations without domain decomposition. Comprehensive tests are conducted to investigate the parallel efficiency and numerical scalability. The results show that the proposed method can achieve a good parallel efficiency and an excellent numerical scalability with respect to the number of subdomains and the size of the problem. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Realization of log‐domain high‐order transfer functions using first‐order building blocks and complementary operators

High‐order log‐domain filters could be easily designed by using the functional block diagram (FBD) representation of the corresponding linear prototype and a set of complementary operators. For this purpose, lossy and lossless integrator blocks have been already introduced in the literature. Novel first‐order log‐domain highpass and allpass filter configurations, which are fully compatible with the already published integrator blocks, are introduced in this paper. These are realized using integration and subtraction blocks or a novel differentiation configuration. As a result, a complete set of first‐order building blocks would be available for synthesizing any arbitrary high‐order transfer function. In order to verify the correct operation of the proposed structures, the performance of the introduced highpass filters was evaluated through simulation results. In addition, a fifth‐order log‐domain bandpass filter was designed and simulated using one of the introduced first‐order highpass filter configurations. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dispersive TLM Z‐transform model of left‐handed metamaterials

In this paper, a numerical model of electromagnetic left‐handed metamaterials is proposed. The dispersive properties of these materials are accounted for in the time domain by using the transmission‐line matrix method based on Z‐transforms. The close agreements obtained between the analytic and numerical results verify the validity, accuracy and stability of the approach. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A matrix‐exponential decomposition‐based time‐domain method for band structure calculation of one‐dimensional periodic structures

A time‐domain method for calculating the band structure of one‐dimensional periodic structures is proposed. During the time‐stepping of the method, the column vector containing the spatially sampled field data is updated by multiplying with an iteration matrix. The iteration matrix is first obtained by using the matrix‐exponential decomposition technique. Then, the small nonzero elements of the matrix are pruned to improve its sparse structure, so that the efficiency of the matrix–vector multiplication involved in each time‐step is enhanced. The numerical results show that the method is conditionally stable but is much more stable than the conventional finite‐difference time‐domain (FDTD) method. The time‐step with which the method runs stably can be much larger than the Courant–Friedrichs–Lewy (CFL) limit. And moreover, the method is found to be particularly efficient for the band structure calculation of large‐scale structures containing a defect with a very high wave speed, where the conventional FDTD method may generally lose its efficiency severely. For this kind of structures, not only the stability requirement can be significantly relaxed, but also the matrix‐pruning operation can be very effectively performed. In the numerical experiments for large‐scale quasi‐periodic phononic crystal structures containing a defect layer, significantly higher efficiency than the conventional FDTD method can be achieved by the proposed method without an evident accuracy deterioration if the wave speed of the defect layer is relatively high. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Higher‐order CN‐FETD method for analysis of microwave circuit structures

In this paper, the hierarchical high‐order basis functions on tetrahedrons are introduced to the Crank–Nicolson (CN) finite‐element time‐domain (FETD) with the 3D Maxwell equations for analysis of the microwave circuit structures. Whitney 1‐form high‐order hierarchical basis functions are used to expand the electric field and Whitney 2‐form high‐order hierarchical basis functions for the magnetic field. The CN scheme is employed in the FETD method to lead to an unconditionally stable algorithm. Numerical results were presented to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed high‐order CN‐FETD method. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An accurate time‐domain model of transmission lines with frequency‐dependent parameters

Linear lossy two‐conductor transmission line can be modelled as dynamic two ports in the time domain, via the describing input and transfer impulse responses. This convolution technique is very effective when dealing with networks composed of transmission lines with frequency‐dependent parameters and non‐linear and/or time‐varying circuits. The paper carries out an accurate analysis of this model, in the most general case of lines with frequency‐dependent parameters. For such lines it is not possible to evaluate analytically the impulse responses, nor is it possible to catch them numerically, due to the presence of irregular terms, such as Dirac pulses, terms that numerically behave as Dirac pulses, and functions of the type 1/t^ρ with 0 < ρ <1. A simple method is proposed to evaluate exactly all the irregular terms of the impulse responses: once these irregular parts have been extracted, the regular remainders are easily evaluated numerically. This method is applied to analyse lines with frequency‐dependent parameters of practical interest, such as superconductor transmission lines, power lines above a finite conductivity ground, lines with frequency‐dependent dielectric losses and lines with normal and anomalous skin‐effect. Numerical simulations are carried out for illustration. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Implementation of the stretched co‐ordinate‐based PML for waveguide structures in TLM

A novel implementation of the stretched co‐ordinate‐based perfectly matched layer (SCB PML) is presented to terminate waveguide structures in transmission‐line modelling (TLM). A generalized SCB PML, the complex frequency shifted PML (CFS PML) is also implemented to investigate its performance for evanescent waves. State variables in the Z‐domain are employed to obtain update equations for incident voltage pulses. Numerical results for a rectangular waveguide filled with a lossy medium as well as free space, and for a parallel plate waveguide are presented. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Calderón‐preconditioned single source combined field integral equation for analysis of bi‐isotropic object

In this paper, a Calderón‐preconditoned single source combined field integral equation (SSCFIE) has been developed to analyze electromagnetic scattering from bi‐isotropic objects. The field decomposition method is adopted to split the homogeneous bi‐isotropic media into two uncoupled isotropic media instead of direct calculation of complicated Green's function in bi‐isotropic material. Unlike dual source integral equation, the Calderón‐preconditioned single source electric and magnetic integral equations in the presence of bi‐isotropic media are constructed and combined to make the proposed algorithm free from dense mesh breakdown and spurious resonance. Numerical results show good performance of the proposed algorithm. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multiresolution model of electromagnetic wave propagation in dispersive materials

A multiresolution time‐domain (MRTD) technique based on Haar wavelets has been applied to model the propagation of waves in dispersive materials, using a discretization of the convolution equation that governs the behaviour of the media. To validate the method, the reflection coefficient at the interface between air and several different linear dispersive media, as well as the propagation of a plane wave towards a non‐linear dispersive medium have been calculated and compared with other numerical techniques and theoretical results. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A non‐conformal FETI‐like domain decomposition approach of FE‐BI‐MLFMA for 3‐D electromagnetic scattering/radiation problems

A non‐conformal finite element tearing and interconnecting‐like (FETI‐like) domain decomposition approach (DDA) of the hybrid finite element–boundary integral–multilevel fast multipole algorithm (FE‐BI‐MLFMA) is presented by integrating a series efficient techniques for computing electromagnetic scattering/radiation problems. The Robin transmission condition is employed to cement the non‐conformal meshes on the interconnected surfaces between the interior and exterior regions and between sub‐domains in the interior region. The FETI‐like technique is applied to reduce the FE‐BI matrix equation. Furthermore, a preconditioner is constructed to accelerate the convergent speed of this non‐conformal FETI‐like DDA. The numerical performance of the presented non‐conformal FETI‐like DDA‐FE‐BI‐MLFMA is studied for scattering/radiation problems. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A DC stabilized log‐domain nth‐order multifunction filter based on the decomposition of nth‐order HP filter function to FLF topology

The design of high‐order log‐domain filters can be easily accomplished by transposing already known linear‐domain G_m‐C filter topologies to their counterparts in the log‐domain through the employment of a set of complementary operators. To achieve the G_m‐C filter topologies, the multiple feedback approach is widely used due to its accrued advantages. In this paper a synthesis approach for the development of an nth‐order multifunction log‐domain filter comprising lowpass (LP), highpass (HP) and bandpass (BP) filter functions is proposed. The approach is based on the decomposition of nth‐order HP filter function to follow‐the‐leader‐feedback (FLF) topology. The design is simple and simultaneously achieves nearly all of the chief advantages. The design offers superior performance factors vis‐à‐vis the ones recently reported. To verify the high‐order behavior of the topology, a 5th‐order multifunction filter was designed and the achieved simulated results verify the theory. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An overlapping Yee finite‐difference time‐domain method for material interfaces between anisotropic dielectrics and general dispersive or perfect electric conductor media

A novel stable anisotropic finite‐difference time‐domain (FDTD) algorithm based on the overlapping cells is developed for solving Maxwell's equations of electrodynamics in anisotropic media with interfaces between different types of materials, such as the interface between anisotropic dielectrics and dispersive medium or perfect electric conductor (PEC). The previous proposed conventional anisotropic FDTD methods suffer from the late‐time instability due to the extrapolation of the field components near the material interface. The proposed anisotropic overlapping Yee FDTD method is stable, as it relies on the overlapping cells to provide the collocated field values without any interpolation or extrapolation. Our method has been applied to simulate electromagnetic invisibility cloaking devices with both anisotropic dielectrics and PEC included in the computational domain. Numerical results and eigenvalue analysis confirm that the conventional anisotropic FDTD method is weakly unstable, whereas our method is stable. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A 0.008‐mm2, 35‐μW, 8.87‐ps‐resolution CMOS time‐to‐digital converter using dual‐slope architecture

This paper presents a high resolution time‐to‐digital converter (TDC) for low‐area applications. To achieve both high resolution and low circuit area, we propose a dual‐slope voltage‐domain TDC, which is composed of a time‐to‐voltage converter (TVC) and an analog‐to‐digital converter (ADC). In the TVC, a current source and a capacitor are used to make the circuit as simple as possible. For the same reason, a single‐slope ADC, which is commonly used for compact area ADC applications, is adapted and optimized. Because the main non‐linearity occurs in the current source of the TVC and the ramp generator of the ADC, a double gain‐boosting current source is applied to overcome the low output impedance of the current source in the sub‐100‐nm CMOS process. The prototype TDC is implemented using a 65‐nm CMOS process, and occupies only 0.008 mm². The measurement result shows a dynamic range with an 8‐bit 8.86‐ps resolution and an integrated non‐linearity of ±1.25 LSB. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modelling of lossy curved surfaces in the 3‐D frequency‐domain finite‐difference methods

A conformal first‐order or Leontovic surface‐impedance boundary condition (SIBC) for the modelling of fully three‐dimensional (3‐D) lossy curved surfaces in a Cartesian grid is presented for the frequency‐domain finite‐difference (FD) methods. The impedance boundary condition is applied to auxiliary tangential electric and magnetic field components defined at the curved surface. The auxiliary components are subsequently eliminated from the formulation resulting in a modification of the local permeability value at boundary cells, allowing the curved 3‐D surface to be described in terms of Cartesian grid components. The proposed formulation can be applied to model skin‐effect loss in time‐harmonic driven problems. In addition, the impedance matrix can be used as a post‐processor for the eigenmode solver to calculate the wall loss. The validity of the proposed model is evaluated by investigating the quality factors of cylindrical and spherical cavity resonators. The results are compared with analytic solutions and numerical reference data calculated with the commercial software package CST Microwave Studio™ (MWS). The convergence rate of the results is shown to be of second‐order for smooth curved metal surfaces. The overall accuracy of the approach is comparable to that of CST MWS™. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Active‐terminated transmitter and receiver circuits for high‐speed low‐swing duobinary signaling

In this work, we propose transmitter and receiver circuits for high‐speed, low‐swing duobinary signaling over active‐terminated chip‐to‐chip interconnect. In active‐termination scheme port impedance of transmitter and receiver is matched with characteristic impedance of the interconnect. Elimination of the passive terminators helps in reducing the transmitted signal level without degrading the 0signal detectability of the receiver. High‐speed current‐mode receiver and transmitter circuits are designed, so that the input port impedance of the receiver and the output port impedance of the transmitter are matched with characteristic impedance of the link. These Tx–Rx pair is used to validate the proposed active‐termination scheme. We also propose a duobinary precoder architecture suitable for high‐speed operation and a low‐power broadband equalizer topology for compensating the lossy long interconnect. The duobinary transmitter and receiver circuits are implemented in 1.8 V, 0.18 µm Digital CMOS technology. The designed high‐speed duobinary Tx/Rx circuits work up to 8 Gb/s speed while transmitting the data over 29.5 in. FR4 PCB trace for a targeted bit error rate (BER) of 10^?15. The power consumed in the transmitter and receiver circuits is 42.9 mW at 8 Gb/s. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Extending the enlarged cell and uniformly stable conformal techniques to modeling curved conductors in two‐dimensional high‐order finite‐difference time‐domain algorithms

The critical tool of modeling irregularly shaped perfect conductors is developed for the extended‐stencil high‐order two‐dimensional M24 variant of the finite‐difference time‐domain (FDTD) method. Two standard FDTD conformal approaches are analyzed and successfully extended to work accurately with M24. They both afford higher order convergence with respect to mesh density than a previously developed technique, which better matches M24's characteristics. Both approaches rely on borrowing weighted electromotive forces from nearby extended‐stencil cells to ensure accuracy and numerical stability while the overall algorithm is efficiently operated at the maximum allowable time steps by FDTD and M24 theories. Validation examples demonstrate that M24's amplitude and phase accuracies using coarse numerical meshes were not compromised. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.