CST E-News May 2007
Welcome to the May issue of CST’s E-News, our series of regular news and feature
updates. We hope that you find the contents relevant, interesting and informative.
Any feedback and suggestions for future editions is welcome.
News in brief
- Visit CST at MTT-S IMS 2007 in Honolulu
- EDA interface range enhanced with version 2008
- What's next in CST MWS?
- European User Group Meeting – call for contributions
- Training sessions
- EMC benchmarks solved by CST MWS
- Complete technology - a review, an outlook
- www.cst.com - new application notes
- Calendar of events
1. Visit CST at MTT-S IMS 2007 in Honolulu
Aloha!
This year’s MTT-S IMS will take place in Honolulu, Hawaii where we will be previewing
CST STUDIO SUITE™ 2008. The beta testing phase is just starting and the final
release version will be available in the 4th quarter of 2007. In version 2008 we
have focused predominantly on performance improvements and workflow integration;
Linux fans will also be in for an additional treat. Since this is a pre-preview
we do not want to disclose too much, but drop by booth #735 for more information
or watch for more news on our website.
- Party Time –
If you are on the show floor, don’t miss Hawaiian Happy Hour on Wednesday June 6th
at the CST Hula Hut. Follow this link and download an invitation to our
customer appreciation party.
2. EDA interface range enhanced with version 2008
Signal and power integrity are becoming increasingly important concerns in today’s
PCB layouts. CST 3D EM simulation tools offer a versatile way to study these effects
at the virtual prototype level; particularly since field propagation is considered
approximation free. Straightforward design flow and seamless integration of layout
are prerequeisite to making the design engineer successful in the EDA environment.
The most commonly chosen layout options in CST STUDIO SUITE™ 2006B are the multilayer
Gerber import and the Cadence® Allegro® interface. The power of these tools
and CST solver technology were most impressively demonstrated in the
EPEP IBM benchmark.
CST is a member of Mentor Graphics’ OpenDoor™ program, and has been working
to establish a link to facilitate data exchange as well as improving overall design
flow. Version 2008 will see a new proprietary interface to Mentor Graphics Expedition™.
Layouts can be exported - entirely, in parts, or only selected nets - directly from
Expedition and imported into CST MWS.
If you use Mentor Graphics Board Station®, Zuken, or other layout tools, the
ODB++ import should be your first choice. ODB++ is a widely supported, intelligent
CAD/CAM data exchange format capturing all CAD/EDA, assembly and PCB fabrication
knowledge in one single, unified database. The ODB++ import option will be available
with CST STUDIO SUITE™ 2008.
3. What’s next in CST MWS?
We have just finished the coding phase for CST MWS 2008, so this is the perfect
moment to invite you to participate in discussions on our future direction. If one
or two features would make an impact on your work, please let us know; we will try
to integrate your suggestions into our planning.
You should describe your idea and the benefit it will have in your application area
as precisely as possible and send it to news@cst.com.
We appreciate your input.
4. European User Group Meeting – call for contributions
CST’s 3rd European User Group Meeting will be held 13-14 September 2007 on Lake
Tegernsee, Germany. If you would like to contribute to this event, to share your
experiences, to discuss your questions in a forum of your peers, please submit a
text abstract of between 100 and 200 words to events@cst.com.
Submission deadline: 30.6.2007
The provisional agenda, call for contributions, and on-line registration can be
found online.
5. Training seminars
Our product training seminars have proved to be extremely popular with the CST STUDIO
SUITE user community. In response to this growing demand we have increased the number
of standard sessions; so check our website for more information and to
reserve your seat.
If you would like to book a bespoke training course, please contact your local support
centre to discuss your requirements.
6. EMC benchmarks solved by CST MWS
With the increasing frequencies and growing complexity of electrical devices, EMC
compliance has become a major design constraint. EMC behaviour should be considered
early on in the design process, and 3D electromagnetic field simulators are ideal
tools for the job. These problems tend to be very complex; they are typically electrically
large and often include intricate details. There have been widespread doubts regarding
the reliability of modern simulation tools to fulfil this task.
A new test-suite of “Standard EMC modelling problems” has been created as part of
a joint project by the Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES) and
IEEE EMC Society TC-9 subcommittee. These serve to examine the capability of numerical
simulation for EMC problems. Measurement and modelling data are provided for a range
of typical EMC tasks and all problem descriptions, data, and reports are available
under: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/cmte/tc9/.
Reports on solving the defined problems have been submitted by various research
institutes and clearly show that CST MWS’ transient solver is particularly well
suited to delivering fast and reliable results for various EMC problems.
7. Complete Technology - a review, an outlook
With the introduction of CST MWS 2006, CST started to actively promote the Complete
Technology approach to simulation. “Complete Technology for 3D EM” means that the
user - you, can model a structure in our graphical user interface, and then decide
which solver should be applied. In most cases this means choosing between the Time
and Frequency Domain modules, and in the latter case, between hexahedral and tetrahedral
meshing. This offers you the ability to compare methods, to select the most appropriate
solver, and to cross verify numerical results easily. 25% of our customers are already
taking advantage of this unique capability.
Alongside these two general purpose solvers, CST MWS features several specialised
solver types: the eigenmode solver, the resonant solvers, and last but not least
the Integral Equation solver, which is dedicated to electrically large structures.
To learn more about CST MWS' palette of solvers, click
here.
8. Application notes
New application articles are regularly being added to our website. Recent additions
include “Signal Integrity Analysis of a Complex Multi-Layered Package”.
As microprocessor clock frequencies increase, and their ASIC power supply voltages
decrease to 2.0V and below, the power distribution system of IC packages is becoming
an increasingly important design challenge. A number of vias are used both to connect
power planes at multiple locations to each other, and also multiple ground planes
to each other. An important design issue is how to determine the number of power
and ground planes, and the number and the locations of power and ground vias, for
a given power supply noise margin.
Read the full article
here.
9. Calendar of events
We are out and about at numerous events over the summer, so please come along and
join us.
Next workshop:
Next exhibitions:
- 14 June, ESHO, Prague, Czech Republic
- 14 - 15 June, EMC Europe Workshop Paris, France
- 19 - 21 June, ENDE, Cardiff, UK
- 20 - 21 June, EEEfCOM, Ulm, Germany
- 27 - 28 June, EEEfCOM UK, London, UK
Next training sessions:
- 3rd July, CST MWS part 1, Darmstadt, Germany
- 4th July, CST MWS part 2, Darmstadt, Germany
- 5th July, CST EMS, Darmstadt, Germany
- 6th July, CST PS, Darmstadt, Germany
You'll find more dates for your calendar on our
events page.
With kind regards,
Your CST Team
CST - Changing the Standards
Computer Simulation Technology
info@cst.com, www.cst.com