|
TC-9 Computational EMC |
Annual Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES) Conference Draws Computational Electromagnetics Enthusiasts from Academia, Government and IndustryBy Colin E. Brench |
Each March the Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES) holds its annual conference at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. ACES first began as a computer modeling/electromagnetics workshop with the goal of providing a forum for the discussion of computer modeling tools like the Numerical Electromagnetics Code (NEC). Today, members of the society are very active in a wide range of Computational Electromagnetics (CEM) research and development, all of which are well represented at the annual conference.
The annual ACES conference provides an opportunity to gather together with a number of CEM enthusiasts. The goal of this conference is to bring together those wishing to share information and experiences about the practical application of computational methods to current EM challenges. Presentations, courses, and workshops are offered in areas such as the validation and performance of computer codes and the underlying solution techniques; the development of new algorithms, computational techniques, and code enhancements; and the application of these techniques to real problems. In addition, ACES also addresses model input/output data issues; the intention being to provide some standard input geometry file and output format to ease the application of meshing routines and data management.
The ACES conference runs for six days. This year it was held from March 20 to 25. While Monday, Friday, and Saturday were reserved for full and half day short courses, the remaining conference days each began with a plenary session of general interest. After the plenary session, the conference split into three or four parallel sessions and provided the almost two hundred attendees with papers on a wide range of topics. Many of those that attend this conference are from academia and government organizations; a much smaller percentage is from industry.
This year's short courses addressed theoretical and numerical topics, and different design issues including EMC modeling. The short course on EMC modeling was a full day course entitled "EMI/ EMC Computational Modeling for Real World Engineering Problems", and presented an overview of numerical techniques relevant to EMC. More importantly it provided an in depth discussion on how to create and use effective models to solve EMI/EMC problems.
During the week, the major numerical techniques, their use, optimization and development were covered in a number of the sessions. For those actively involved in developing EMC modeling tools, these sessions provided good insight into the way that the field is developing. It was also revealing to see how EM tools are applied to non-EMC problems. Antenna behavior, radar cross-section and most other areas of CEM require great accuracy, while EMC modeling is somewhat less precise. It is encouraging to see that Computational Electromagnetic modeling can provide accurate answers to specific problems.
Two of the sessions were of particular interest to the EMC engineer: "Numerical Techniques for Packaging and Inter-connects", and "EMC". In the first session, some of the papers addressed the difficulties associated with the creation of practical models for packages and transmission lines. The EMC session provided largely practical papers discussing how best numerical techniques can be applied to EMC problems. Topics covered ranged from modeling for a number of printed circuit module problems, to the analysis of shielded enclosures.
Having a full session dedicated to EMC is a frequent though not a constant item at the ACES conference. It is anticipated that as EMC issues become more complex, the need for CEM to address these issues will also grow. As a result, ACES is strongly encouraging participation from those who work in this area. There is little doubt that EMC engineers can benefit greatly from the wide range of information available and from the insights that can be obtained by those working in fields so closely related to our own.
ACES is an excellent resource for those wishing to learn more about the application and the underlying theory of computational EM. Further information on ACES, including membership information, the call for papers for next year's conference, and contact information for ACES officers can be found at https://aces.ee.olemiss.edu/. This page also provides additional links to other computational electromagnetics pages that may be of use to the reader. EMC