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This tutorial introduces the interface of Ansoft’s HFSS, and walks the student through an
example problem of creating, simulating and evaluating the response of a standard stripline
structure.
1 Starting HFSS
At UNCC, the HFSS application resides on a Linux based server by the name of “hertz”
which is part of the Reconfigurable Computing System (rcs). The best way to access this
server is through the Mosaic system.
1. type ssh -C -Y rcs you should now be prompted to log into the rcs system –
do not use your mosaic password, use your rcs password instead.
2. type ssh -C -Y hertz you should now be prompted to log into hertz – use the
same password that you used to log into the rcs network.
3. type hfss and wait a few moments for the gui to appear.
1
Figure 1: Path in Windows Mosaic to access Exceed Linux servers.
• 3D Modeler Window This is the area where you create the model geometry. This
window consists of the model view area (or grid) and the history tree as shown in
Figure 2. The history tree documents the actions that have been taken in the model
view area, and provides an alternative way to select objects in the model view area.
• Project Manager with Project Tree The project manager window displays details
about all open HFSS projects. Each project ultimately includes a geometric model, its
boundary conditions and material assignments, and field solution and post processing
information. An expanded view of the project manager is shown in Figure 2
• Properties Window The properties window consists of two tabs. The command tab
displays information about an action selected in the history tree that was performed
to either create an object or modify an object. The attribute tab displays information
about the material and display properties of a selected object.
• Progress Window This window is used when a simulation is running to monitor the
solution’s progress.
• Message Manager This window displays messages associated with a project’s devel-
opment (such as error messages about the design’s setup)
3 Setting up HFSS
Before you can use HFSS for the first time, there are a couple of items that need to be
configured for efficient and accurate operation.
1. On the Tools menu, select Options => General Options ..., click the Default Units tab
and ensure that Length is set to mm. Click OK.
2. On the Tools menu, select Options => HFSS Options..., ensure the Include ferrite
materials check box is checked. Click the Solver tab, set the number of Processors to
4, Desired RAM Limit (MB) to 6000 and the Maximum RAM Limit (MB) to 8000.
Click OK.
Property
Window
Message Progress
Manager Window
1. input the x, y, z coordinates of each component of the box into the appropriate fields
at the bottom of the 3D model window, or
History Model
Tree View
Area
Figure 4: 3D Modeler Window, which consists of the model view area and the history tree.
2. click randomly in the 3D model window three times to create a box and edit the size
in the properties box. To do this, click the command tab in the properties box and
input the correct start position, and xsize, ysize and zsize for our box.
For our stripline circuit, we want to box to be 200mm in the x-direction, 40mm in the
y-direction and 10mm in the z-direction. The box should start at the location (-100mm,
-20mm, -5mm) with XSize = 200mm, YSize = 40mm and ZSize = 10mm. The material
parameters are set by clicking on the attribute tab in the properties window. Click on the
block that says Vacuum and a window should open titled “Select Definition.” Highlight
Teflon in the materials list and click OK. If you wish to change the color or transparency of
the box you may also do so in the attribute tab.
At this point, the box should cover the entire screen. To view the entire box, click the
button with a picture of a magnifying glass with a white square in the middle. This button
“fits all the contents in the view.” All that remains is to create the center trace of the
stripline.
• Radiation boundary on the long sides of the dielectric (simulates the material extending
to infinity in that direction)
To apply these boundary conditions, right click in the 3D modeler window and click “Select
Faces”. Now, select the top face, bottom face and the strip using the control key. Note: to
select faces beneath what you can see, click the face you want and press the “b” key until the
desired face is selected. With these three items selected, right click in the “white–space” of
the 3D modeler window and highlight “Assign Boundary,” and click “Perfect E...”. Click OK.
Next, select the long sides of the dielectric using the control key. Right click in the white–
space of the 3D modeler window and highlight “Assign Boundary,” and click “Radiation...”
Click OK.
To check that the boundaries are created correctly, expand the “Boundaries” item in the
Project Tree, and you should see “PerfE1” and “Rad1” or similar. Highlight PerfE1, and
you should see hash marks indicating which regions of the model apply to this boundary.
Highlight Rad1 to see the same information for the radiation boundary.
4.4 Excitations
We will create a “Waveport” excitation at each end of the circuit. To do so, we perform the
following steps:
1. Select the face of the nearest end of the circuit
2. right click in the 3D modeler window and select Assign Excitation => Wave Port.
3. Click Next
4. Under “Integration Line,” click the word None, and select New Line...
5. In the 3D modeler window, click the center of the bottom of the selected face (a triangle
will appear)
6. Click the center of the trace
7. Clck Next
8. Click Finish
The same steps should be performed to create a wave port at the other end of the circuit.
4.5 Analysis
Perform the following steps to set up the analysis options:
1. Right click on Analysis in the Project Tree, and select “Add Solution Setup”
2. Under the General tab:
(a) Set the solution frequency to 20 GHz
(b) Set the maximum number of passes to 30
(c) Set maximum Delta S to 0.01
3. Under the Options tab:
(a) Set the Maximum Refinement per pass to 20 %
(b) Set the Order of Basis Functions to Second Order
Perform the following steps to set up the frequency sweep:
1. Under the Analysis item in the Project Tree, right-click on Setup1
2. Select Add Frequency Sweep...
3. Set start frequency to 1 GHz
4. Set stop frequency to 20 GHz
5. Set step size to 0.25 GHz
6. Click OK
4.6 Final Checks and Running the Simulation
Select HFSS => Validation Check... to ensure the project is prepared for simulation (click
close).
Save the project by clicking on the save icon at the top of the screen.
Right-click setup1 under Analysis in the project tree, select Analyze to begin the sim-
ulation. At this point the progress window should show the progress of the simulation,
beginning with the mesh generation.
3. Under the trace tab, select the first S-Parameter that you wish to view and click New
Report
5. Click Close