Mittuniversitetet

This article is evaluating parallel processing in electromagnetic simulations for computationally demanding application, using developed FDTD code. A waveguide lens antenna which is complex and large in terms of wavelengths has been simulated and a prototype has been fabricated and measured. Simulated and measured radiation patterns are compared and showing good agreement. The approach of using parallel version of QuickWave-3D software on a popular multi-CPU shared-memory computer has been found suitable for demanding simulations of complex structures.

This paper studied the performance of the small-packet variant of the TCP Friendly Rate Control protocol in heterogeneous networks. The objective is to maximize system utilization, often called goodput, while maintaining fairness between the nodes. We show that by selecting the right queue size policy, it can be ensured that the bandwidth is fully utilized at a steady state. Additionally, we show that the judicious use of such a policy is beneficial for heterogeneous networks with high packet drop rates.

Is it possible to produce a planar dipole-like antenna with a reduced conductive area without any loss in either robustness or performance? The objective is to reduce the amount of expensive conductor to be used when applying a meshing technique to the printing of antennas. In this context, robustness means that the characteristics are maintained when the antenna is damaged, for example if it is scratched. This is particularly important for radio frequency identification tags in logistic systems. A general antenna robustness evaluation methodology, based on numerical simulations of a large number of randomly damaged antennas, is used for the antenna comparisons. The antenna performance degradation, based on the return loss (S11) at 868MHz, is monitored for some basic planar antennas. Finally, we show that it is possible to produce robust low-cost antennas using wire replacements for the solid planar antennas and thus, provided that the robustness requirement is moderate, replace the solid antenna with a thin conductor analogue.

We have studied the time evolution of an ensemble of holes in Wurtzite GaN under the effect of a high electric field. The density matrix equation used as a foundation in the study includes band-to-band tunneling, but disregards collisions. In the description of the ensemble dynamics the full band structure is used. The average energy and group velocity for the ensemble is calculated, as well as velocity components corresponding to the non-diagonal elements of the velocity operator (interference). The calculations have been carried out for the electric field strengths 0.4 and 4 MV/cm. A comparison is presented of the results with and without inclusion of band tunneling in the ensemble dynamics. There is also a comparison of the velocity with and without the non-diagonal elements of the velocity operator terms. A conclusion is that Monte Carlo simulations considering band tunneling, but not interference, can give accurate results.

Fast parallel processing of the FDTD method is becoming very important, and its efficiency on different multiprocessor computer architectures should be carefully examined. Is it possible to have the same versatile parallel FDTD simulator working efficiently on a set of very different computer architectures? In contrast to distributed memory systems, shared memory systems can be built with a variety of memory configuration types (and subtypes) as well as combined with distributed memory systems. The paper focuses on viability of different shared memory architectures for parallel FDTD processing. Our analysis concerns the processing method suitable for both shared and distributed memory systems. The results of experiments comparing parallel processing efficiency on different shared memory machines are presented.

An ongoing European project on customization of electromagnetic simulation tool is ready to present significantly improved performance of parallel version of a professional FDTD simulator. The first stage of the work is concentrated on solution for computers with the shared memory architecture. The relevance and feasibility study of the solution for contemporary computers is shown. Possible ways to reach further performance improvements as well as solutions for distributed memory machines are discussed.

We address the question of robustness of damaged microstrip antennas, the damage being either penetrating, caused by fragment impact, or floating, caused by manufacturing imperfections. A simple analytic expression is derived to facilitate the prediction of robustness. To verify this expression a Monte Carlo method, based on a general 3D electromagnetic solver, is used to evaluate the robustness of the antennas. The simulations are verified by measurements and supplementary simulations in an alternative electromagnetic solver, using the finite difference time domain method (FDTD). The agreement between the simulated results and the analytic expression is found to be good in a qualitative comparison.

A commercial FDTD simulation software is the basis of an ongoing parallelization project. In the first phase of the project the work is aiming at optimization of the program on shared memory computers. In this paper we present the initial methods of parallelization with the achieved performance on a Sun Fire 15K NUMA computer. The achieved results are discussed, together with the possible paths to improve the speedup.

The full band Monte Carlo (MC) simulation framework is regarded as the most accurate method available to study high-field carrier transport in semiconductors. Its potential has been demonstrated in a large number of studies over the years. In this work we focus on how the quantum mechanical uncertainty at high scattering rates affects the validity Fermi's Golden Rule, which traditionally is the basis for the scattering handling in the MC method. Considering the uncertainty is important in for instance silicon carbide, which at moderate energies exhibits a scattering rate exceeding 1014 s-1. The expression for time-dependent scattering rate is presented together with calculated rates for some initial states with acoustic as well as polar-optical phonon interaction. A first-order time-dependent algorithm for handling of scattering events in MC simulators is proposed.

A set of equations for calculating the probability for electric-field-induced interband transitions in periodic crystals (Krieger and Iafrate 1986 Phys. Rev. B 33 5494) can be used in combination with the full band Monte Carlo method to study high-field electronic transport properties in semiconductors. However, when the equations are applied to realistic cases in which the underlying band structure is obtained from numerical band structure programmes, the equations are not directly solvable because of the indeterminacy of the phases of the band structure Bloch wavefunctions. Here we discuss this problem and present a method for choosing the phases of the Bloch functions in such a way that the equations yield physically correct interband transition probabilities.