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SimYOG, a new start-up spin-off from the India Institute of Science, cofounded by Dipanjan Gope, an Assistant Professor and a cofounder of Nimbic, which was acquired by Mentor Graphics, a Siemens Company, wins hands down for the coolest product shown at the 2017 IEEE EMC Conference.
Their Compliance-Scope product is a Virtual EMI/EMC laboratory where designers can validate and improve their hardware by leveraging a 3D full wave electromagnetic simulation tool using method of moments. What makes their product so cool is the 3D, virtual reality interface display.
I got a chance to experience it first hand, as Figure 1 documents. Once the fields are solved, I could navigate through the 3D structure, flying though via fields, down stripline traces, and through narrow gaps between planes like a miniature eagle, looking for current hot spots or leaking fields.
Examples of a few of the scenes I could see in stunning 3D are show in Figure 2.
While I think the coolest feature of their Compliance-Scope is the new perspective of being embedded inside a PCB structure and able to see it from the inside out, Prof Gope says the real innovation is in the solver technology. In most 3D tools, if a small change is made in the geometry, such as tweaking a pad, or changing a clearance hole, the entire problem needs to be re-simulated.
In Compliance-Scope, the meshing is changed incrementally. This means most of the mesh and solution space from the initial set up can be re-used, saving computation time.
Gope adds that his team is implementing “diagnostic” technology, as artificial intelligence. It will perform a sensitivity analysis and determine which features in the design most strongly affect some feature in the fields or currents, or transient response. He says this should enable Compliance -Scope to be a more efficient debug tool.
I’m hoping to experience the “Signal crossing a gap” ride at a future EDI CON.