Figure 1. PZFlex 2017 transducer simulation. (Image courtesy of PZFlex.)
Engineers designing piezoelectric devices for Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and RF filters will appreciate the enhanced features and capabilities in PZFlex 2017, the latest release of the popular PZFlex FEA and multiphysics tool. PZFlex mitigates computational complexity requirements to enable simulation of complex systems and components without requiring huge computational capacity. Engineers can now design and fully simulate their piezoelectric and ultrasound devices to reduce design cycle time and design risk, and speed up time to market.
The latest release of this tool incorporates multiple enhanced features:
Figure 2. The circuit simulation in PZFlex can include driving circuits. (Image courtesy of PZFlex.)
Coupled circuit simulation—Circuit simulations can include the piezoelectric or ultrasound device as well as electrical components in the circuit and driving or receiving components. The resulting simulation provides a more accurate and complete picture of the operation that includes the effects of the embedded circuitry.
Figure 3. PZFlex supports arbitrary electrode design. (Image courtesy of PZFlex.)
Custom electrode simulation—Electrodes can be designed and simulated with custom, irregular and arbitrary shapes to enhance performance, reduce parasitic resonance, and meet system requirements.
Figure 4. Tensors in PZFlex can specify advanced material properties. (Image courtesy of PZFlex.)
Advanced material simulation—Full mechanical, piezoelectric and dielectric tensors can be defined to model custom materials. Cuts and symmetries can be modeled by transposition of properties.
Figure 5. Electro-mechanical simulation in PZFlex. (Image courtesy of PZFlex.)
Electro-mechanical simulation—PZFlex supports the elastodynamic and piezoelectric effects required to analyze and simulate large devices such as Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW), Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW), Film Bulk Acoustic Wave Resonator (FBAR) and Solidly Mounted Resonator (SMR).
Figure 6. S-parameter extraction in PZFlex. (Image courtesy of PZFlex.)
S-parameter support—S-parameters can be extracted from signal information. Improved algorithms require only N simulations for an N-port device.
Figure 7. Materials can be characterized from experimental data. (Image courtesy of PZFlex.)
Material characterization—Experimental data can be analyzed to extract precise, relevant material properties, improving simulation accuracy and precision.
Figure 8. 3D simulation in PZFlex. (Image courtesy of PZFlex.)
3D models and simulations—Complete component geometries can be simulated and modeled in three dimensions to provide more complete and precise results. Models can be imported from CAD and other third-party tools.
High-performance solvers—Enhanced algorithms and methods reduce the computational capacity required to accelerate analysis and simulation. Faster simulations enable completion of more simulations during the design cycle, provide a more complete simulation of the system, and enable more design issues to be identified and resolved at the design state before committing to hardware production.
User-friendly interface—The updated user interface in PZFlex adds a ribbon for easy access to the most commonly used commands. A new Designer Model provides a 3D modeling environment that supports the direct import of 2D and 3D models and real-time analysis and simulation of these models. Post-processing visualization tools include Bode and S-Parameter plots to display component performance. FlexConnect integrates the solver capabilities with Matlab analysis tools to enhance optimization capabilities.
The latest release of PZFlex offers significant improvements to better support the design of piezoelectric and ultrasonic devices. To learn more, visit the PZFlex website.