DC capacitor simulation by the boundary element method

Abstract

When the direct current (DC) metallized thin film capacitor is fully charged the electromagnetic fields can be considered to have reached a steady state in which the governing equation is Laplace's equation. It is the computational analysis of the electrostatic state that is considered in this paper. The capacitor is modelled as a stack made up of infinitesimally thin layers of metal on polymer. An integral equation method from the BEMLAP package (www.boundary-element-method.com (Introduction to the Boundary Element Method for Scientists and Engineers: The BEMLAP Fortran Library for Laplace Problems)) for modelling the electric field, based on the methods described in Kirkup (Fortran codes for computing the discrete Helmholtz integral operators; Adv. Comput. Math. 1998; 9:391-409). The method is applied to a typical capacitor structure and encouraging results are obtained. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.