Automated netlist generation for 3D electrothermal and electromagnetic field problems

Abstract

We present a method for the automatic generation of netlists describing general three-dimensional electrothermal and electromagnetic field problems. Using a pair of structured orthogonal grids as spatial discretisation, a one-to-one correspondence between grid objects and circuit elements is obtained by employing the finite integration technique. The resulting circuit can then be solved with any standard available circuit simulator, circumventing the need for the implementation of a custom time integrator and dealing with non-linearities. Additionally, the approach straightforwardly allows for field-circuit coupling simulations by appropriately stamping the circuit description of lumped devices. As the computational domain in wave propagation problems must be finite, stamps representing absorbing boundary conditions are developed as well. Representative numerical examples are used to verify the approach. The results obtained by circuit simulation on the generated netlists are compared with appropriate reference solutions.