MoM-SO: a fast technique to compute broadband impedance of power and electronic cables

Utkarsh Patel

Piero Triverio Group, EM

Abstract:

Broadband per-unit-length (p.u.l.) impedance of cables are required to predict the transient response in power and electronic networks. For power networks, p.u.l. parameters of a cable are required by electromagnetic transient program (EMTP) to analyze transients induced by phenomena, such as lightning discharges, breaker operation, and faults. These phenomena contain a frequency spectrum which extends from a few Hz to the low MHz range, thus broadband cable models are required. Complex electronic cables like USB, or micro coaxial assemblies, are major sources of signal integrity issues, like cross-talk. Broadband characterization of a cable can help predict and mitigate signal integrity issues in high-speed electronics.

Analytic formulas to compute p.u.l. impedance exist, however they neglect proximity effects. In order to account for proximity effect, one must use numerical methods. In this talk, I will present an efficient numerical technique to compute p.u.l. parameters of a multiconductor transmission line with round and tubular conductors. This method, termed MoM-SO, accurately predicts skin and proximity effects using the concept of surface admittance operator (SO) in combination with method of moments (MoM). MoM-SO only requires surface discretization of the conductor, as opposed to volume discretization required by FEM; this leads to significant speed up. MoM-SO is up to 2000 times faster than FEM, and can compute p.u.l. parameters of a cable with hundreds of conductors within couple of minutes.

Biography:

Utkarsh Patel received the B.A.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto in 2012. Currently, he is pursuing the M.A.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering under the supervision of Prof. Piero Triverio. His research interests are applied electromagnetics and signal processing.