Hertzon: Open-Source 3D Full-Wave FEM Solver

github.com

11 pointssasvari4 comments

This is the next frontier for OSS tooling of electronics projects. Professional PCB software will FEA solve your PCB and look for noise or radio issues (did this trace accidentally become an antenna??)

KiCAD cant do this. So it's cool to see a project trying to tackle this problem.

What is this actually. I dont understand.

FEM solvers break up a large design into lots of tiny meshes, then solve integrals for the electrical/magnetic fields. At high frequency, this is significantly more accurate than approximating based on the copper geometry.

Two big uses are antenna design and RF circuit design.

I can't comment on this specific solver but it does mention using EMerge, an existing FOSS project, as its core. Another FOSS alternative is openEMS. Anyone doing this for a job will just pay for CST/Sonnet/HFSS/Axiem/EMPro etc.

Just adding that FEM is general, it can be used for other kinds of simulations than just electromagnetic waves. For example it can be used for determining strain and stress in building elements, fluid flows, heat transfer and more.

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