Investigation of low-frequency behaviour of two surface integral full-Maxwell algorithms

Two different integral formulations of full- Maxwell’s equations for the numerical study of interconnects are compared in terms of low-frequency behaviour, in the limit of surface sources of field. The first approach consists of a surface formulation of the full-Maxwell’s equations in terms of potentials, giving rise to a surface EFIE. The equation, given in a weak form, is solved by using a finite element technique. The solenoidal and non-solenoidal components of the electric current density are separated using the null-pinv decomposition to avoid the low-frequency breakdown. The second model is an extension of PEEC to unstructuredmeshes allowing the use of triangular meshes. Two systems of meshes tied by duality relations are defined on multiconductor systems. The key point in the definition of the equivalent network is to associate the pair primal edge/dual face to a circuit branch. Solution of the resulting electrical network is performed by a MNA method and regularization of the outcoming matrix is accomplished by standard techniques based on the addition of suitable resistors.