Automating the electromagnetic simulation procedure and its possible "fatal" consequences [Education Column]

The purpose of this paper is to show how the tendency to fully automate the electromagnetic simulation procedure without attention to the physical nature of the problem, as well as understanding the numerical procedure used, may lead a designer to making wrong decisions. Promising designs may be aborted, while others that should be aborted may be moved on to the prototyping step, causing loss of time and money. The study is based on reputable simulators: IE3D and Fidelity from Zeland, and the MicroStripes simulator from Flomerics.