CHAPTER 7 - The Computation of Layout Capacitances and Inductances

Abstract

The capacitance program, named layout capacitance computation can compute the capacitances between any two of a system of conductors of arbitrary shape, in a uniform or non-uniform dielectric medium. The nonuniform case is restricted to geometries in which the dielectric is present in the form of a slab, with the conductors on one or both sides of the slab. There are many methods of calculating the capacitance of a system of conductors; however, the method chosen must depend to a large extent upon the geometry of the layout. The program is intended to deal with conductors of quite arbitrary geometry, which may be three-dimensional and of irregular shapes. The only assumption is that they should lie in a uniform dielectric medium or on either side of an infinite, homogeneous dielectric slab. The method used must be flexible, so that it can deal with irregularly shaped conductors; it should be able to deal with a three dimensional system; it should be efficient, so that excessive computer time is not required and it should be formulated so that excessive computer store is not required for practical problems. The inductance program named layout inductances computation computes the self and mutual inductances of a system of conductors. At present, there are two physical constraints concerning the type of layout it can deal with, viz., (1) the conductors must lie in parallel planes, and (2) there must not be any magnetic materials present.