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Palace Width Sweep: Parallel Simulation

Sweep the microstrip width from 5 to 50 um (5 points), run all simulations in parallel on GDSFactory+ cloud using the non-blocking API, then compare S11 and S21 across widths.

Requirements:

  • IHP PDK: uv pip install ihp-gdsfactory
  • GDSFactory+ account for cloud simulation

Define the sweep

import numpy as np

widths = np.arange(2, 21, 4)

Build components and configure simulations

import gdsfactory as gf
from ihp import LAYER, PDK, cells

from gsim.common.stack import get_stack
from gsim.palace import DrivenSim

PDK.activate()

stack = get_stack()  # auto-detects active PDK

sims = []

for w in widths:
    # Build component
    c = gf.Component()
    r1 = c << cells.straight_metal(length=1000, width=w)

    r = c.get_region(layer=LAYER.TopMetal2drawing)
    r_sized = r.sized(+20000)
    c.add_polygon(r_sized, layer=LAYER.Metal1drawing)
    c.add_ports(r1.ports)

    # Configure simulation
    sim = DrivenSim()
    sim.set_output_dir(f"./palace-sim-w{w:.1f}")
    sim.set_geometry(c)
    sim.set_stack(stack)
    # Surround the design with air. Without this the absorbing boundary sits
    # directly on the passivation, microns above the trace, and adds large
    # spurious loss and reflection.
    sim.set_airbox(margin_x=50, margin_y=50, z_above=100, z_below=100)

    for port in c.ports:
        sim.add_port(
            port.name, from_layer="metal1", to_layer="topmetal2", geometry="via"
        )

    sim.set_driven(fmin=1e9, fmax=100e9, num_points=80)
    sim.mesh(preset="default")

    sims.append(sim)

print(f"Configured {len(sims)} simulations")
pyvirtualdisplay not available; continuing without Xvfb


Small conductor feature detected (2.000 um) may be under-resolved by refined_mesh_size=5.000 um. Pass auto_size=True to scale the mesh down.


Configured 5 simulations

Upload and start all jobs (non-blocking)

# Upload and start all jobs without waiting
job_ids = []
for sim in sims:
    job_id = sim.run(wait=False, check_cache=True)
    job_ids.append(job_id)

print(f"Started {len(job_ids)} jobs: {job_ids}")
Info    : Reading 'palace-sim-w2.0/palace.msh'...
Info    : 9206 nodes
Info    : 69096 elements
Info    : Done reading 'palace-sim-w2.0/palace.msh'
Info    : Reading 'palace-sim-w2.0/palace.msh'...
Info    : 9206 nodes
Info    : 69096 elements
Info    : Done reading 'palace-sim-w2.0/palace.msh'


Cache hit: reusing job 01a01a38-4e5e-7f22-840b-1061b4eb1452
Info    : Reading 'palace-sim-w6.0/palace.msh'...
Info    : 9871 nodes
Info    : 74278 elements
Info    : Done reading 'palace-sim-w6.0/palace.msh'
Info    : Reading 'palace-sim-w6.0/palace.msh'...
Info    : 9871 nodes
Info    : 74278 elements
Info    : Done reading 'palace-sim-w6.0/palace.msh'


Cache hit: reusing job 01a01a38-574b-77e0-a250-db420d40fbb1
Info    : Reading 'palace-sim-w10.0/palace.msh'...
Info    : 9789 nodes
Info    : 73863 elements
Info    : Done reading 'palace-sim-w10.0/palace.msh'
Info    : Reading 'palace-sim-w10.0/palace.msh'...
Info    : 9789 nodes
Info    : 73863 elements
Info    : Done reading 'palace-sim-w10.0/palace.msh'


Cache hit: reusing job 01a01a38-610c-7d01-886a-fb4e590472a2
Info    : Reading 'palace-sim-w14.0/palace.msh'...
Info    : 9729 nodes
Info    : 73407 elements
Info    : Done reading 'palace-sim-w14.0/palace.msh'
Info    : Reading 'palace-sim-w14.0/palace.msh'...
Info    : 9729 nodes
Info    : 73407 elements
Info    : Done reading 'palace-sim-w14.0/palace.msh'


Cache hit: reusing job 01a01a38-6a53-73a2-b177-38faaaed5fdd
Info    : Reading 'palace-sim-w18.0/palace.msh'...
Info    : 10009 nodes
Info    : 75661 elements
Info    : Done reading 'palace-sim-w18.0/palace.msh'
Info    : Reading 'palace-sim-w18.0/palace.msh'...
Info    : 10009 nodes
Info    : 75661 elements
Info    : Done reading 'palace-sim-w18.0/palace.msh'


Cache hit: reusing job 01a01a38-738e-7633-9f3a-5b6aa37dc648
Started 5 jobs: ['01a01a38-4e5e-7f22-840b-1061b4eb1452', '01a01a38-574b-77e0-a250-db420d40fbb1', '01a01a38-610c-7d01-886a-fb4e590472a2', '01a01a38-6a53-73a2-b177-38faaaed5fdd', '01a01a38-738e-7633-9f3a-5b6aa37dc648']

Wait for all jobs to complete

import gsim

# Poll all jobs concurrently, download and parse results
results = gsim.wait_for_results(job_ids)
Waiting for 5 jobs...
  palace-4e16e52e                completed    0m 00s
  palace-a9bee55c                completed    0m 00s
  palace-e8272c91                completed    0m 00s
  palace-70c1bca7                completed    0m 00s
  palace-476490e6                completed    0m 00s


Extracting results.tar.gz...
Downloaded 11 files to sim-data-palace-4e16e52e


Extracting results.tar.gz...
Downloaded 11 files to sim-data-palace-a9bee55c


Extracting results.tar.gz...
Downloaded 11 files to sim-data-palace-e8272c91


Extracting results.tar.gz...
Downloaded 11 files to sim-data-palace-70c1bca7


Extracting results.tar.gz...
Downloaded 11 files to sim-data-palace-476490e6

Plot S11 and S21 comparison

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

fig, (ax1, ax2) = plt.subplots(2, 1, figsize=(6, 6))

for w, sp in zip(widths, results, strict=True):
    ax1.plot(sp.freq, sp.s11.db, label=f"w={w:.1f} um")
    ax2.plot(sp.freq, sp.s21.db, label=f"w={w:.1f} um")

ax1.set(
    xlabel="Frequency (GHz)", ylabel="|S11| (dB)", title="S11 — Return Loss vs Width"
)
ax1.legend()
ax1.grid(True)

ax2.set(
    xlabel="Frequency (GHz)", ylabel="|S21| (dB)", title="S21 — Insertion Loss vs Width"
)
ax2.legend()
ax2.grid(True)

plt.tight_layout()

png