New RFIC EM workflow based on openEMS, GDSII input, automatic meshing (Python)

[VolkerMuehlhaus]

Hi all,

this for users working in RFIC design with GDSII files who are interested in openEMS.

At FSiC 2025, I presented a new user friendly openEMS workflow, with many improvements over using native openEMS, e.g. direct read of GDSII layout input and automatic meshing. https://wiki.f-si.org/images/0/0a/OpenEMS_RFIC_EM_flow_FSiC_2025.pdf

The difference to plain openEMS is that we now have an additional layer of abstraction, to simplify the re-use of model code and enable this new functionality:

• Automatic mesh generation
• The model code can load files directly from GDSII
• Port geometry (in-plane or via port) are defined in GDSII file on special layers
• Technology stackup is read from an XML file
• Merging of via arrays is supported

The latest development files for this project can be found here, including many examples and documentation: https://github.com/VolkerMuehlhaus/openems_ihp_sg13g2

This work was funded by IHP in their Open PDK project, and you can find a snapshot of the files (possibly some versions behind the latest development) here: https://github.com/IHP-GmbH/IHP-Open-PDK/tree/main/ihp-sg13g2/libs.tech/openems

Thanks to the openEMS authors for providing this great piece of software!
Volker

openEMS model from GDSII layout data:

Automatic mesh: