OptEM Cable Designer

Especially for designing data cables, CABX Cable Expert Dipl.-Ing. Jörg Bör uses OptEM Cable Designer. This is an accurate and cost effective software tool used for designing of all types of copper cables and simulating their performance. In particular, the software investigates the performance of unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) and shielded twisted-pair cables (STP). But quad, ribbon, subsea umbilical and specialty cables, as well as flex circuits can be analysed from DC up to 10 GHz, too.

The software extrudes a 3D model of the cable taking into account lay lengths and realistic shapes of enclosures. Then an electromagnetic (EM) field analysis is performed to extract L, R, C, G parameters of selected pairs as a function of frequency and location along the cable. Further analysis produces S-parameter output which can be presented in the form of insertion loss, return loss, NEXT and FEXT plots. Using this software, CABX is able to assess data cable designs in a timely and productive way. So he helps his clients reducing the number of prototypes and ultimately the cost of cable production.

OptEM Cable Designer uses a hierarchical design concept where existing design elements are used as building blocks (instances) in constructing higher level designs. Objects in the cross section are tagged to identify key properties including the core material (conductor or dielectric), plating material and thickness, on-screen color representation, and the object name.

In addition, each design element has unique position, rotation and lay length properties which allow individual twisting of pairs and bundles in the cable. Cable geometry is extruded automatically from a single cross section using twisting, backtwisting, collapsing and enclosure shaping algorithms.

The hierarchical design concept, including object tagging and design element position, rotation and lay length details, allow to model complex cable geometries quickly and easily.

OptEM Cable Designer's accuracy is ensured by the built-in EM field solver which is based on the Helmholtz equation. Unlike static field solvers it analyzes specific high frequency effects as skin and proximity effect in wires, eddy currents in shields, and dielectric losses in insulation. Frequency dependent data is also incorporated by identifying variations in material properties at different frequencies.

Results produced by the software are in excellent correlation to measured results and include S-parameter output such as FEXT, NEXT and RL, plus text reports with transmission parameters, attenuation, characteristic impedance and more. Combined with 3D viewing, W-element SPICE models, temperature variation analysis and a measurement modification facility for back annotation of measurement data, OptEM Cable Designer is a powerful and effective tool for modeling cables.

The OptEM Cable Designer software is developed and offered by OptEM Engineering Inc., a CABX business partner. OptEM offers CAE / EDA software and consulting services for IC, package, PCB, connector and cable interconnects. OptEM´s mission is to optimize the electromagetic performance of electronic interconnect by developing innovative software products and providing excellent customer service.