The four types of ports available in Sonnet are the standard box-wall port, co-calibrated internal port, delta gap port, and via port The box-wall and co-calibrated port types are those used the majority of the time. Each type of port is summarized below.
Box-wall:
- Most common type of port.
- Positive terminal is attached to a metal polygon and the negative terminal is attached to the box-wall (ground).
- De-embedding is the most accurate for this type.
- Used for connections to the periphery of your geometry.
- Reference planes may be used.
For more information on box-wall ports, see Standard Box-wall Port.
Co-calibrated internal port:
- Used in the interior of a circuit.
- By default, automatically identified as part of a calibration group with a common ground reference. The ground reference can be defined as floating, the box cover or a polygon plane.
- When em performs the electromagnetic analysis, the co-calibrated ports within a group are simultaneously de-embedded.
- Highly accurate de-embedding.
- Reference planes may be used.
- Often used in conjunction with a circuit simulation tool to connect some type of element into your geometry at a later time outside the Sonnet environment.
- For more information on co-calibrated internal ports, see Co-calibrated Internal Ports.
Delta gap:
- Used in the interior of a circuit between adjacent polygons.
- The positive terminal is attached to one of the metal polygons and the negative terminal is attached to the adjacent polygon.
- The polarity is controlled by the user'.
- Reference planes cannot be used.
- Not as accurately de-embedded as a box wall or co-calibrated port.
For more information on delta gap ports, see Delta Gap Ports.
Via port:
- Used in the interior of a circuit.
- The polarity of the port may be specified by the user.
- Cannot be de-embedded.
- Reference planes cannot be used.
- Most commonly used to attach a port between two adjacent levels in your circuit or when you want to include the inductance of the via used as a port such as is common for feeding a patch antenna.
- For more information on via ports, see Via Ports.
