In most EM simulations of on-chip layouts, the passivation is assumed planar, so that we can easily simulate it with Sonnet or Momentum. However, in real life the top metal is often coated with a conformal passivation.

In many cases, the accuracy of that planar EM simulation is fine. But how about a more accurate test with the Full-3D FEM solver built into ADS? That’s what this application note is about: configure ADS to automatically build the correct, full 3D passivation for FEM simulation.

EM models with full 3D Passivation for FEM simulation