A Finite-Difference Time-Domain Approach for Conformal Electromagnetic-Thermal Coupled Analysis

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Abstract
To mitigate the staircase errors inherent in electromagnetic–thermal multiphysics coupling simulations, this work proposes a conformal electromagnetic-thermal coupling finite-difference time-domain (CETC-FDTD) method. For the electromagnetic field, conformality is achieved by weighting the constitutive parameters according to the fractional contributions of each medium along grid edges and faces. For the temperature field, the material parameters are conformally weighted by the volumetric fraction of each medium within the grid cell, thereby realizing consistent electromagnetic-thermal conformality. To achieve a more accurate and physically consistent temperature distribution within each grid cell, an interpolation scheme is developed to equivalently project the heat source onto the center of the Yee cell. This enables conformal treatment throughout the multiphysics electromagnetic-thermal coupling process. In addition, conformal considerations are also incorporated into the thermal convection boundary of the temperature field, where the corner temperatures are specially treated using directional weighting coefficients. The proposed method significantly improves the accuracy of electromagnetic–thermal coupling simulations while incurring virtually no additional memory overhead. Representative examples, including a cubic block, a sphere, a radome, and a three-dimensional packaging structure, are presented to validate the correctness and accuracy of the proposed CETC-FDTD method. The proposed approach exhibits strong potential for applications in radio-frequency and microwave engineering.
Funding Information
  • Anhui Province Science and Technology Innovation Tackle Plan Project (202423k09020033)
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant (62471002, Grant U22A2017)
  • Anhui Provincial Department of Education Scientific Research Project under Grant (2025AHGXZK50100)

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