Reformulation of the finite-difference time-domain algorithm for hardware-based accelerators

摘要

A hardware-based acceleration platform for computational electromagnetic algorithms, specifically the finite-difference time-domain (“FDTD”) method, comprises reformulating the FDTD algorithm in order to make it more hardware friendly. This reformulation makes use of split fields at every node in the mesh, and combines total- and scattered-field formulations into a single, hybrid formulation. By precomputing coefficients for the nodes in the mesh, it is possible for a single set of equations to support plane waves, point sources, PML ABCs, and PEC walls. In the method sources are determined by means of a lookup table, rather than through direct hardware computations. All of these modifications enable the hardware designer to much more easily develop an FDTD accelerator.