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How accurate is Comsol compared to FDTD

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Hi:
I am a comsol user. My supervisor asked me to re simulate a design that was done in FDTD using Comsol.
The problem I got is that my solution was not the same as the FDTD solution!!. I am sure I have no error but I have to check with you (comsol community) in case someone can help me figure out what is going on.
I solved for RF (MODE ANALYSIS) and the effective index I got was 3.81. However, the FDTD solution was 3.88.
The shape of the mode I got with Comsol is clearly different from the one done with FDTD.

Any help?. Should I give you the two files to see them?

1 Reply Last Post 25.06.2014, 11:13 GMT-4

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Posted: 1 decade ago 25.06.2014, 11:13 GMT-4
According to my very limited experience with COMSOL's mode solver, good accuracy requires very fine mesh. So probably you can try to do some convergence study with mesh size.

As for mode profile, if you have degenerate modes, the pattern has certain arbitrariness. Linear combinations of them are also eigenmodes. You could check this.
According to my very limited experience with COMSOL's mode solver, good accuracy requires very fine mesh. So probably you can try to do some convergence study with mesh size. As for mode profile, if you have degenerate modes, the pattern has certain arbitrariness. Linear combinations of them are also eigenmodes. You could check this.

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