Material Libraries

Material Libraries contain pre-defined conductor and dielectric materials. Your installation includes an Installed Library, but you may also define your own custom User Library. Both installed and User Libraries may be accessed from the Project Editor while editing any geometry project.

Accessing Material Libraries

Material Libraries may be accessed using the following procedure:

Select Circuit > Settings > [Materials].

Click the Conductors or Dielectrics tab.

Click the Add from Library button.

The Conductor Library or the Dielectric Library dialog box opens.

Click either the User Library or Installed Library radio button.

If you do not have a User Library, this choice will be unavailable.

Select the desired material from the list and click OK.

The material is added to your list of materials available in your project.

Materials are copied into your project. Therefore changing the material properties in a library does not affect materials which are already being used.

Once a conductor material is added to your list of materials, you may use it for any Planar Tech Layer, Via Tech Layer, or Analysis Box cover. Similarly, when a dielectric material is added to your list of materials, you may use if for any Brick Tech Layer or dielectric layer.

Conductor Libraries

A Conductor Library consists of a list of conductor materials that may be used for any Planar Tech Layer, Via Tech Layer, or Analysis Box cover. There are two Conductor Libraries: Installed and User. The Installed Conductor Library is delivered with your software. You may also create a customized User Conductor Library, explained in the User Library section below.

The properties for the conductors of the Installed Conductor Library are nominal values. Due to variations in fabrication methods, your real metal may be different from the one in the library. Hover your cursor over each material to see a tooltip that explains the details of the conductor, including the source from which the values were taken.

Conductor Libraries do not contain a thickness. The thickness is a property of the Tech Layer, not the conductor material.

See Conductors for details on setting up conductor properties, including temperature dependency.

Dielectric Library

A Dielectric Library consists of a list of dielectric materials that may be used for any Brick Tech Layer or dielectric layer. There are two Dielectric Libraries: Installed and User. The Installed Dielectric Library is delivered with your software. You may also create a customized User Dielectric Library, explained in the User Library section below.

The Installed Dielectric Library contain some generic dielectrics and some vendor-specific dielectrics. The Generic dielectrics are nominal values. Due to variations in fabrication methods, your real dielectric may be different from the one in the library. Hover your cursor over each material to see a tooltip that explain the details of the dielectric, including the source from which the values were taken.

The Installed Dielectric Library also contains vendor-specific dielectrics. The values for these dielectrics were obtained directly from the vendor. The names in the list may be abbreviated, but you may obtain the full name by hovering your cursor over an item, and a tooltip shows the complete name.

Many dielectrics in the Installed Dielectric Library contain frequency-dependent values that are defined in a table. For these case, you will see the keyword <Table Based>.

See Dielectrics for details on setting up dielectric materials, including frequency dependency.

Dielectric Thickness

Although the thickness of a dielectric is not technically a property of a dielectric material, some dielectrics in a Dielectric Library include a thickness. This is because many vendor dielectrics are only available in certain thickness, and sometimes the properties are slightly different for different thickness. Therefore, the thickness of the material is included as a property of the dielectric. When the thickness is important, it is included in the name of the dielectric material.

In addition to the procedure mentioned in Accessing Material Libraries, you can also access the Dielectric Libraries from the Dielectric Layers pane of the Circuit Settings window by clicking the From Library button. When accessed in this way, the dielectric thickness is shown in a separate column, and this thickness is copied to your dielectric layer.

User Library

User Libraries can be edited in preferences by selecting Edit > Preferences > [User Libraries] from the Project Editor. Then click the Edit Conductor Library or Edit Dielectric Library button. This will launch the Library Editor where you may Add, Add from Installed, Edit, or Delete your own conductor or dielectric materials.

The thickness in the User Dielectric Library uses the same length unit as the project where you executed the Edit > Preferences command.

Add Description

When adding a conductor or dielectric material to a User Library, you may click the Add Description button and enter some text that describes your material. This text will be displayed in the following ways:

When selecting a material from a library, when you hover your cursor over the material name, the text is displayed as a tooltip when you hover your cursor over the conductor or dielectric name.
When viewing the list of Conductors or Dielectrics, if you hover over the name of the material, it is displayed as a tooltip .
When editing a conductor material, it is displayed near the bottom of the Conductor Properties dialog box.
When editing a dielectric material, it is displayed under the Name of the dielectric material.

Sharing a User Library

You may wish to share your User Library with colleagues. You may do so by following these steps:

Select Edit > Preferences > [User Libraries].

The path to your library file is shown. It should end in ".xml".

Send the library file to your colleague.

Your colleague should now continue with the following steps:

On your colleague's computer, select Edit > Preferences > [User Libraries].

The path to your colleague's library file is shown.

Copy the library file to the location of your colleague's library file.

If there is already a library file with the same name in this location, the old library is replaced with the new one. Contact Sonnet Tech Support if you need assistance in merging the two files.

Manually Creating a User Library

You may also create a User Library manually using a text editor. The simplest way to do this is to create one or two library items using the Project Editor, and use the resulting library file as a template. Once you have made your library file,

Select Edit > Preferences > [User Libraries]

Click the Edit Conductor Library or Edit Dielectric Library button.

This will launch the Library Editor.

Click the Import button.

Open the User Library file that you created.

The contents of the imported file will be appended to your existing User Library.

Please contact Sonnet Tech Support if you need assistance with this.