IN Brief:
- Murata is providing simulation models for use with Ansys electromagnetic and thermal analysis tools.
- The models support RF inductors, multilayer ceramic capacitors, and power inductors in HFSS and Icepak workflows.
- Component selection is moving earlier into model-based PCB, RF, and power design validation.
Murata is expanding simulation support for engineers using Ansys electromagnetic and thermal analysis tools, with downloadable models covering RF inductors, multilayer ceramic capacitors, and power inductors.
The models are compatible with Ansys 2026 R1. Ansys HFSS support covers electromagnetic field analysis for Murata RF inductors and MLCCs, while Ansys Icepak support covers thermal analysis for Murata power inductors. The files give development teams a way to bring more realistic component behaviour into established simulation environments before hardware prototyping.
The collaboration sits within Murata’s wider work with Synopsys following the acquisition of Ansys. By making component-level models available inside familiar workflows, Murata is reducing reliance on simplified passive values or late-stage bench correction when RF, thermal, and power behaviour begins to diverge from early assumptions.
Passive components are often treated as simple entries during early design work, but high-frequency, high-density, and high-current systems rarely behave so neatly. RF inductors, MLCCs, and power inductors are shaped by frequency, current, temperature, layout, parasitics, mounting conditions, and nearby structures. Once placed on a real board, their behaviour can differ materially from an idealised schematic element.
Electromagnetic modelling is becoming part of ordinary RF layout practice as operating frequencies rise and available board space shrinks. Inductors and capacitors influence matching networks, filters, resonant structures, decoupling networks, and signal integrity. The surrounding copper, ground structure, package geometry, and component placement become part of the circuit rather than neutral layout detail.
Thermal modelling carries similar weight in power design. Power inductors are exposed to copper loss, core loss, ambient temperature, airflow limitations, and heat from adjacent devices. Underestimating temperature rise can affect efficiency, lifetime, saturation margin, and enclosure design, particularly in compact industrial, automotive, and communications equipment.
The move toward tighter links between design data and verification flows is already visible in Siemens and Samsung’s work on silicon design flows, where manufacturing constraints and EDA environments are being drawn closer together. Murata is addressing the component-level version of that shift, giving passive parts a more realistic presence in simulation.
Model-based design is not simply a way to shorten schedules. Its greater value lies in exposing coupled effects before they become physical board problems. RF performance, thermal behaviour, electromagnetic coupling, and power integrity increasingly interact, and a passive component may influence more than one of those domains at once.
Component suppliers are consequently being pulled deeper into the engineering workflow. Data sheets remain necessary, but advanced boards now demand S-parameters, thermal models, 3D geometry, SPICE-compatible behaviour, and maintained libraries that reduce interpretation risk. A component with accurate, tool-compatible models can be selected earlier and used with greater confidence.
That also changes supplier support. Design teams may choose a component partly because it can be simulated reliably, not only because it offers an attractive headline value. In RF and power designs, confidence in the model can reduce conservative overdesign, avoid repeated board spins, and make it easier to investigate trade-offs before committing to layout.
Model quality remains essential. A downloadable file is useful only if it reflects real behaviour across relevant operating conditions, including frequency range, temperature, DC bias, current, mounting assumptions, and manufacturing variation. As model libraries expand, documentation, version control, and scope limits will become increasingly important.
Murata’s Ansys support strengthens a broader shift in electronics design: component selection is becoming inseparable from simulation workflow. Passive parts remain physically small, but their models are now part of the engineering infrastructure behind compact, high-performance systems.
