Welcome to the second installment of Ansoft In-Sight, Ansoft’s internal newsletter. A quarterly publication, Ansoft In-Sight covers everything from recent corporate events, to product and technology updates, to success stories in the field. So take a few minutes to read about your company, coworkers and other Ansoft news.

Ansoft Marketing

• BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE FROM NICK
• “IN THE SPOTLIGHT,” BY ZOL
• PRODUCT-RELEASE UPDATE
• WRAP-UP
• RECENT CAMPAIGNS
• TELL ME MORE: Q&A

As we approach the holiday season, a frequent practice is to get together, send out cards/notes or just phone friends and family to get an update so that we know what is going on in each other’s lives. This sort of communication is vital in order to keep our friendships growing. Good communication is also a vital ingredient in the growth of companies.

As a global company at the leading edge of many technologies, we will only be really successful if we share and communicate our knowledge as efficiently as possible. We have all heard that “knowledge is power”; but knowledge that is isolated and not shared will not “power” Ansoft. Communicating openly, directly and honestly is a key. Let’s make sure that, as we grow, we remain as fluid and responsive an organization as we were when we were all in one office. This is not easy, but neither is electromagnetics…I know we can do it!

FY 04 Half Year Review

During the past couple of months, we have heard of a number of indicators that signal an improving economy, not only in the US, but globally. Looking closely at our bookings confirms these trends. In fact, in the current quarter, new license sales are up dramatically—over 30%! While it is still too early to count this brief period as a clear indication of things to come, it does signal a positive change. Our Ansoft EM products continue to sell well, and our high-frequency offerings are showing signs of renewed growth. Opportunities multiply when such trends change, and we need to capitalize on them.

Go Ansoft!

Everyone knows that Ansoft’s mission statement reads, “To lead the high-performance segment of the EDA market by leveraging electromagnetics across component, circuit and system design.” A major extension of capabilities towards this mission occurred this quarter with the introduction of ePhysics™. It is now possible to solve for the electromagnetic fields in a device using either HFSS™ or Maxwell^® and to determine via ePhysics the thermal and structural effects that are generated by the fields.

Bogdan Ionescu and Martin Vogel recently performed an interesting application of ePhysics with a high-power microwave elliptic filter. The operating frequency of this filter is determined in part by the length of four metal rods. However, the high power passing through this filter produces losses in the rods, which results in heating and subsequent thermal expansion. This expansion changes the length of the rods and alters the operating frequency of the filter.

Bogdan and Martin first used HFSS to solve the original elliptic filter design using HFSS and determined the losses associated with the electromagnetic fields. They then transferred these losses to the thermal analysis solver in ePhysics and solved for the temperature distribution in the filter. This temperature distribution was then transferred to the stress-analysis solver in ePhysics and the deformation of the length of the rods computed. The final step was to close the loop and use the deformed geometry to compute the shifted operating frequency of the deformed filter.

Special thanks for developing the ePhysics capability go to Zsolt Badics, Bogdan Ionescu and Runan Mo as well as to the entire Ansoft EM development team headed by Ping Zhou. Zsolt recently solved an HFSS – transient thermal problem of a Chebychev filter involving over 1,700,000 tetrahedra. The solution went through 15 time steps and required 28 hours on a four-processor Solaris^® machine having 8 GB physical memory. Since the total memory required was 12 GB, significant paging was involved. This is certainly one of the largest problems solved to date using Ansoft software.

Great job by all!

Ansoft Designer™
In October, we introduced Ansoft Designer v1.1, which featured HFSS™ as a Solver on Demand™, probably the most high-profile enhancement announced since the summer. We also announced the release of two device libraries that will enhance our customers’ productivity and cost efficiency: Taiyo Yuden’s high-density miniaturized surface-mount components and NEC Compound Semiconductor Devices’ Hetero-junction Bipolar Transistors (HBTs).

HFSS™
The Solver on Demand™ dynamic link to Ansoft Designer and the new added benefits of thermal and stress analysis through ePhysics™ is opening up new markets and applications for HFSS. These new capabilities are sure to help bring in additional business for the next two quarters and beyond.

Ansoft SI
We’re on the verge of upgrading two of our existing SI products: Q3D Extractor™ v6 (formerly known as Spicelink™) and SIwave™ v2. The product-update document shared with ansoftall@ansoft.com on September 22 outlined the products, timelines and market strategies for each one. Stay tuned for marketing promotion plans and announcements from development regarding these tools in the months ahead.

Ansoft EM
Ansoft EM products have received a lot of attention over the past quarter. Below is a sampling of the results of our development team’s efforts.

Ansoft Global Seminars: Delivering Performance
From September through November, Ansoft traveled to 23 cities to present alongside our customers during the annual Global Seminar Series. With 3500+ attendees worldwide and 38 invited speakers, these events proved to be a success.

These events were successful due, in large part, to the tremendous amount of work put forth by many groups and individuals within Ansoft. A special thank you and congratulations go out to the many authors of our Ansoft-based presentations. With your hard work and dedication, we are sure to build a strong future for Ansoft.

Click here for a full list of Authors, Customers and Presentations.

Ansoft Global Seminars: Electromechanical Series and Industry-Specific Events
The Asian and European legs of the Ansoft Global Seminars—the Electromechanical Series—focused on Ansoft’s overall EM solutions for various applications specific to the needs of the local markets. All events were received quite well by attendees as well as invited speakers.

In the USA, Ansoft and industry-related companies/organizations cosponsored this year’s EM-centric seminars. The focus for these events covered the Automotive, Aerospace and Alternative Power Industries and attracted more than 300 customers and prospects as well as more than 40 speakers/presentations.

MWE 2003, Japan
From November 26–28, Ansoft attended MWE 2003 in Yokohama, Japan. MWE is the microwave industry’s highlight event in Japan. This year’s MWE was the most successful show that Ansoft has been to since the show started in 1996. The Ansoft booth had the busiest traffic among all exhibitors and collected 292 high-quality leads, while there were very few at our competitors’ booths.

Thanks to Aki Nakatani for his work on the LTCC Design Kit and Component Library development; this was a big hit at the event. Kadota-san, Ueno-san and Kotera-san were the main persons who contributed to the technical demo and material development; and the administrators coordinated this promotion. MWE was a success due to great team effort from everyone involved. Congratulations to all.

Videos from the event are available on the intranet (video 1, video 2).

IEEE Tutorial: Antenna and System Design with Ansoft
In October, the Ansoft Northeast group held a Tutorial Session at the IEEE Phased Array Systems and Technology 2003 Symposium in Boston

The event drew 83 participants, including current Ansoft users and those with a high interest level in our software. Dr. Eli Brookner, Consulting Scientist at Raytheon Company and conference chair, attended the tutorial and introduced the Ansoft team.

You can download event materials from the intranet here.

Web Seminars
Our web seminars have really taken hold and are being used to attract prospects and customers from all product lines. All product groups are hosting web seminars regularly, covering topics from component and system design to general Ansoft product introductions. In all, more than 235 prospects and customers have attended our web seminars over the past three months, with an average of 17 attendees per event. Keep up the great work!

Road Shows
The 2003 Global Seminars generated a large amount of interest in the EE community. We promoted the event through mailings, advertisements, email campaigns, website banners and general P.R. channels. Road-show information and the Ansoft name was put in front of some 200,000 engineers over the full life of the promotions. Click here to see a sample of some of the pieces.

Q: When is the next 401(k) enrollment period? Am I eligible to enroll?

A: The next 401(k) enrollment and change period is January 2004. New employees in North America hired on or prior to July 1, 2003, are eligible for enrollment in the plan. For more information, or to download and print the forms to make these changes, log on to the intranet. Under “Working@Ansoft” and “HR Resources,” there is a link to Ansoft’s 401(k) information site. Also visit www.mfs.com for up-to-date information on fund performance, account balances and changing investment elections.

Elective deferrals for 2004 will increase to $13,000; employees over the age of 50 are also eligible to contribute an additional $3,000 for “catch-up” contributions.

For any questions, please contact Jennifer Osgood at josgood@ansoft.com or 412-261-3200, ext. 119.

Stock Options
For specific questions about stock options, send an email to josgood@ansoft.com.

We would love to hear from you about this issue. Whether it’s a suggestion for a topic, a glowing review or a simple gripe, please let us know. Send your feedback to arnold@ansoft.com.