Sonnet Suite 19.52.2025 Professional (x64)

Sonnet 19.52.2025 Release Notes (release date June 2025)


Features

Enhanced Performance for All Solvers:All solver licenses have enhanced performance in v19. The Level 2 Basic through Pro Desktop solvers have at least a doubling in the number of threads that can be utilized. Best of all, High Performance Solver licenses are upgraded with full Beowulf capability upon request, free of charge







Advanced Instruction Sets:Sonnet now supports advanced instruction sets such as AVX2 and AVX512.
Expanded Material Libraries:A greatly expanded material library includes direct manufacturer support for material parameters including anisotropy.
Temperature-dependent Conductor Materials:You may optionally specify a temperature dependency of any conductor material.
Frequency-dependent Dielectric Materials:Any dielectric parameter may now use a frequency-dependent table of values in place of a constant or a variable. Many of the dielectric material library entries use tables.
Expanded Technology Files:Handling complex semiconductor processes has never been easier in Sonnet. Now with more accessible metal bias information, automatic CAD Layer mapping, Derived Tech Layers, and encrypted data file format carryover and overrides, it's easy to make sure your simulation reflects your design.
Macro Language and XML-Based File Format:With an all new file format based on XML, programmatic project editing and optimization is easier than ever. Users can drive Sonnet programmatically from languages including Python, Ruby, MATLAB, C#, JavaScript, PowerShell, and more using Sonnet's new macro language.
Derived Tech Layers:A new type of Tech Layer is introduced in Sonnet 19 called a "Derived" Tech Layer. See Derived Tech Layers for details.
Precedence:A new property of a Tech Layer, called "Precedence" may be used to define how overlapping polygons are interpreted. If two or more polygons on the same level overlap, and those polygons have different properties, their Precedence is used to determine the properties of the overlapping area.
Improved Import Wizard for DXF/GDSII Translations:The Import Wizard now has a much cleaner design and new features have been added. It now supports adding drawing purposes to allow more flexibility in mapping input layers to Sonnet Tech Layers. This includes the ability to import multiple drawing purpose types to the same Tech Layer. You also have the ability to import a port purpose to automatically generate Sonnet ports.
Via Tech Layers:In previous Sonnet versions, you specified the beginning and ending locations of a Via Tech Layer by specifying level numbers. Now, you may also specify a Planar Tech Layer as the beginning and/or ending location.
Enhanced User Equations:User Equations for graphs have been enhanced. You may create equations which use any of the Sonnet built-in measurements and include intermediate arguments.
Alternative Color Palettes:Additional color palettes are now available for current density Descriptions and 3D patterns. These new color palettes have multiple benefits including better readability for people with common forms of color blindness and/or color vision deficiency. They are also useful when you need a single Description that works for both color and monochrome publishing formats. These new color palettes can be accessed using View > Options > [Colors] (for current density Descriptions) and Graph > Graph Options > [Colors] (for 3D patterns). You may also create your own custom color palette.
Quadruple Precision:Certain types of circuits (especially those with extremely high Q, such as those found in many superconductor circuits), require more precision than the standard double precision provides. For those circuits, enabling quad precision may be necessary. The EM solver now supports multi-threaded quad precision calculations for the matrix fill portion of the analysis. See EM Options for more information. Please note that running with quad precision requires longer analysis times than running with the default double precision, but it is much faster than previous releases.
Migration Tool:When you first open Sonnet, you will be given the opportunity to copy your settings from a previously installed version of Sonnet to the present version. You may also access the migration tool later by selecting Admin > Migration Tool from the main Session tab.
Streamlined Documentation:Learning the software and new features has never been easier with the fully revamped online help.
Beowulf Solver (Beta):Culminating nearly a decade of development, Beowulf is the world's first commercial solver based on the Unified-FFT Algorithm [4]. Beowulf uses the same project files and interface as always, simulates with the same accuracy for which Sonnet is known, while allowing for much larger projects with faster results than ever before. While Beowulf benefits from N log N scaling, our direct full matrix solver is one of the most efficient there is. Please contact Sonnet Software if you wish to evaluate the Beowulf solver.

Changes
The following is a list of major changes from Sonnet 18. For example, creating your material stackup now uses a more hierarchical approach. If you are familiar with Sonnet 18, you should review this list before attempting to use this release of Sonnet.

File Format Change
In Sonnet release18 and earlier, Sonnet project files were saved with a .son extension. In this release, Sonnet project files are saved with a .sonx extension and use an XML-based format. Legacy files with the .son extension are still supported. For example, you can still open and edit them in the Sonnet Project Editor and analyze them with the EM solver. However, any time you save a file, it will use the new format which cannot be opened by Sonnet 18 or earlier.
Materials
This release includes a redesign of how materials are defined:
- There are now two types of materials: conductor materials and dielectric materials.
- Instead of separate planar and via metals, they have been combined into "conductors".
- Instead of separate dielectric layer and brick materials, they have been combined into "dielectrics".
- Metal Types no longer exists in Sonnet 19. The parameters associated with Metal Types are now specified in either the conductor properties or the Tech Layer.
Tech Layers
In previous versions of Sonnet, Tech Layers were optional; i.e., polygons did not need to be assigned to a Tech Layer. In Sonnet 19, all polygons must now be assigned to a Tech Layer. There are also significant changes to Tech Layers as described below.
Planar Tech Layers
Tech Layers using planar metal were called "Metal Technology Layers" in version 18. They are now called "Planar Tech Layers". A Planar Tech Layer represents any metal which is parallel to the xy plane. A Planar Tech Layer is now composed of the following properties:
-Level number:No change from Sonnet 18.
-Conductor material:See the Materials section above. Typically, this is just the conductivity or resistivity of the metal, but can also contain surface impedance, temperature dependency, etc.
-Meshing:Rectangular Mesh or Conformal Mesh. Note that the old "Staircase fill" is now called "Rectangular Mesh". "Diagonal Fill" is now an advanced property of Rectangular Mesh and is enabled using a checkbox called "Diagonal Edges". You may also uncheck Enable Meshing and the polygons will not be meshed by the EM Solver.
-Metal Model:Allows you to choose how to model the metal thickness. In previous releases, this information was stored in the "Metal Type". For the Thick Metal Model, a new property has been added called "Z-Mesh Method" that only applies when using more than two sheets or the thick metal spans multiple dielectrics. See Z-Mesh Method for details.
-Roughness:Surface roughness is now a property of the Tech Layer instead of a special metal type.
-Color/Pattern:The color and pattern of a polygon is now determined by the Tech Layer instead of the Metal Type.
-Mapping:Mapping now allows lists of mappings for multiple DXF, GDS, Gerber and CAD Layer mappings to the same Tech Layer.
Via Tech Layers
A Via Tech Layer represents vertical metal; i.e., in the z direction. A Via Tech Layer is now composed of the following properties:
-Begin/End:The Begin and End fields can be a metal level or a Planar Tech Layer. For Thick Metal or TrueVolume Tech Layers, the via will attach to the closest surface.
-Conductor material:
-Meshing:A new checkbox called "Vias stop at metal polygons" has been added to the meshing properties which has the same functionality of the project-wide "Auto-height vias" property in previous Sonnet releases. You can now set individual Tech Layers to use this property.
-Metal Model:The Metal Model determines the cross-sectional area used to compute the loss of a via (either Volume or Array).
-Color/Pattern:The color and pattern of a via polygon is now determined by the Tech Layer instead of the Metal Type.
-Mapping:Mapping now allows lists of mappings for multiple DXF, GDS, Gerber and CAD Layer mappings to the same Tech Layer.
Brick Tech Layers
In previous versions of Sonnet, the number of Z-partitions was a property of the dielectric layer. It is now a property of the Brick Tech Layer.
Derived Tech Layers
A new type of Tech Layer is introduced in Sonnet 19 called a "Derived" Tech Layer.
Overrides
By default, polygons inherit their properties from the Tech Layer to which they are assigned, and an inheritance symbol Inherit icon next to the property indicates that the polygon property is inheriting from the Tech Layer. If you override a property, the symbol changes to an override iconOverride icon.
Documentation
The User's Guide and online help have been combined into a single document. Also, the documentation is now completely online. This provides more flexibility in updating the documentation based on customer needs.


11403 Add capability to move and resize Component labels and symbols.
3147 Add checkbox to DXF/GDSII import wizard to keep existing polygons.
4511 Enhance GDSII and DXF import to automatically add ports.
4513 Add capability to turn on/off meshing on a per polygon or Tech Layer basis.
9851 Change the bottom of the box name from "GND" to BOT/BOTTOM to avoid confusion.
10707 Enhance Sonnet to support Precedence for overlapping polygons.
10859 Enhance Current Density and Far Field Viewers to support multiple color palettes.
13033 Add a splash screen so users know that Sonnet is starting up.
13619 Enhance ABS to handle electrically small circuits (often superconductors) better.
13699 Change the 3D view's default Z-scale to 1, and improve the default zoom level.
13817 Improve Project Editor's variable editor to make it easier to create equations.
13848 Make the default for polygon edge checking to be 1 tech layer (not 1 level).
13849 Change the default far field startup Description to polar.
13972 Allow Component symbols and labels to be moved and resized.
14142 Allow exporting GDSII and DXF files from command line.
14169 Enhance graphs to sync multiple graphs while tuning (including smith + cartesian)


11352 Negative numbers are not allowed in any of the Termination fields in the Port Properties dialog box.
8078 Progress bar for a netlist simulation can go from 0% to 100% with no steps in between.
9465 Connectivity Checker may incorrectly report connections when dielectric thickness uses a variable.
9608 The EM solver can fail for filenames starting with a dash.
9976 Connectivity Checker may incorrectly report connections when circuit contains thick metal.
10628 Improve efficiency of quad precision.
12733 GDSII import crashes when importing GDSII file with negative datatypes.
12848 The Project Editor does not allow an infinite conductivity and zero resistivity for dielectrics.
13146 Project Editor does not show a symbol for one-port components.
13527 The Project Editor will pan when you use middle mouse wheel to zoom.
13612 Saving files to network drives gives an error message.
13617 Many Calculated Angles or Frequencies can cause Fatal Error in Farfield Viewer
13755 EM solver can skip creating output file.
13778 EM solver gives bad ABS sweep results when using non-symmetrical S-parameter data file.
13793 Project Editor crashes after undo of copy/pasting polygon with co-calibrated port.
13802 EM solver can crash if components are used and project is linked to an STF file.
13818 Line segment markers are put in the wrong place when using a startup graph.
13821 Project Editor does not allow you to edit the ground reference direction of a component with box cover ground reference.
13824 EM solver occasionally requires many frequencies when using Enhanced Resonance Detection.
13826 The Project Editor fails to save changes if you make a change to a duplicated sweep set.
13836 The EM solver calculates wrong resistance for vias with tiny wall thicknesses.
13840 When creating an inductor model from a Graph tab, clicking Description leaves an unmovable window on top of the Description.
13855 Graph tab preference "Always check for updated files" isn't working.
13859 DXF, GDSII, and Gerber imports may use the wrong mesh type.
13861 Far field viewer crashes (Fatal Error) if you cancel calculations before they are finished.
13868 Dimension Parameter's name may change from upper to lower case (and vice versa).
13878 DXF import wizard calculates wrong box and cell size when using template file of different units than DXF.
13898 The Project Editor may give errors for co-calibrated ports on diagonal polygon edges.
13942 Allow quad precision circuits with huge Analysis Box sizes.
13945 The EM solver may give incorrect results when circuit includes multi-number co-calibrated ports.
13948 Components are not displayed correctly in a 3D view.
13959 Project Editor does not allow you to select zero-width polygons by lassoing them.
13964 The EM solver may crash if co-calibrated ports with polygon plane ground reference and circuit has Auto Height Vias.
13966 The Project Editor's status bar gives wrong Y-coordinate for selected points (wrong origin).
14004 The Project Editor crashes if you press the X (top right) while testing a dimension parameter.
14015 Data Marker text on graph does not update when parameter combination is changed.
14019 EM Solver needs too many discrete points for ABS sweep when dielectric constant is frequency dependent.
14024 Remote analysis on Linux fails if server data folder name begins with "/data/sonnet".
14027 Inductor Model Extraction (IME) may give error message for not enough frequencies.
14066 The EM solver can give an open circuit when TrueVolume is used and there are uncovered vias.
14072 The EM solver fails to re-run Enhanced Resonance Detection on second simulation after ideal component value is changed.
14078 Improve efficiency of EM Solver when sweeping Ideal Component values.
14093 Current Density Viewer crashes on some projects with ideal components and sweep overrides.
14095 Graphs do not allow small intervals for axis properties.
14170 Tuning a curve does not handle refreshing files correctly.
14185 Boolean operations can sometimes remove ports.





Sonnet's suitesof high-frequency electromagnetic (EM) Software are aimed at today's demanding design challenges involving predominantly planar (3D planar) circuits and antennas. Predominantly planar circuits include microstrip, stripline, coplanar waveguide, PCB (single and multiple layers) and combinations with vias, vertical metal sheets (z-directed strips), and any number of layers of metal traces embedded in stratified dielectric material.

Modeling Anisotropic Substrates

Did you know that permittivity is dependent on the direction of fields? This is called anisotropy, and not only does Sonnet support this in analysis, but we have developed a technique to characterize material as well. If you need accurate simulation, this tutorial is for you.
Founded in 1983 by Dr. James C. Rautio,Sonnet Software Inc.is a private company dedicated completely to the development of commercial high frequency EM software. Sonnet maintains a single, dedicated focus on providing the industry's most accurate and reliable high frequency planar EM software. Sonnet Software, Inc. is based in Syracuse, NY, USA with representatives across the globe.