Ansys Charge Plus

Ansys Charge Plus (formerly EMA3D^® Charge)

Ansys Charge Plus (formerly EMA3D^® Charge) is the simulation software designed for the analysis of charging and discharging phenomena. It uses time-domain solvers to simulate electric arcing, material surface and internal charging, 3D particle transport, and dielectric breakdown. It can be used to assess and manage risks associated with excessive charge build up in a product where electrification is a concern. Ansys Charge Plus is used at the design phase for the prevention of material degradation, surface flashovers, and EM interference in harsh radiation environments or high voltage systems. Charging effects due to high-energy particles, precipitation static, low-energy plasmas, solar illumination, and friction electrification may be extremely consequential. With Ansys Charge Plus it is possible to study electric charge imbalance in both space and ground applications. The numerical solutions designed to tackle surface charging, internal charging, and air or dielectric breakdown are combined into streamlined workflow incorporated into the Ansys Discovery | 3D Product Simulation Software. In this optimized workflow, one can easily prepare 3D CAD models, assign charging material properties and environments, mesh your model, run, and analyze simulations.

With Ansys Charge Plus, customers can address:

Air breakdown in high-voltage systems taking advantage of a finite-element time difference method and a non-linear air chemistry module arcing at various air density and humidity.

Surface Charging due to triboelectrification and low- or high- energy plasma environments using highly optimized charge balance equation solvers.

Internal Charging of solid materials from high-energy particle fluxes leveraging the coupling of a 3D particle transport source and a full-wave electromagnetic finite element method (FEM) solution.

Coupled Charging simulations take advantage of the charge balance equations solvers, the FEM, or the 3D particle transport tool to self-consistently solve the 3D E-fields generated from a surface charging problem.

Dielectric Breakdown in a solid dielectric materials is simulated once the local fields exceed the dielectric strength of a given material, using the coupling of the FEM with the 3D particle source and a stochastic tree model to reproduce the treeing present in electronic discharges.

EMA has developed the world’s first commercial Space Environment and Radiation Effects (SERE) test facility in conjunction with Ansys Charge Plus, the first dynamically coupled surface and internal charging commercial software. The combination of both will make analyzing the performance of materials in the space plasma environment more efficient and accurate than ever before.

Contact EMA’s team of experts to learn more about Ansys Charge Plus, here.

Ansys Charge Plus is sold exclusively through Ansys, if you are interested in purchasing this software click here.

Ansys Charge Plus 2026 R1

Featured Updates:

• Discharge pollutant modeling
• Restart simulations from initial conditions
• GPU accelerations of PIC/FEM and radiation transport
• Charge-energy conservation with full-wave EM in TD-FEM

Ansys Charge Plus 2025 R2

Featured Updates:

• Radiation hardening workflow updates
• Circuit solver boundary condition for FEM
• Pressure boundary condition for Fluid
• Thin-layer materials
• Flashover discharge simulation

Ansys Charge Plus 2025 R1

Featured Updates:

• Reformat of fluid boundary condition (inlet and outlet)
• New ability to define PIC space charge per body
• Improved integration with FE Discovery meshing
• Ray tracing probes and performance updates
• 1D sheath modeling- Analytic and kinematic
• Stability improvements- Energy Conserving Semi-Implicitization ECSIM
• Generation of 2D slices of 3D models to reduce element count
• Argon reactor validation
• Coupling with Maxwell for magnetron simulations
• Discharge modeling in any gas at any pressure with PIC in FEM
• VTK plugin for advanced visualization
• NVIDIA Omniverse integration with VTK plugin

Plasma processing is difficult to simulate because it involves fast-moving charged particles, complex chemistry, and tiny boundary effects all happening at once. To get accurate results, simulation tools must go beyond simple fluid models and capture the real particle physics driving the process.

Ansys Charge Plus addresses multi-scale physics by hybridizing kinetic, electromagnetic (EM), and fluid models; enabling capture of both fine-scale particle behavior and full reactor-scale plasma dynamics in a single simulation.

Key takeaways:

• Hybrid multi-scale plasma simulation
• Accurate wafer-level process modeling
• Physics-based accuracy
• Fast, scalable performance

About Ansys Charge Plus

What is Ansys Charge Plus?

Ansys Charge Plus is a multiphysics simulation software used to model electrical charging, discharging, electrostatic discharge (ESD), and plasma-interactions in electronic systems.

It enables engineers to predict charge-related failures early in the design process, reducing risk, testing costs, and certification delays.

Why use Ansys Charge Plus?

Use Ansys Charge Plus to simulate complex charging and plasma effects that are difficult or impossible to test physically. It helps reduce design risk, eliminate costly rework, and accelerate certification by identifying issues early.

What does Ansys Charge Plus simulate?

Ansys Charge Plus simulates a wide range of charging and discharge-related phenomena, including:

• ESD and fast transient events
• Surface and internal charging in materials and components
• Charged particle transport and plasma interactions
• Electrical arcing and dielectric or air breakdown
• Radiation-induced charging effects

These capabilities help engineers identify failure mechanisms, prevent material degradation, and improve system reliability before building physical prototypes.

Where is Ansys Charge Plus Used

What industries use Ansys Charge Plus?

Ansys Charge Plus is used across industries where charge buildup, plasma effects, and high-voltage risks impact performance and safety:

• Semiconductor: Plasma processing, etching, depositions, and ESD protection
• Aerospace and defense: Spacecraft charging, radiation effects, and high-altitude electrical phenomena
• Automotive and electrical vehicles: High-voltage systems, wiring, and ESD risk mitigation
• Consumer electronics: ESD compliance and device reliability
• Industrial and power systems: High-voltage equipment, arcing, and electrical safety

Core Capabilities and Simulation Features

How does Ansys Charge Plus integrate with other tools?

Ansys Charge plus integrates with the Ansys multiphysics ecosystem, including tools for electromagnetics, fluids, and system-level simulation, enabling coupled analysis of electrical, plasma, and environmental effects in a single workflow.

What solvers make up Ansys Charge Plus?

Ansys Charge Plus addresses multi-scale kinetic effects by combining multiple solver types in a single, coupled simulation environment. Specifically:

• Particle-in-Cell (PIC) captures fast, small-scale kinetic effects like electron motion and non-equilibrium behavior
• Finite Element electromagnetic solvers handle radio frequency (RF) fields and wave-plasma interactions
• Fluid/CFD models represent bulk gas flow and larger-scale plasma behavior
• Chemistry and reaction models account for longer-timescale plasma processes and material interactions

Ansys Charge Plus for Semiconductor Manufacturing

Why use simulation in semiconductor manufacturing?

Manufacturers want to simulate plasma processes in semiconductor manufacturing to predict and optimize how plasma interacts with materials, improving etching, deposition, and overall chip performance without relying on costly trial-and-error experiments.

It also provides visibility into complex physics inside the chamber that cannot be directly measured, helping engineers refine processes faster and produce higher-quality, more reliable chips.

What semiconductor processes can Ansys Charge Plus model?

Ansys Charge Plus models a wide range of plasma-based semiconductor manufacturing processes, with a focus on understanding plasma behavior, surface interactions, and charge effects at the wafer level.

Key processes include:

• Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD): Simulate thin-film deposition processes, including film growth, plasma chemistry, and surface reactions on wafers
• Plasma etching: Models how ions and reactive species interact with the wafer surface to remove material and define device structures
• Sputtering and plasma-based coating processes: Simulates plasma generation and material transport for thin-film deposition and coating applications
• RF plasma processes: Captures how radio-frequency fields drive plasma formation and influence ion energy and distribution at the wafer
• Plasma sheath and wafer-surface interactions: Models the plasma sheath region near the wafer, which governs ion energy, angular distribution, and surface reactions critical to process outcomes
• Gas-phase plasma chemistry and transport: Simulates how charged species, neutrals, and reactions evolve within the plasma reactor, including multi-species and multi-reaction environments
• ESD and charging effects in semiconductor equipment: Helps predict charge buildup and discharge risks that can damage wafers and fabrication hardware

Plasma Simulation Approach

How is Ansys Charge Plus used in plasma processes simulation?

Plasma processes span extremely different scales from nanoseconds to seconds and microns to meters. Ansys Charge plus bridges these by:

• Using PIC for accuracy where physics demands it
• Using fluid models where efficiency is acceptable
• Coupling the two together so information flows across scales (particles ↔ fields ↔ chemistry)  

How is Ansys Charge Plus different from traditional fluid plasma solvers?

Traditional plasma simulation tools use fluid models that approximate particle behavior and rely on assumptions like predefined electron energy distributions. Ansys Charge Plus uses a hybrid approach with PIC, EM, and fluid solvers to directly model plasma physics. This enables more accurate simulation of non-equilibrium plasmas, RF effects, and wafer-level interactions that fluid-only solvers cannot capture.

Why is PIC important for semiconductor plasma simulations?

PIC simulation is essential for modeling semiconductor plasma processes because it directly tracks electrons and ions instead of averaging their behavior. This provides accurate prediction of ion energy distribution, plasma sheath dynamics, and surface interactions, which are critical for optimizing etching, deposition, and process control in semiconductor manufacturing.

Performance, Speed, and Scalability

How does Ansys Charge Plus improve computational efficiency and scalability for plasma simulations?

Ansys Charge Plus is designed for high-performance plasma modeling with a patent pending semi-implicit time-stepping scheme, enabling fast simulation of complex RF plasmas. For example, 2D simulations of hundreds of RF cycles can be compounded in ~30 minutes, significantly reducing turnaround time.

In addition, Charge Plus supports GPU-accelerated 3D plasma simulations, allowing engineers to scale to large, multi-species plasma chambers with improved performance and throughput. As of 26R1, Charge Plus solves ICP problems on multi-GPU in 3D with 30 species and 100+ reactions. Faster solve times and GPU scaling enable parametric sweeps, design optimization, and larger, more realistic models without prohibitive compute costs.

Accuracy and Advanced Physics Modeling

How does Ansys Charge Plus eliminate EEDF approximation errors in plasma simulations?

Ansys Charge Plus uses a full PIC solver to directly calculate electron and ion behavior, eliminating the need for assumed electron energy distribution functions (EEDF). This approach produces realistic energy and angular distribution profiles at the wafer surface, accurately resolving sheath physics and improving prediction of plasma-surface interactions. More accurate EEDF modeling leads to better process control, improved yield, and reduced risk of simulation-driven design errors.

How does Ansys Charge Plus accurately capture nonlinear plasma behavior?

Ansys Charge Plus includes a PIC- Monte Carlo Collision (MCC) reaction solver that resolves detailed plasma chemistry and particle interactions. This allows the software to naturally capture nonlinear effects in plasma discharges, including coupling between fields, particles, and reactions. Accurately modeling nonlinear plasma dynamics is critical for predicting instabilities, processes variability, and chamber performance in real-world manufacturing environments.

How does Ansys Charge Plus model plasma sheaths in high-density simulations?

Ansys Charge Plus accurately models plasma sheaths in high-density conditions using validated analytical sheath models or a 1D PIC approach.

At high plasma densities, resolving the sheath with a fine mesh is computationally expensive and unnecessary. Instead, Charge Plus applies physics-based sheath models that:

• Maintain simulation accuracy without excessive meshing
• Enable efficient CCP and ICP plasma simulations
• Reflect industry-standard approaches used in plasma physics

Advanced Capabilities and Innovation

What is the multi-fidelity modeling approach in Ansys Charge Plus?

Ansys Charge Plus uses a multi-fidelity modeling approach by coupling with TCAD Sentaurus to capture both reactor-scale and feature-level plasma effects. This allows users to:

• Simulate the full 3D plasma chamber while resolving microscopic wafer features
• Accurately model how plasma interactions affect device structures
• Bridge large-scale plasma behavior with detailed semiconductor process physics

How does Ansys Charge Plus use AI in plasma simulations?

Ansys Charge Plus leverages AI and reduced-order modeling to accelerate complex plasma simulations without sacrificing accuracy. Through collaboration between EMA, Synopsys, and NVIDIA, users can:

• Develop AI-driven reduced-order models training on high-fidelity plasma simulations
• Significantly reduce simulation time for complex systems
• Apply these models to real-world plasma processes and custom applications

Organizations can also work with EMA experts to build tailored AI models for the specific plasma systems and workflows.

How comprehensive is the plasma chemistry database in Ansys Charge Plus?

The plasma chemistry database in Ansys Charge Plus is continuously expanding and designed to be flexible for advanced users. In addition to built-in reactions, users can:

• Define custom plasma chemistries and reaction sets
• Adapt simulations to specific materials, gases, or processes
• Extend the tool for specialized research or industrial applications

Validation and Proven History

Why is Ansys Charge Plus’s aerospace and defense heritage important for plasma and charging simulations?

Ansys Charge Plus benefits from a long history of validation in aerospace and defense applications, where accurate plasma and charging simulations are critical. Because spacecraft charging and plasma interactions share similar physics, this heritage provides:

• Proven validation against space environment data and literature
• Higher confidence in mission-critical simulations
• Continuous improvement through ongoing benchmarking and experimental validation

Why Charge Plus is Needed

What problems cannot be solved accurately without Ansys Charge Plus?

Traditional plasma simulation tools cannot reliably predict complex, multi-scale behaviors in semiconductor processes.

Ansys Charge Plus enables accurate modeling of:

• Ion energy and angular distributions at the wafer
• Plasma sheath behavior in RF and high-density plasmas
• Charging damage and ESD risks
• Nonlinear plasma dynamics and instabilities
• Coupled plasma chemistry and multi-species reactions

This level of fidelity is critical for improving yield, process uniformity, and device reliability.

Get Started

How can I get access to Ansys Charge Plus?

Ansys Charge Plus is available exclusively through Ansys, Part of Synopsys.

Does EMA offer consulting in addition to simulation software?

Yes. In addition to providing simulation software, EMA offers expert consulting to help organizations apply tools like Ansys Charge Plus to their specific engineering challenges. This includes guidance on plasma modeling, custom workflows, and advanced applications such as AI-driven modeling and specialized plasma systems.

Who should contact EMA?

EMA is a strong fit for:

• Semiconductor process engineers working on plasma etching, deposition, or wafer-level optimization
• Device and integration engineers evaluating plasma-material interactions and feature-level effects
• Equipment and tool designers developing plasma reactors, RF systems, or chamber hardware
• R&D teams modeling advanced plasma processes, new materials, or next-generation manufacturing techniques

How can I get started with EMA?

You can start by:

• Requesting a consultation
• Discussing your technical challenge
• Exploring simulation options

Contact EMA to speak with our team and get started.

Charge related failures are often driven by complex interactions between electric fields, charged particles, materials, plasma environments, and system geometry. This makes it difficult, costly, or even impossible to fully evaluate through physical testing alone.

Ansys Charge Plus is a multiphysics charging and discharging software simulation tool that helps engineers predict, analyze, and mitigate charge-related failures before hardware is built. By modeling charge accumulation, charge transport, plasma interactions, electric fields, and discharge events, engineers can identify risks earlier, reduce development costs, minimize redesigns, and improve system reliability.

Key benefits of Ansys Charge Plus:

• Predict electrostatic discharge, charging, arcing, and dielectric breakdown before testing
• Analyze charging behavior from individual components to complete platforms
• Simulate realistic plasma, radiation, space, and high-voltage environments
• Reduce qualification risk, testing costs, and engineering rework through physics-based simulation

About Ansys Charge Plus

What is Ansys Charge Plus and what can it simulate?

Ansys Charge Plus is a charging and discharging software simulation used to analyze:

• Electrostatic discharge (ESD)
• Electrical arcing and flashover
• Surface and internal charging
• Deep dielectric charging
• Spacecraft charging
• Plasma interactions
• Radiation-induced charging
• Dielectric breakdown
• Particle transport
• Charged particle environments

Engineers use Ansys Charge Plus to understand how charge accumulates, moves, and is discharged through materials, electronics, and complex systems before failures occur.

Why use Ansys Charge Plus?

Charge-related failures can be difficult, expensive, or impossible to discover through physical testing alone. Ansys Charge Plus helps you identify charging risks early, optimize designs before hardware is built, and reduce reliance on costly test campaigns.

Industries and Applications

What industries use Ansys Charge Plus?

Ansys Charge Plus is used across industries where charging, ESD, plasma interactions, or high-voltage effects impact performance and reliability.

• Aerospace and defense: Spacecraft charging, radiation effects, space survivability, and high-altitude electrical phenomena
• Automotive and electric vehicles: High-voltage systems, ESD mitigation, and electrification programs
• Electronics and consumer products: ESD compliance, device reliability, PCB protection
• Industrial and power systems: High-voltage insulation, electrical safety, and arcing analysis
• Semiconductor: Plasma processing, ESD control, etching and deposition

What types of engineering problems can Ansys Charge Plus solve?

Ansys Charge Plus helps you evaluate:

• ESD failures
• Arcing events
• Spacecraft charging
• Radiation-induced anomalies
• Plasma-process interactions
• High-voltage insulation breakdown
• Grounding and bonding performance
• System-level charging risks

ESD and Charging Analysis

Can Ansys Charge Plus predict, analyze, and mitigate ESD events?

Yes. Ansys Charge Plus predicts where charge accumulates, identifies high electric field regions, and evaluates conditions that can lead to ESD, flashover, or arcing. Learn more about simulating ESD in the Solving Electromagnetic Challenges session “Simulating Air Electrostatic Discharge: Examples and Workflow.”

Can Charge Plus identify ESD current paths?

Yes. The software tracks current flow following a discharge event, helping engineers understand failure mechanisms and identify vulnerable components.

How does Ansys Charge Plus improve ESD robustness?

Users can evaluate grounding, bonding, shielding, material selection, and geometry changes before building prototypes, reducing ESD-related risk. The software analyzes how grounding and bonding affect voltage buildup, current flow, and discharge behavior throughout a system.

Can Ansys Charge Plus analyze PCB charging and ESD risks?

Yes. You can assess charge accumulation, dielectric breakdown, flashover, and discharge risk on printed circuit boards, and electronic assemblies.

Can Ansys Charge Plus predict dielectric breakdown?

Yes. Ansys Charge Plus identifies d electric field concentrations and voltage conditions that may lead to dielectric breakdown in materials and components.

Spacecraft Charging Analysis

How does Ansys Charge Plus evaluate spacecraft charging?

Ansys Charge Plus predicts:

• Surface charging
• Internal charging
• Differential charging
• Electric field distributions
• ESD susceptibility
• Arcing risk

These capabilities help you assess spacecraft survivability before launch. Ansys Charge Plus can be combined with testing in EMA’s Space Environment and Radiation Effects (SERE) Lab for a more complete look at how materials will perform in the space environment.

Can Ansys Charge Plus analyze spacecraft materials and subsystems?

Yes. You can evaluate charging behavior on:

• Solar arrays
• Electronics
• Structural materials
• Dielectrics
• Spacecraft coatings

What mission environments can Ansys Charge Plus simulate?

The software supports:

• Low Earth orbit (LEO)
• Geostationary Earth orbit (GEO)
• Lunar missions
• Deep-space missions
• Electric propulsion environments

Can Ansys Charge Plus model spacecraft-plasma interactions?

Yes. Using Particle-in-Cell (PIC) and fluid plasma solvers, Ansys Charge Plus models interactions between spacecraft and surrounding plasma environments.

Can Ansys Charge Plus simulate space weather effects?

Yes. You can incorporate mission-specific plasma and radiation environments, including solar storm conditions, to evaluate increased charging risks.

Radiation and Deep Dielectric Charging

Can Ansys Charge Plus simulate radiation-induced charging?

Yes. Ansys Charge Plus evaluates how energetic particles interact with materials and electronics to produce charging effects and electric field buildup.

How does Ansys Charge Plus analyze deep dielectric charging?

Ansys Charge Plus models particle interactions, internal charge deposition, charge transport, electric field buildup, and discharge conditions throughout a mission profile.

Plasma Simulation

What plasma environments can Ansys Charge Plus model?

Ansys Charge Plus supports analysis of:

• Ionospheric plasmas
• Space plasmas
• Electric propulsion plasmas
• Semiconductor plasmas
• Custom plasma environments

Learn more about Ansys Charge Plus for semiconductor plasma simulation here.

How does Ansys Charge Plus model plasma interactions?

The software combines:

• Particle-in-Cell (PIC)
• Electromagnetic simulation
• Fluid plasma models
• Chemical reaction models

These capture charging behavior across multiple spatial and temporal scales.

System-Level and Multiphysics Simulation

Can Ansys Charge Plus analyze full systems and platforms?

Yes. Ansys Charge Plus scales from individual components to complete platforms, enabling system-level charging analysis.

What solvers make up Ansys Charge Plus?

The platform combines:

• Particle-in-Cell captures fast, small-scale kinetic effects like electron motion and non-equilibrium behavior
• Finite Element electromagnetic solvers handle radio frequency (RF) fields and wave-plasma interactions
• Fluid/CFD models represent bulk gas flow and larger-scale plasma behavior
• Chemistry and reaction models account for longer time-scale plasma processes and material interactions

Workflow and Productivity

What CAD formats can Ansys Charge Plus import?

Ansys Charge Plus supports standard CAD formats through the Ansys geometry framework and works directly within the Ansys Discovery environment.

Does Ansys Charge Plus support HPC and GPU acceleration?

Yes. Ansys Charge Plus supports:

• Distributed computing
• Multi-node HPC
• GPU acceleration
• Multi-GPU simulation

These capabilities allow for faster charging and plasma analyses. GPU acceleration is made possible through EMA’s participation in the NVIDIA Inception program.

Can Ansys Charge Plus automate design studies?

Yes. You can perform automated parametric studies, sensitivity analyses, and design optimization workflows. Learn more about EMA’s automation services here.

What level of expertise is required to use Ansys Charge Plus?

The software is designed for both experienced simulation specialists and engineers who are new to charging analysis. Training, consulting, and application support are available through EMA.

Why Choose Ansys Charge Plus?

What makes Ansys Charge Plus different from other charging simulation software?

Unlike many charging tools, Ansys Charge Plus combines:

• PIC physics
• Electromagnetic simulation
• Fluid plasma modeling
• Chemistry simulation
• Charge transport analysis

This single environment enables you to evaluate charging phenomena across electronics, spacecraft, high-voltage systems, and plasma applications.

Why use Ansys Charge Plus instead of physical testing alone?

Physical testing remains essential, but many charging and plasma phenomena are difficult to reproduce in a laboratory. Ansys Charge Plus helps you identify vulnerabilities before fabrication and qualification testing, reducing risk and accelerating development.

EMA Services and Support

Can EMA perform Ansys Charge Plus analyses for my organization?

Yes. EMA provides consulting, simulation services, application engineering, testing support, and workflow development for charging, ESD, plasma, and radiation-related projects.

How can I get access to Ansys Charge Plus?

Ansys Charge Plus is available exclusively through Ansys, Part of Synopsys.

Who should contact EMA?

EMA is a strong fit for anyone facing charging, ESD, spacecraft charging, plasma interaction, radiation-induced charging, arcing, or dielectric breakdown challenges. Whether you need simulation software, consulting, testing support, or training, EMA can help reduce risk and improve system reliability.

How can I get started with EMA?

You can start by:

• Requesting a consultation

• Discussing your technical challenge

• Exploring simulation options

EMA experts can review your program, identify charging risks, and demonstrate how Ansys Charge Plus can be applied to your hardware, system, spacecraft, or process to evaluate real-world engineering challenges.

Contact EMA to speak with our team and get started.