The Forty-year Journey of Femtet, the CAE Software that Continues to Support Murata Manufacturing's Product Development with FEM Analysis

*1 CAE: an abbreviation of Computer Aided Engineering that refers to technologies which enable engineering simulations to be performed on a computer.

*2 Analysis: refers to the investigation of phenomena through calculation or theory.

*3 FEM: an abbreviation of Finite Element Method.

<Analysis examples shown in the image at the top of this page>

Electromagnetic waves: log-periodic antenna, Electric field: component during plating, Magnetic field: electromagnetic motor, Fluid: CPU cooler, Thermal conduction: electronic circuit board, Stress: solder (fatigue analysis), Piezoelectricity: ultrasonic motor, and Sound wave: violin (sound directionality)

1. Femtet CAE software based on the finite element method also supports multiphysics analysis

Before the adoption of personal computers, manufacturers relied on repeated trial and error involving modifications, prototyping, evaluation, and improvement in product design and manufacturing processes. However, it has now become standard practice to run various simulations on a computer before actually starting design or manufacturing to make a forecast for the design and manufacturing processes. The use of simulation reduces the inefficiencies inherent to the previous trial-and-error approach, enabling shorter development cycles and lower costs, and thereby simulation has become an essential technology in modern manufacturing.
As the importance of simulation technology has now become widely recognized, the achievements of Mr. Okada of Murata Manufacturing (hereinafter, "Murata") in developing Femtet as Japan's only integrated CAE software, in a field dominated by Europe and the United States, have become an important contribution not only to Murata but also to Japan's CAE software industry.

• Performs a series of operations from modeling^*4 to mesh^*5 generation, analysis, and results display at a calculator-like level
• Eight analysis fields in one package: electromagnetic waves, electric fields, magnetic fields, fluids, thermal conduction, stress, piezoelectricity, and sound waves (see Figure 1)
• Capable of multiphysics analysis^*6 with each analysis field in one model (see Figure 1)

In addition to functionality, Femtet also features superior operability and a user-friendly interface that inspires users to try it out. It has been adopted not only by electronic equipment manufacturers but also by automotive and electronic component companies, material/energy-related companies, and machinery-related companies, as well as universities, technical high schools, and research institutions.

*4 Modeling: refers to the task of creating the shape of the object of analysis on a computer.

*5 Mesh: refers to the small areas (elements) when an analysis target is divided up.

*6 Multiphysics analysis: for example, thermal stress analysis can be performed by passing the results obtained from thermal conduction analysis to stress analysis.

By adding options, Femtet is capable of supporting nonlinear analysis, transient analysis, and acceleration through optimal parallel processing of multi-core CPUs, etc. For more about multiphysics analysis, see <Overview of Multiphysics Analysis in the Femtet Help>.

2. History of Femtet Development

2.1 Catalyst for developing Femtet

Mr. Okada, the developer of Femtet, joined Murata in 1979 after graduating from university, and was assigned to a manufacturing site. At that time, he started to wonder whether it was possible to create analysis software for efficiently designing the structure of stainless steel oscillators for clocks. The inspiration for this idea came from his experience with simulation-based analysis during his university days and his desire to utilize that knowledge.
While there had been no computers in his university research lab, at the time, Murata had a computer called a "minicomputer" that ran on the FORTRAN language. Thus, Okada began creating software to analyze the oscillations, programming every day from 7 p.m. to as late as midnight in order to complete the software. When he realized that the simulation results closely matched the experimental results and therefore the number of prototypes could be significantly reduced, the software was shared and utilized within the company.

This was the catalyst for the software development, which led one managing director at the time to stress the importance of simulation to the Founder President and explain the significance of computer-based design. The managing director then told Okada, "The era of computer-based design is coming. You should focus only on developing this simulation software." Thereafter, Okada was able to devote himself to software development.

However, the capabilities of minicomputers at the time were limited to a 16-bit CPU and only 32 kilobytes of memory. Although they were equipped with hard disk drives, their capacity was tens of thousands to millions of times less than today's PCs. Furthermore, the displays could only display text. Nevertheless, programmers such as Okada developed software on these minicomputer terminals. Okada recalls, "That was just the way things were in those days."

2.2 Pursuing intuitive operability and internal adoption

In the 1980s, Japanese-made 16-bit PCs began to emerge. Over the next few years, computers advanced rapidly. Okada began receiving requests to develop simulation software from various departments within Murata. However, many of the requests were in fields outside of his original focus of oscillation, prompting him to study electromagnetism and piezoelectricity. Thanks to the efforts of Okada and the members of the development team, the number of analysis fields that could be simulated increased, and the tool gained broader use as CAE software within the company (Figure 2).

Furthermore, while teaching engineers in charge of development and design how to operate the software, Okada simplified the software operations as much as possible and added improvements to make it more intuitive to use, enabling simulations to be performed not only by dedicated CAE analysis personnel but also by internal researchers and developers. These changes encouraged many development and design teams to start using Femtet. Okada explains, "The GUI^*7 of today's PCs is much easier to understand than the CUI^*8 operated with a keyboard. The adoption of a GUI^*7 was a major reason behind the spread of Femtet within Murata."

*7 GUI: an abbreviation of Graphical User Interface. A system which uses a mouse, keyboard, and touch panel, etc., to operate icons, buttons, and other visual elements.

*8 CUI: an abbreviation of Character User Interface. This acronym refers to a system of computer operation which primarily uses a keyboard to enter text-based commands.

2.3 Key factor behind the decision to sell the software externally

In the electronic equipment and electronic component industries, there are many cases in which companies developed CAE software in-house, only to ultimately end up using CAE software from overseas and abandoning their own development efforts. Murata continued to develop its software internally and successfully expanded into external sales. The reason for this is their emphasis on ease-of-use, which was the same factor that drove the internal adoption, as mentioned above.
Okada explains the situation as follows, "We divided the team into a solver^*9 development group and another development group that focused on strengthening the input and output HMI (human-machine interface) related to operability, and allocated the same amount of effort to operability development as solver development. The enhancement of the operability was the key factor behind the decision to sell the software externally." At the time, CAE software from overseas was expanding in the Japanese market, and Murata was confident that its easy-to-use CAE software could compete with such products.
However, the software did not sell at all when it was initially released. In response, Murata made sales calls to customers and listened to their opinions, which led to the addition of CAD^*10 data import and other enhancements to functions that CAE software users frequently used. As a result of this support, the number of users slowly began to increase, and the business achieved profitability in its third year. The increase in users led to the receipt of more feedback and requests, and Femtet's functionality was further enhanced by applying those ideas in the software.

*9 Solver: refers to a program or function for obtaining the analysis result.

*10 CAD: an abbreviation of Computer-Aided Design. This acronym refers to tools that support the computer-based creation and editing, etc., of design drawings.

3. Strengthening the mesh functions needed for FEM analysis

The features of Femtet were mentioned in section 1, and another one of its strengths is the flexibility to customize the mesher settings. Femtet operation begins with dividing the analysis model into many small sections called "elements" or "meshes" in a process known as "mesh generation" (Figure 3). This function, called the "mesher," allows the flexible control of mesh size such that some parts of the model have a detailed mesh while others are coarse. (Figure 4 - from the Partial Mesh Size section in the Femtet Help). This is one of Femtet's easy-to-use specifications, and Murata develops the mesher in-house to enable this degree of flexibility.

While possessing the strengths described above, Femtet is priced competitively to make it easier to adopt than overseas CAE software solutions (see here for more details). Okada explains, "When there are too many functions, software can become difficult to operate and hard to use. In addition, the price also increases with the number of functions. We have continued to develop Femtet based on the concept of limiting the functions to only those that are truly needed and making it easy to use at many different development and design sites."

4. Future of Femtet - making a tool that is useful to all developers and designers

Femtet has been adopted not only by customers at major Japanese companies, recently, it is also being adopted by an increasing number of small and medium-sized companies, and the number of potential users who have never used CAE software is believed to still be quite large. Okada discusses his future hopes for Femtet saying, "We want to make Femtet useful to all developers and designers regardless of whether they are in Japan or overseas, and our goal going forward is to improve the software and create game-like tutorials that enable even CAE beginners to easily use Femtet. Naturally, we will continue to enhance the basic functions with the hope that Femtet will become a CAE software solution that continues to contribute to society through many companies and people."

Column: Femtet analysis example - echorb Wonder Stone featured at the Osaka-Kansai Expo

Murata is sponsoring the Better Co-Being signature pavilion at Expo 2025 being hosted in Osaka, Kansai. As part of its sponsorship, the company is showcasing the echorb Wonder Stone, a round, stone-like device (Figure 5). When a visitor holds the echorb in their hand, they can experience 3D haptics technology that induces an illusion in the brain through special vibrations that create the sensation of being pulled or a feeling of resistance. Femtet was used in the development and design of the echorb.

• When the magnitude of displacement in the actual test was compared to the value obtained through Femtet analysis, the results were nearly identical.
• The Femtet analysis showed that the stress applied to the entire housing was lower than the strength threshold of the housing material, and the housing was not damaged in the actual test.

Column: What is FEM Analysis? A method for finding approximate solutions to partial differential equations

For example, partial differential equations that describe physical phenomena, such as Maxwell's equations, which are the fundamental equations of electromagnetism, can only be strictly solved in a limited number of cases. Therefore, various methods of numerical analysis that try to solve such equations even approximately have been developed alongside the advance of computers. One representative method of numerical analysis is based on the finite element method or "FEM analysis."
As discussed in the main text of this article, FEM analysis divides the object of analysis into small meshes (elements) to approximate the overall behavior by applying physical partial differential equations to each element (see the [Supplementary Note] in the case of Femtet).
Dividing the object of analysis into smaller elements offers the flexibility of making the analysis easier even with complex shapes and structures or uneven material properties. This element decomposition is the reason why the software is able to support the various shapes shown in the analysis images at the beginning of this article.

[Supplementary Note] Primary equations and laws used by Femtet in analysis for each field (from the Femtet Help Technical Notes)

• Electromagnetic waves/electric fields/magnetic fields: Maxwell's equations

• Fluids: Navier-Stokes equations

• Thermal conduction: Law of conservation of heat and Fourier's law
• Stress: Equations of motion and Hooke's law
• Piezoelectric: Piezoelectric equation
• Sound waves: Wave equation (Helmholtz equation)