Wireless communication permeats all aspects of daily life. From cellular phones to military craft and everything in between, wireless data transfer and communication is being implemented on a great variety of electronic devices. This wireless connectivity necessitates use of an antenna on each device, both large and small. There are many types of antenna designs. The particular antenna architecture chosen is a function of the application, desired frequency band (or bands) of operation, and required range of effectiveness.
What Makes Antenna Design and Wave Propagation So Complex?
The physics of wave propagation from an antenna is inherently a 3D phenomenon, and as such the engineering calculations underpinning or describing these devices can be quite difficult to formulate in an analytical form. Ansys HFSS facilitates solution of the full-wave electromagnetic field problem in any arbitrary 3D geometry by way of a conformal finite element method. Furthermore, adaptive mesh procedure employed by Ansys HFSS results in the most accurate solution for the lowest computational cost required to resolve the propagating field solution.
Ansys HFSS can be used to predict the behavior and performance of virtually any radiating antenna structure. This fact, coupled with the powerful RF-centric antenna parameter focused post-processing features, allows the antenna designer to fully embrace the approach of “virtual prototyping” and optimize antenna performance in the virtual space, prior to physical prototyping.
How Does Platform Placement Affect Antenna Performance?
Stand-alone antenna behavior is not the sole concern of many RF engineers. Even if the RF engineer is not designing an antenna from concept, antenna performance when placed “on platform” can significantly deviate from the published antenna specifications provided by the antenna manufacturer. The antenna loading and field warping resultant from the radiating or receiving devices proximity to larger platform structures must be taken into account when devising the RF system performance. In addition to antenna component design, the effects of platform placement can be predicted with equal accuracy to the antenna design problem using Ansys HFSS. The large bodies associated with the platform can be included in the simulation. For electrically large platforms, Ansys HFSS can also incorporate “hybrid field solution” methods such that less computationally intense approaches such as Method of Moments (MoM) and/or ray tracing/physical optics approaches can also be used on large domains of the computational space.
By utilizing a virtual prototyping approach in the RF platform design workflow, Ansys HFSS allows for compressed design cycles, fewer design iterations, and reduced physical prototyping iterations. Ultimately, this translates to a reduced development cost.
What if you have many antennas near each other? Will they interfere with one another? Continue reading on our following blog….
Ready to Deepen Your Understanding? Join Our Three-Part Webinar Series!
In this series, we’ll cover:
Webinar 1: How can you effectively design and simulate antennas with Ansys HFSS? Watch now
Webinar 2: What strategies can be used for simulating multi-antenna systems and large problems? –
Date: September 10, 2024, Time: 9:00 AM – 9:45 AM (CDT)
Webinar 3: How can you optimize Ansys HFSS solver technologies?
Date: September 17, 2024, Time: 9:00 AM – 9:45 AM (CDT)
Register now to secure your spot! By registering, you will receive confirmation for the first webinar immediately and reservation emails for subsequent sessions at a later date. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights and optimize your antenna designs.