Ansys HFSS Antenna Design
two-day courseThis course provides workshops, emphasizing on antennas, using the ANSYS HFSS environment of the ANSYS Electronics Desktop (AEDT) Suite. The general problem addressed is that of the high frequency electromagnetic field and antenna analysis.
The course focuses on the set-up and analysis of antenna simulations via the HFSS user interface. This tool is included in the ANSYS HFSS Premium and ANSYS Electronics Enterprise licenses. Within this interface, one can create CAD geometry of Antennas to analyze the near/far fields, surface currents, impedance, and S-parameters. One can also use the Antenna Design Toolkit (ATK) wizard to create common antenna geometry for ease of simulation design.
Most workshops begin with projects where CAD geometry has already been prepared or is drawn in the tool as part of the exercise. DRD encourages students to bring ACIS files with them to the training (preferably from their workplace) if they desire to test their own antenna geometry.
Module 1: Far and Near Fields
Workshop 1.1 — Conical Spiral Antenna with HFSS Antenna Toolkit 
This workshop synthesizes a design for a conical spiral antenna using the ACT Extension HFSS Antenna Toolkit and generates the simulation reports and plots.
This workshop starts with a new HFSS project and HFSS design. A dipole antenna is chosen from the Component Library as a starting point for the geometry and the excitation.
Workshop 1.3 — Horn Antenna Far Field Components 
This workshop starts with an HFSS horn design and an incomplete setup. The initial orientation of the horn, relative to the coordinates, has the X-axis at boresight.
Workshop 1.4 — Crossed Dipole Antenna Near Fields 
Module 2: Sources and Field Quantities
Workshop 2.1 — Crossed Dipole Antenna Sources 
This workshop starts with two crossed dipole antennas and demonstrates how to plot far field using a far field infinite sphere setup.
Workshop 2.2 — Circularly Polarized Patch Antenna 
This workshop focuses on Antenna post-processing such as radiation patterns and plotting 2D & 3D fields on Antenna geometry.
Workshop 2.3 — Circular Polarization Patch Advanced Field Quantities 
This advanced workshop evaluates patch antenna S-parameters data, plotted solved fields, and pattern data.
Module 3: Boundaries
Workshop 3.1 — Patch Antenna Open Region Boundaries
This workshop demonstrates two approaches to creating open boundaries and gain insight about both approaches by seeing them applied to the same structure.
Workshop 3.2 — PIFA Boundaries: ABC PML FE-BI 
This workshop demonstrates creating boundaries, such as Absorbing Boundary Condition (ABC), Perfectly Match Layer (PML), and Finite Element – Boundary Integral (FE-BI) for a Planar Inverted – F Antenna.
Module 4: Dynamic Link
Workshop 4.1 — Dynamic Link 
This workshop demonstrates how to dynamically link an HFSS design into a circuit simulation, use the Smith Tool in circuit design to match the antenna using lumped components, and push excitations from the circuit design to the HFSS design.
Module 5: Optimization
Workshop 5.1 — Antenna Optimetrics
This workshop demonstrates how to set up a parametric study, optimize, and simulate the Analytic Derivatives of a probe-fed patch antenna.
Workshop 5.2 — OptiSLang Derivatives Optimization of PIFA 
This workshop demonstrates the derivative-based optimizer to optimize a planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) design.
Module 6: HFSS Integral Equation (IE)
Workshop 6.1 — HFSS IE Blade Antenna
This workshop demonstrates how to set up, simulate, and analyze an airplane-mounted plane (blade) antenna using the Integral Equation (IE) solver.
Module 7: Formulations
Workshop 7.1 — FE-BI Blade Antenna 
This workshop sets up, simulates, and compares simulations of the airplane-wing mounted blade antenna. The large, flat geometry, representing an airplane fuselage, is simulated with both IE (Integral Equation) and SBR+ (Shooting Bouncing Rays).
Module 8: Hybrid Regions
Workshop 8.1 — Data Linked Simulation of a Reflector Antenna 
This workshop will demonstrate near field simulation results from a horn antenna and will feed a reflector antenna through a data link while also comparing the result of the Integral Equation (IE) and Physical Optics (PO) solvers.
Workshop 8.2 — Hybrid FEM-FEBI Simulation of a Reflector Antenna
Workshop 8.3 — Hybrid FEM-FEBI Antenna Placement Study 
This workshop will demonstrate radiation field results when using a Finite Element-Boundary Integral (FE-BI) region on the horn antenna and use a Integral Equation (IE) solver on the reflector.