Electronics 7th

Wave Propagation & Antennas(TE-332)

Semester

LAB EXPERIMENT NO.18

Dipole Antenna Design using HFSS

Student 1 Name: Roll No:

Student 2 Name: Roll No:

Student 3 Name: Roll No:

Lab Instructor Signatures: Date:

Marks: Student 1 ________________, Student 2 _________________, Student 3 ______________

OBJECTIVE:

This Lab is intended to show you how to create, simulate, and analyze a Dipole
Antenna using lump port in Ansoft HFSS design environment.

Theory:

1. What is Dipole Antenna:

 Most basic antenna
o Two conductive, equal length parts.
o Feed line connected in the middle.
 Total length is half-wavelength (1/2*λ).
 Signals are strongest in the directions broadside to the antenna.
 Radiation pattern of dipole antenna is ‘Omni-directional’.

Department of Electronics Engineering 1

 Electronics 7th
Wave Propagation & Antennas(TE-332)
Semester

Direction of
maximum radiation

Axis of Antenna

Radiation Pattern of Dipole Antenna

2. Begin a design:
 To begin working with geometries, you must insert an HFSS design.
Right-Click the project file and select Insert -> Insert HFSS Design
from the menu.

Department of Electronics Engineering 2

 Electronics 7th
Wave Propagation & Antennas(TE-332)
Semester

 From the HFSS menu, select solution type and then driven model.
 Also select unit as ‘mm’ from ‘Modeler’ menu.
 Click the HFSS menu and select the ‘design properties’. A property
window will appear.

 Now we have to insert the ‘variables’ and their ‘values’.

o Name: Lambda; Value: 10; Unit: mm.
o Name: dip_rad; Value: Lambda/200; Unit: mm.
o Name: radiation_rad; Value: dip_rad+(Lambda/4); Unit: mm.
o Name: gap_src; Value: 0.125; Unit: mm.
o Name: res_length; Value: 0.475*Lambda; Unit: mm.
o Name: dip_length; Value: res_length/2-(gap_src/2); Unit:
mm.
o Name: radiation_height; Value: gap_src/2 +dip_length +
Lambda/10; Unit: mm

Note: Creating variables before defining the structure will allow the user to build the
geometry much faster than using a fixed system.

Department of Electronics Engineering 3

 Electronics 7th
Wave Propagation & Antennas(TE-332)
Semester

 Let’s start by creating the dipole element using the Draw Cylinder
button from the toolbar.


 Give the name ‘dip1’ to this object. Assign the material PEC and
then click OK.

Department of Electronics Engineering 4

 Electronics 7th
Wave Propagation & Antennas(TE-332)
Semester

 Now, under the command tab enter the following information:

o Position: 0, 0, gap_src/2.
o Radius: dip_rad.
o Height: dip_length

 In order to build the symmetric structure for dipole antenna; click the
drawing area and select ‘Edit’> ‘Duplicate’ > ‘Around Axis’.
 A mirror image is produced by enter the following:
o Axis: X
o Angle: 180
o Total number: 2

Department of Electronics Engineering 5

 Electronics 7th
Wave Propagation & Antennas(TE-332)
Semester

 The solid structure of dipole is illustrated below:

 A slot has been created at the origin .This will allow later placement of a
source for excitation.
 In order to provide the excitation to the dipole structure, lumped source
will be used.
 For this click, draw ‘rectangle’ and enter the following:
o Name: Source
o Transparent:0.2

Department of Electronics Engineering 6

 Electronics 7th
Wave Propagation & Antennas(TE-332)
Semester

 Under the command tab, enter the following:

o Position: 0,-dip_rad,-gap_src/2
o Axis: X
o Ysize: dip_rad*2
o Zsize: gap_src

 You can visualize the dipole structure and source by zooming it.

Department of Electronics Engineering 7

 Electronics 7th
Wave Propagation & Antennas(TE-332)
Semester

 Select the ‘source’, right-click on ‘Excitation’> ‘Assign’ > ‘Lumped

Port’.

 Radiation boundary is created for far-field computation. A cylindrical air

boundary is defined with a distance of λ/4.

Department of Electronics Engineering 8

 Electronics 7th
Wave Propagation & Antennas(TE-332)
Semester

 From the tool bar draw ‘cylinder’ and enter the following:
o Name: radiation.
o Material: air.
o Transparent:0.8

 Click the command tab and enter the following:

o Position: 0mm ,0mm ,-radiation_height
o Axis: Z
o Radius: radiation_rad
o Height: radiation_height*2

 Assuming all steps were properly completed, the boundary Should

resemble the illustration below:

Department of Electronics Engineering 9

 Electronics 7th
Wave Propagation & Antennas(TE-332)
Semester

 In order to assign ‘radiation boundary’, select the faces as

demonstrated below:

 Click OK.
 With all faces selected, right-click the Boundary icon in the object
explorer and select Boundary -> Assign -> Radiation.

1
Department of Electronics Engineering
0
 Electronics 7th
Wave Propagation & Antennas(TE-332)
Semester

 Leave the default name Rad1 and click OK.

 Now, from the project explorer select Analysis> Add solution
setup.
 Enter the solution frequency : 29.9792 GHz; Maximum number of
passes:20 and then click OK.

 From the project explorer, select Setup1>Add Sweep and enter the
following:

1
Department of Electronics Engineering
1
 Electronics 7th
Wave Propagation & Antennas(TE-332)
Semester

 Before running the analysis, always verify the project by selecting

from the 3D toolbar. If everything is correct the user should see:

1
Department of Electronics Engineering
2
 Electronics 7th
Wave Propagation & Antennas(TE-332)
Semester

 Now analyze the structure by clicking on

 After the simulation is complete, generate the report for S-parameter.

VSWR Plot:

1
Department of Electronics Engineering
3
 Electronics 7th
Wave Propagation & Antennas(TE-332)
Semester

Port Z0:

 For far field calculation, right-click the Radiation icon in the project
manager window and select Insert Far Field Setup -> Infinite Sphere.

1
Department of Electronics Engineering
4
 Electronics 7th
Wave Propagation & Antennas(TE-332)
Semester

 For Phi:
o Start value : 0 ; stop value :360 ; step size : 10
 For theta:
o Start value: -180; stop value:180 ; step size: 10
 Right-click ‘Infinite-sphere1’ > ‘compute antenna parameters’.

1
Department of Electronics Engineering
5
 Electronics 7th
Wave Propagation & Antennas(TE-332)
Semester

 Radiation Pattern plot for gain(total):

 Radiation pattern plot for rE(total).

1
Department of Electronics Engineering
6
 Electronics 7th
Wave Propagation & Antennas(TE-332)
Semester

o For all values of phi:

o For all values of theta:

 Create 3D polar plot by selecting Result>Far-field plot> 3D polar plot.

o Plot it for gain(total).

1
Department of Electronics Engineering
7
 Electronics 7th
Wave Propagation & Antennas(TE-332)
Semester

Task:
Every individual must generate plot for
 S-parameter
 VSWR
 Port(Z0)
 Radiation Pattern
 3D- polar plot

Note: Insert value of ‘Lambda’ as:

 Name: Lambda; Value: 20; Unit: mm.

QUESTION: Change the parameters of the dipole in the step 1. And redo all the
steps mentioned above, note the radiation pattern and attach the results.

1
Department of Electronics Engineering
8