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Effective antenna Simulations using CST MICROWAVE STUDIO (R)

Conference Paper · April 2007

DOI: 10.1109/INICA.2007.4353972 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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 Effective Antenna
Simulations using
CST MICROWAVE
STUDIO ®

Franz Hirtenfelder
CST GmbH, Bad Nauheimer Strasse 19
D-64289 Darmstadt, Germany,
E-Mail: franz.hirtenfelder@cst.com

1 www.cst.com
 CST Worldwide
CST Office CST Europe
CST Distributors and Reps
CST of America CST of Korea

AET Japan

CST West Coast

CST China

• Founded in 1992
• Focus on 3D EM Field calculation
• 100 Employees + Worldwide Distributors
• Best in Class links: Cadence, Agilent,
2 AWR, Sonnet, .... www.cst.com
 FI - The Finite Integration Method
Discretizing each Maxwell Equation

∫
δA
E d s = − ∫∫A
& dA
B Ce = − b&

ek

el ej ⎡ei ⎤
bn ⎡ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⎤⎢ ⎥ ⎡⋅⎤
⎢ 1 1 −1 −1⎥ ⎢ej ⎥ = − d ⎢b ⎥
ei ⎢ ⎥ ⎢e ⎥ dt ⎢ n ⎥
⎢⎣ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ⎥⎦ ⎢ k ⎥ ⎢⎣ ⋅ ⎥⎦
144 424443⎣el ⎦ 1 424 3
C { −b&
ei + e j − ek − el = −b&n e

3 www.cst.com
 FI - The Finite Integration
Method
Covering the whole frequency range
r r ∂ r r
∫ E ⋅ ds = − ∫∫ B ⋅ dA Ce = − b&
∂t A
∂A ~
r r
∫ H ⋅ ds = ∫∫ ⎜
r
⎛ ∂D r⎞ r
+ J ⎟ ⋅ dA
C h = d& + j
∂A A
⎝ ∂t ⎠ ~
r r
∫∫ ⋅ dA = 0
B S d = q
∂V
r r
∫∫ D ⋅ dA = Q
Sb = 0
∂V

Maxwell’s equations (1876) Grid equations (1977)

div curl = 0 SC=0

~ T
curl grad = 0 CS=0
4 www.cst.com
 Finite Integration + PBA
Statics to THz
Maxwell Grid Equations

∂ ∂ ∂
= 0 a iω ≠ 0
∂t ∂t ∂t

Frequency Domain (j>0) Implicit

E-static

M-static Explicit
Eigenvalue Problem (j=0)
Time
J-static Domain
Tracking EMS MWS
PIC
MAFIA
5 www.cst.com
 CST MICROWAVE STUDIO®
General purpose solver 3D-volume
• large problems
Transient • broadband
• arbitrary time signals
• narrow band / single frequency
Frequency Domain • small problems
• periodic structures with Floquet port modes

Special solver 3D-volume: closed resonant structures

• strongly resonant structures, narrow band
Eigenmode
• cavities
FD Resonant • strongly resonant, non radiating structures

Special solver 3D-surface: large open metallic structures

Integral Equation • large structures
(based on MLFMM) • dominated by metal

6 www.cst.com
 Comparison of Simulation
Methods
Frequency Domain Time Domain
Solvers Solvers

FEM,
FEM,
MoM,
MoM,
FIT FIT, FDTD, TLM
MLFMM, FIT

• Implicit Algorithm ( A x = b ) • Explicit Algorithm ( xn+1 = M xn )

• Steady State (single frequency) • Transient Solution

7 www.cst.com
Finite Integration in Time Domain
Explicit Time integration

()b
= M(
b
)
(n+1) (n)

e e

en+1/ 2
en −1 / 2 > bn −1 > e n +1/ 2 > bn
No Matrix Inversion Required !
8 www.cst.com
Meshes + Frequency / Time Domain
Numerical Effort

Mx=r x(n+1) = M x(n)

Implicit Algorithm Explicit Time Integration

can be applied to tetrahedral meshes very efficient for many mesh cells
Typical effort Frequency
Frequency
Domain
Domain
Direct
Iterative
Time Domain

N = Number of mesh cells

9 www.cst.com
 Geometry Approximation Techniques
Original Object FEM Model FDTD, TLM Model

or

Finite Element Method Standard FDTD, TLM

+ good approximation of curved objects - bad approximation of curved objects

Numerical Effort ?

10 www.cst.com
 Growth through technology

FEM FDTD
CST

Competitors

FIT+PBA

CST MWS 1.0

☺ Representation of rounded objects
☺ Efficiency / Speed / Accuracy

11 www.cst.com
 Accuracy: PBA
1. Adaptive mesh refinement
of untuned filter
2. Tuning Step
30 Lines/Lambda = 51000 cells
TD (AR) Solver time: 256 s
Resonant (MOR) Solver 91 s

3. Increased mesh density to 50 Lines/lambda

slight readjustedment of
only one parameter
by 0.0125mm!!

Resonant (MOR) Solver 414 s

12 www.cst.com
 Accuracy: Staircase
Mesh density was increased:
Results did not converge to the PBA-results

89.000 Cells. 2.5 min 384.000 Cells. 27 min

(1.7 GHz Laptop)

1.050.000 Cells. 1h 15 min

600.000 Cells. 46 min (all MOR Solver, 1.7 GHz Laptop) 5Mio , 2.5 h
13 www.cst.com
 Accuracy: PBA

14 www.cst.com
 Example of a Vivaldi Antenna

15 www.cst.com
 EM / Circuit Co-Simulation via
APLAC for CST DESIGN STUDIO™
Example: Antenna including feeding network and filter

Sub-model
CST MWS model

Circuit elements

APLAC for CST DESIGN STUDIO™ is a subset of APLAC Simulator, APLAC Solutions‘ Circuit
Simulation and Design Tool, featuring a selection of linear and nonlinear elements & methods
16 geared for EM / Circuit co-simulation tasks. www.cst.com
 Subgrid: Spiral with phone and head
Here: Subgridding reduces
• number of cells by factor > 13
• computing time by factor 10

No Subgridding Subgridding
1987440 Meshcells 148922 Meshcells
Meshing: 294 s + Solver: 14322 s Meshing: 607 s + Solver: 816 s
Total: 14616 s Total: 1423 s
17 www.cst.com
 Conformal YAGI Array

Desing by FGAN, single YAGI elements based on:

Noriaki Kaneda, W. R. Deal, Yongxi Qian, Rod Waterhouse,
andTatsuo Itoh „A Broad-Band Planar Quasi-Yagi Antenna“
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND ROPAGATION, without sub grid (1.6 million mesh nodes)
VOL. 50, NO. 8, AUGUST 2002

without sub grid (0.6 million mesh nodes)

18 www.cst.com
 Multilevel Subgridding

Automatic
Multilevel
Subgridding

19 single Element YAGI Array www.cst.com

 Periodic Boundaries
Unit Cell Model of an open Waveguide

For a simple waveguide with a phaseshift along x-

direction the powerflow and propagation
direction for the two existing plane waves are
investigated.
The phase-angle is set to a value where grating lobes
occur
Dielectric sheet
(λ/2)

20 www.cst.com
 Electrical Phase Shift Angle = 45 deg

Blind Spot occurs at an electrical

Phase Shift Angle = 71 deg

Grating lobes occur at electrical

Phase Shift Angles > 150 deg

21 www.cst.com
 Portinformation: PlaneWave 1 and 2

22 www.cst.com
 New Unit Cell Boundary Condition

honeycomb_02.zip

S2

60°

S1
S1 is always along Ox
S2 at an angle („grid angle“)
with respect to Ox
23 www.cst.com
 New Unit Cell Boundary Condition

Slanted Ports

24 www.cst.com
 Periodic Boundaries
Astrium Terra-SAR: “Complete Model”

25 www.cst.com
 Periodic Boundaries
Astrium Terra-SAR: Unit Cell

26 www.cst.com
 LeftHanded Materials
Wedge Model

Drude Lorentz
ω 2
( μ s − μ ∞ )ω 02
ε eff (ω )= ε ∞ − p
μ eff (ω )= μ ∞ + 2
ω (ω − iν c ) ω 0 + iωδ − ω 2
27 www.cst.com
 LeftHanded Materials
Antenna Model

28 www.cst.com
Integral Equation Solver
• I-solver is based on…

[ ]
E(r) =−iωμ∫ g(r−r')J(r')+γ−2∇g(r−r')∇'⋅J(r') dS'
S

29 www.cst.com
www.cst.com • Dec-07
I-solver – MLFMM idea

MoM FMM MLFMM

Every element Use boxes to

couples to all other Recursive
combine coupling
elements scheme
→ sparser matrices
→ dense matrices

30 www.cst.com
www.cst.com • Dec-07
 MLFMM Solver Example
7.30m x 6.10m x 2.30m 175λ x 147λ x 56λ at 7 GHz
880k Surface mesh cells, 1st order MLFMM
Plane wave illumination from front
The Helicopter requires at 7 GHz
approx. 72 h and 22GB RAM.

7.30m x 6.10m x 2.30m 25λ x 21λ x 8λ α 1 GHz

140.000 Surface Mesh cells, 1st order MLFMM algorithm
Plane wave ilumination from front, 4 h CPU 16 GB
31 www.cst.com
 MLFMM Solver Example

540,000 surfaces ~2.7 million DOFs (1st order)

at 4GHz 75 h requires 32GB RAM.
32 www.cst.com
Applications – Antennas
• Horn with dish at 30 GHz

50λ

Radiation pattern

33 www.cst.com
www.cst.com • Dec-07
 Summary

1) User Friendliness
Intuitive Parametric CAD-Modeling
Powerful Postprocessing
2) Speed and Accuracy
FI-Method + PBA
Various Solvers, Hexa and Tetra Mesh
Frequency dep. Materials
3) Interoperability
Powerful CAD-Import + Export
Open Archicture CST Design Studio
4) Automation / Optimisation
OLE + VBA-compatible Macro Language
Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Matlab, Animations
5) Support

34 www.cst.com
View publication stats

Effective Antenna
Simulations using
CST MICROWAVE
STUDIO ®

Thank you!

Franz Hirtenfelder
CST GmbH, Bad Nauheimer Strasse 19
D-64289 Darmstadt, Germany,
E-Mail: franz.hirtenfelder@cst.com
35 www.cst.com