Antenna Design

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In recent years, there has been staggering growth in the antennas market.  Whether it is a tv antenna, digital antenna, hd antenna, car antenna, or wifi antenna and whether it is an indoor or outdoor antenna, the growth is amazing and unprecedented.  One particular antenna technology sector where the product life cycle is falling rapidly in recent years is wireless communication due to the fast transition from 2G to 3G, 3G to 4G, and 5G resulting in more demand on the electromagnetic spectrum allocation and access.

This growth is accompanied by more stringent requirements on antenna design parameters such as antenna gain, antenna efficiency, and antenna power.  The antenna theory is still the same.  It is still based on electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic scattering, and electromagnetic waves.  However, at higher frequencies, the wavelength is smaller and every antenna detail and its surrounding matter.  Consequently, new challenges in antenna design and propagation models are born.  

To overcome these challenges, the antenna community has been relying more and more on antenna simulation and design software.  Most of the antenna designers are electrical engineers and thus not familiar with CAD.  They are indeed missing a great opportunity because CAD can help them design better products at an accelerated rate thus getting to the market faster.

Antenna Design Powered by SolidWorks

If you are an antenna designer, don’t miss the opportunity on using SolidWorks. First, someone in your organization might have a SolidWorks model of your antenna.  Second, even if you have to create the antenna model yourself using SolidWorks, it is very easy, flexible, and parametric.  Third, you may even grab a 3D CAD model from the free CAD depositories such as grabcad.com,   www.3dcontentcentral.com, and  www.traceparts.com  which can save you time and effort. Fourth and foremost, you can simulate your antenna right inside SolidWorks because EMWorks’ antenna design software package, HFWorks, is seamlessly and fully integrated into Solidworks.  No need to export, import, heal the geometry, or any other geometry maneuvering because HFWorks, is right inside.  And yes you can obtain all antenna parameters such as antenna gain, antenna directivity, antenna efficiency, antenna power, antenna pattern, and the electromagnetic fields in the near- and far-field.  Interested in the thermal behavior of your antenna?  No problem.  HFWorks is equipped with an integrated thermal solver and again inside SolidWorks.  Thus, in addition to the electrical parameters, you can also obtain the temperature, temperature gradient, and heat flux distributions due to conductor and dielectric losses right on the same model and using one single finite element mesh.  The following examples illustrate these facts and substantiate the above claims.