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Introduction to ANSYS HFSS
for Antenna Design
Describing the Model
• There are two ways to describe the geometry in HFSS:
– Drawing Objects
• Objects are used to define the material properties applied to a specific volume.
• They provide the pictorial representation of the device.
• HFSS meshes these objects to determine the volumetric E-Field used to compute the devices performance.
• Boundary conditions between objects are implicitly defined when two objects touch.
• Drawing in HFSS is handled more thoroughly in the 3D Modeler Lecture
– Defining Boundary Conditions
• Boundary conditions simplify the model by replacing geometrical features with a surface approximation.
• The surface approximation defines how the E-field behaves along a surface.
• The field solution terminates on the boundary’s surface simplifying the solution process
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Perfect E and Perfect H Boundaries
• Perfect E is perfect electrical conductor (PEC)
– Forces E-field perpendicular to surface
– Represents metal surfaces, ground planes, ideal cavity walls, etc.
– Infinite ground plane option simulates effects of infinite ground plane in post-processing radiated fields
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Background or Outer Surface
• How the Background Affects a Structure
– The background is a hidden region that is automatically defined by HFSS. The background surrounds the geometric
model and fills any space that is not occupied by an object. Any object surface that touches the background is
automatically defined to be a Perfect E boundary and given the boundary name outer. You can think of your structure
as being encased with a thin, perfect conductor.
– If it is necessary, you can change a surface that is exposed to the background to have properties that are different from
outer:
• To model losses in a surface, you can redefine the surface to be either a Finite Conductivity or Impedance
boundary.
• To model a surface to allow waves to radiate infinitely far into space, redefine the surface to be radiation
boundary.
– The background can affect how you make material assignments. For example, if you are modeling a simple air-filled
rectangular waveguide, you can create a single object in the shape of the waveguide and define it to have the
characteristics of air. The surface of the waveguide is automatically assumed to be a perfect conductor and given the
boundary condition outer, or you can change it to a lossy conductor.
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Radiation Boundary
• Mimics continued propagation beyond boundary plane
– Absorption achieved via 2nd order radiation boundary
– Absorbs best when incident energy flow is normal to surface
– Distance from radiating structure
– Place at least /4 from strongly radiating structure
– Place at least /10 from weakly radiating structure
– Must be concave to all incident fields from within modeled space
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2012 ANSYS, Inc. February 1, 2012 Release 14.0
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Radiation Boundary:
Incidence Angle Dependency
Radiation boundary
functions well for incident
angles less than 25°-30° Radiation Boundary
Radiation Boundary
Poor absorption of radiation
boundary affects radiation pattern
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2012 ANSYS, Inc. February 1, 2012 Release 14.0
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Radiation Boundary’s Location
• Radiation Boundary separation distance
– Example probe-fed circular patch
– Varied distance between absorbing boundary condition (ABC) and antenna
• λ /20, λ /10, λ /8, λ /4, λ /2, 3 λ /4, λ
– Examined impact on return loss and gain
0.2 dB
variation
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2012 ANSYS, Inc. February 1, 2012 Release 14.0
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Perfectly Matched Layer (PML)
• Perfectly Matched Layer
– Fictitious lossy anisotropic material which fully absorbs electromagnetic fields
– Two types of PML applications
• “PML objects accept free radiation” if PML terminates free space
• “PML objects continue guided waves” if PML terminates transmission line
– Guidelines for assigning PML boundaries
• Use PML setup wizard for most cases
• Manually create a PML when base object is curved or inhomogeneous
– Parameters to Define:
• Define PML Thickness
• Specify Minimum Frequency (From Sweep)
• Specify Minimum Distance from Antenna to PML (Measure in Model)
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PML Setup Wizard
• PML Setup Wizard 1
– Helps create objects with appropriate material properties
• PML Inputs
– Uniform Layer Thickness
• Thickness of PML Object Created (recommended > λ/3)
– Minimum Frequency
• Minimum frequency that PML will be absorbing
– Minimum Radiating Distance
• Distance from radiating object to PML Object (recommended > λ/8)
Air Box
Uniform Layer
Thickness
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PML Incidence Angle Dependency
PML
PML
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2012 ANSYS, Inc. February 1, 2012 Release 14.0
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PML’s Location
• PML separation Distance
– Example probe-fed circular patch
– Varied distance between PML and antenna
• λ/20, λ /10, λ /8, λ /4, λ /2, 3λ /4
– Examined impact on return loss and gain
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2012 ANSYS, Inc. February 1, 2012 Release 14.0
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Hybrid Finite Element – Integral Equations
FE-BI
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Finite Element – Boundary Integral
• Mesh truncation of infinite free space
into a finite computational domain Fields at outer
– Alternative to Radiation or PML surface
• Hybrid solution of FEM and IE
– IE solution on outer faces FEM Solution IE Solution
– FEM solution inside of volume in Volume on Outer Surface
• FE-BI Advantages
– Arbitrary shaped boundary
Iterate
• Conformal and discontinuous to minimize
solution volume
– Reflection-less boundary condition
• High accuracy for radiating and scattering
problems FE-BI
– No theoretical minimum distance from radiator
• Reduce simulation volume and simplify problem
setup
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2012 ANSYS, Inc. February 1, 2012 Release 14.0
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Finite Element-Boundary Integral:
Boundary Condition Setup
• FE-BI Boundary Condition
– Boundary condition is enabled with HFSS-IE
– Setup is similar to ABC boundary condition
– Enabled by selecting “Model exterior as HFSS-IE domain”
– Radiation surface must enclose entire geometry
– 1 infinite ground plane allowed
– Direct vs. Iterative Matrix Solver
– Direct Matrix Solver
• Preferred method with FE-BI
• Quickest solution
– Iterative solver
• Uses the least amount of RAM
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FEBI Incident Angle Dependency
FEBI Hybridization FEBI Hybridization
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Distance from Radiator
• Peak gain vs. Airbox sizing
– ABC needs at least λ/4 spacing from antenna element to yield accurate far field results
– PML and FE-BI accurately predicts gain, even as close as λ/30
Distance From
Antenna
λ/30 λ/2
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2012 ANSYS, Inc. February 1, 2012 Release 14.0
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FE-BI Distance From Radiator:
Effect on Simulation Time
• Simulation Time
– Dependent on spacing from the radiator
• The number of iterations required between the FEM and IE domain will increase as the spacing between the
radiator and boundary conditions decreases
– A spacing of λ/10 or larger will yield the least number of iterations and minimum simulation time
Distance
λ/10 λ/4
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2012 ANSYS, Inc. February 1, 2012 Release 14.0
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Broadband Antenna
• Airbox at any distance gives the same result
– Broadband antenna setup is simple with FE-BI
• Airbox at a distance of 2mm
– ~λ/100 @ 2 GHz
– ~λ/10 @ 18 GHz
• Airbox at a distance of 7.5mm
– ~λ/20 @ 2 GHz
– ~λ/2 @ 18 GHz
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2012 ANSYS, Inc. February 1, 2012 Release 14.0
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IE-Regions
• IE-Regions
– In a hybrid FEM-IE solution, IE Regions allow uniform regions of free space or dielectric to be removed from the FEM
solution
• Metal objects can be solved directly with an IE solution applied to surface
– Removes need for air box to surround metal objects
• Dielectric regions can be replaced with an IE Region on the boundary of uniform dielectric material
– Solution inside of dielectric is solved using IE
IE Region
Surface current on
metal block
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FE-BI Release 14.0
February 23, 2009
© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. Inventory #002593
Radiating Boundary Conditions Summary:
ABC, PML, FE-BI
• Radiation Boundary Summary
– PMLs are the recommended absorbing boundary condition for the highest accuracy
– FE-BI is recommended when large homogeneous electrical volumes can be removed via a conformal air volume
– For quicker answers, a Radiation boundary condition can be used
• More accurate answers with Radiation BC can be obtained by changing the integration surface
*Models a stack up of thin materials as TL
Zs,input
*Works with metals and dielectrics
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2012 ANSYS, Inc. February 1, 2012 Release 14.0
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Trace Thickness Effects on Planar Antenna
• Conducting traces often modeled as 2D objects for electromagnetic simulations
– More computationally efficient since fewer meshing surfaces required
– Good approximation for many structures operating in skin depth regime
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2012 ANSYS, Inc. February 1, 2012 Release 14.0
February 23, 2009
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Symmetry Boundary
• Symmetry Boundary
– Exploit a device’s electromagnetic symmetry to reduce the simulation’s size
– Two options available:
– Perfect E: Electric field must be perpendicular to surface
– Perfect H: Electric field must be tangential to surface
• Impedance Multiplier:
– Corrects the Characteristic Impedance Calculation
• Symmetry H adds a factor 0.5 (Sym H gets the Half)
• Symmetry E adds a factor 2
• Multiple symmetry boundaries: multiply the factors (SymE & SymH has a factor of 1)
TE10
TE20
TE20 Mode is
NOT Symmetric
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2012 ANSYS, Inc. February 1, 2012 Release 14.0
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Master/Slave Boundaries
Unit Cell Model
of Waveguide Array
• Master/Slave Boundaries
– Used to model unit cell of periodic structure
– Master and slave boundaries are always paired U-axis
• Fields on master surface are mapped to slave surface with a phase shift enforcing a
periodicity in the fields.
– Constraints V-axis
• Master and slave surfaces must be identical in shape and size Slave
• Coordinate systems must be created to identify point-to-point Boundary
correspondence Master
Boundary
WG Port
(bottom)
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2012 ANSYS, Inc. February 1, 2012 Release 14.0
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Screening Impedance Boundary
• Screening Impedance Boundary
– Used to efficiently represent periodic screens or grids with impedance boundary condition Wave Port
• Can be anisotropic (different values in x and y directions)
• Can be frequency-dependent
– Periodic grid characterized by unit cell
• Dynamic link support to import impedance values from unit cell
• Includes effects of polarization Perfect H
– Parameters
• Resistance and reactance (/square)
Perfect E
Perfect E
• Coordinate system if anisotropic
• HFSS design for dynamic link
Perfect H
Drawing Object
Wave Port
Boundary Condition
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2012 ANSYS, Inc. February 1, 2012 Release 14.0
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Summary
• Boundaries are another technique used to describe a geometry
– They are often used to:
• Reduce the solution’s volume
• Simplify the meshing process
• Common uses of boundary conditions include
– Truncating infinite space
• Radiation
• PML (Perfectly Match Layer)
• FEBI (Finite Element Boundary Integral) Method
• Undefined Volumes being treated as Perfect E
– Simply solution for difficult area
• Finite Conductivity (used by default on good conductors)
• Layered Impedance
• Impedance
• LumpedRLC
• Screening
– Reducing the simulation domain
• Symmetry
• Master / Slave
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ANSYS, Inc.©Proprietary
2012 ANSYS, Inc. February 1, 2012 Release 14.0
February 23, 2009
© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. Inventory #002593