available antenna design tools

[yaminipanneer]

hi friends,can u just list out what are the tools available to design ,simulate and analyze the antenna design

 

[shahid78]

hi

1: CST MWS
2: Ansoft HFSS

are the best available tools.

 

[volker_muehlhaus]

If you are new to antenna design, this could be useful:
Antenna Magus - Antenna Design Software

 

[drkirkby]

hi

1: CST MWS
2: Ansoft HFSS

are the best available tools.

They are analysis tools, not design tools.

---------- Post added at 14:20 ---------- Previous post was at 14:06 ----------

If you are new to antenna design, this could be useful:
Antenna Magus - Antenna Design Software

I've tried version 3.3.0 of the professional version (not the free one). I was unimpressed. You often get very few parameters you can design for. For example, if you attempt to design a Yagi-Uda antenna, you can't set the impedance. It tells you:

"• If increased bandwidth or specified input impedance is required,
it is necessary to simulate this antenna repeatedly with variations
in the element spacing and length, and to optimise for the specific requirement.
"

It is also very expensive. Almost 8000 Euros, which seems a lot for a bit of software that is not very flexible.

 

[E Kafeman]

Most important antenna design and analyze tool for the real antenna, not the simulated one, is for me a VNA.
As I mainly design multiband handheld embedded antennas is AnTune my most important software during development phase.
In most cases have I to accept existing very limited antenna space, a too small ground-plane and dead-line is passed from beginning.
No time for simulation then and as PIFA is a good enough alternative in 90 % of these applications is quickest solution to start working directly with hardware.
During development phase do I need a software that takes care of antenna documentation so I easy can compare minor hardware variations.
Small embedded antenna development must focus on best possible bandwidth and efficiency, whatever impedance it result in, so an impedance correcting network is a must. For that do I need a software that can tell me continuously during development-phase if a such network is possible within a simple PI or T network, without costing me any time.
Designing a wide-band antenna, and afterward try to implement a matching network for compensating poor VSWR at band-edges, without affecting mid-band too much, result in that neither antenna or network is fully used for highest efficiency and best VSWR. Do maybe work for a tri-band antennas in conventional phones, but in a modern smart cellphone is space less and requirement for bandwidth much higher so eventual improvements from a impedance network must be be better used then just to do minor adjustment of band-edges.
Nothing wrong with to do deep pre-analyzes/design but should these be anything worth for me must I simulate a complex hardware including different types of body-loading effects. It is an exception if I even know what dielectric constant the plastic that covers antenna have, so in daily production must I, just by looking at hardware for a few minutes, be able to get an idea how an antenna with best possible efficiency can be shaped.
So that is probably the most important tool, the analyzer I have in my head. After a day or two do I usually find that it was a less good judgement I did from start, but a simulation tool had not done a better job either, as it neither delivers better result then what the user is able to provide.

 

[vimalpandey]

FEKO is a antenna design tool

 

[drkirkby]

FEKO is a antenna design tool

As far as I know, FEKO can only analyse designs you ask it to - it can't actually design the antenna.

Antenna Magus is different, in that it actually attempts to design the antenna. But it is very expensive and in my opinion not very good. For example, when designing a Yagi-Uda antenna, you can't select the impedance! My impression of an evaluation version (full version I might add, not the one that anyone can get easily), is that Antenna Magus is pretty poor, especially considering its nearly 8000 Euros ($11,000).

Most important antenna design and analyze tool for the real antenna, not the simulated one, is for me a VNA.

Yes useful I would agree. I have one of those (HP one to 6 GHz) [/quote]

So that is probably the most important tool, the analyzer I have in my head. After a day or two do I usually find that it was a less good judgement I did from start, but a simulation tool had not done a better job either, as it neither delivers better result then what the user is able to provide.

Yes, one needs ones brain more than anything.

Of course, some tools provide optimisers, but as far as I'm aware, in full 3D EM simulation, the time to analyse a solution is just too slow, so they are of limited use. That's different from programs based on things like NEC, where optimisation is fast. I know a salesman for one of the full 3D EM simulation tools told me the optimiser is useless, but all packages have to have one, since the competition has one. I don't know how well that agrees with the experience of others with access to the more expensive 3D simulation sofware - FEKO, HFSS etc.

Dave

 

[volker_muehlhaus]

Of course, some tools provide optimisers, but as far as I'm aware, in full 3D EM simulation, the time to analyse a solution is just too slow, so they are of limited use.

If you understand your design, parameter sweep/optimization can be useful. Not for a random search over dozens of design parameters, but for some selective detail optimization.

One detail that the software can do well: far field pattern calculation, which is not always known a priori if you design modified antenna shapes.

 

[dr_dream85]

Hello there,

I was asking if you can send me the antenna magus V3.3 file. It gonne help me in my project.

Thanks

 

[drkirkby]

Hello there,

I was asking if you can send me the antenna magus V3.3 file. It gonne help me in my project.

Thanks

There's a free version. The professional version is nearly 8000 Euros. You can download the free version.


Dave

 

[biff44]

There's a free version. The professional version is nearly 8000 Euros. You can download the free version.


Dave

Why do these relatively simple programs, written decades ago and fully amortized, cost so darned much????

 

[drkirkby]

Why do these relatively simple programs, written decades ago and fully amortized, cost so darned much????

I would not say Antenna Magus is a particularly simple program, or that anything like it was written decades ago. It is quite different to most other antenna related software I've seen before, although it is similar to the Antenna Design Kit, which is a free download if you have HFSS (which is expensive).

I suggest you download a trial of Antenna Magus and have a look at it, as you will see it is quite different to most other programs. But I'm still not impressed with it - despite having a trial license for the full program. In particular, there are tons of free programs able to do a better job at computing the dimensions for a Yagi-Uda antenna. There seems too many restrictions and not enough variables you can control.

 

[volker_muehlhaus]

Why do these relatively simple programs, written decades ago and fully amortized, cost so darned much????

Why do you want to get payed for your work?

 

[drkirkby]

Why do these relatively simple programs, written decades ago and fully amortized, cost so darned much????

A few of the reasons are:
1) There's a limited market for such software, unlike for example Microsoft Office. You need to make a decent proffit on the copies you sell.

2) The people that write such programs have to be quite clued up. Many will have higher degrees - quite often a Ph.D. Such people have studied for a long time, and expect a decent salary for their work. (Not that I've found having a Ph.D. necessarily gets one a decent salary!)

3) Support staff are not going to be very cheap either. Whereas companies like Microsoft can employ relatively cheap staff to solve Windows problems, as 99% are pretty basic, the same is not going to be true for Antenna Magus. I have a video conference tommorow from two people from Ansys, as we are thinking of buying HFSS. That sort of pre-sales stuff costs money.

That said, a lot of what Antenna Magus does is not that difficult. It is basically implementing a recipe. Those recipies don't look too sophisticed to me. If there was an open-source version of it, a lot of people could contribute and probably produce a better end-product. The same would not be true with a program like HFSS, where it needs a lot more knowledge.



Dave