CST E-News September 2009

Welcome to the September edition of CST’s E-News, our series of regular news and feature updates. We hope that you find the contents relevant, interesting and informative. Any feedback and suggestions for future editions is welcome.

News in brief

1. CST MWS Frequency Domain Solver
2. Complete technology / choosing the best solver for your application
3. A multi-physics design flow in CST STUDIO SUITE
4. Efficient Sensitivity Analysis Methods Introduced in CST MICROWAVE STUDIO 2010
5. Antenna Magus 1.3 released
6. EuMW – technical presentations on CST’s stand
7. Application article spotlight: “Crosstalk effects of shielded twisted pairs”
8. Calendar of Events

CST MWS Frequency Domain Solver

If you work on electrically small or resonant structures, you probably already value the CST MICROWAVE STUDIO® frequency domain solver as a well integrated alternative to our long established time domain solver.

The introduction of True Geometry Adaptation, a technique which improves the geometrical representation of a structure during the mesh adaptation process, in version 2009, was our claim to technological leadership through a distinct and significant development. This technique overcomes an inherent accuracy problem of traditional FEM codes which refine the mesh but not the segmented geometry.

With our new version - 2010 - the implementation of 3rd order elements will enable electrically larger problems to be solved as the spatial sampling of the wave can be reduced and therefore the memory efficiency in homogenous regions increased. The combination of all three types of elements - 1st, 2nd, and 3rd order - allows greater efficiency and increased performance in dealing with simulation models which feature a combination of electrically small, detail rich portions, as well as larger homogenous areas. Thus extending the range of applicability for the frequency domain solver to provide a more valuable solution to you.

Our frequency domain solver will be the first module to feature our new sensitivity analysis.

Complete technology / choosing the best solver for your application

Antenna placement and radar cross section simulation are typical examples of electrically large problems. CST STUDIO SUITE includes the integral equation solver to tackle this kind of application. It delivers highly accurate full wave results for an electric size of up to several hundreds of wavelengths. However, for some applications this might not be sufficient.

CST’s latest addition to the CST MICROWAVE STUDIO® (CST MWS) solver family is an asymptotic solver. This is aimed at simulation models of a size beyond the reach of the integral equation solver. The asymptotic (or A) solver is based on the Shooting Bouncing Ray method, an extension to physical optics. It is capable of tackling simulations with an electric size of many thousands of wavelengths very efficiently.

A multi-physics design flow in CST STUDIO SUITE

In many branches of microwaves and RF engineering, required analysis is not confined to the electromagnetic problem, particularly when dealing with high power applications. Both the temperature rise and resulting stress have to be considered in the design process since these may have major implications for the device's performance.

With version 2010, CST is introducing CST MPHYSICS STUDIO™. This facilitates an integrated workflow in which the electromagnetic simulation calculated by CST MICROWAVE STUDIO® is just the starting point. The dielectric or conductive losses can be used for thermal analysis, which in turn is one of the possible sources of mechanical stress. The resulting deformation can then be subjected to sensitivity analysis. We can demonstrate this with a filter, which is shown here courtesy of Spinner GmbH. CST MPHYSICS STUDIO is a part of CST STUDIO SUITE. It features a mechanical stress solver as well as a stationary and a transient thermal solver, both of which are capable of considering the bioheat equation. The thermal solver was up until now distributed as part of CST EM STUDIO, CST's low frequency electromagnetic simulation package. Through the seamless integration in CST's design environment, multi-physics simulation has become straightforward.

Efficient Sensitivity Analysis Methods Introduced in CST MWS 2010

Optimization is a typical component of any design engineer's workflow. With the introduction of new global (genetic, particle swarm) and local (Nelder-Mead) optimizers, CST addressed this issue with release 2009 of CST STUDIO SUITE™. With version 2010 CST goes one step further. CST MWS 2010 features a sensitivity analysis algorithm which is capable of evaluating the s-parameter dependencies on various model parameters after a single 3D electromagnetic simulation run. This means that all further evaluations for different model parameter sets can be derived without restarting the full-wave simulation.

The efficiency of this new sensitivity analysis approach now makes Monte-Carlo based yield analysis feasible even for complex three-dimensional structures. This is due to the s-parameter results being available at virtually no additional effort or computational cost.

Antenna Magus 1.3 released

Antenna Magus is a new software tool to help engineers accelerate the antenna design and modelling process. It offers an extensive database of antennas which is easily searchable. It not only highlights the unique characteristics of an antenna, but also gives other general information. This helps you to find and select antennas according to given requirements as well as compare relevant information between antennas. Antenna Magus can also estimate the performance of an antenna fast and efficiently, before you continue with a full 3D analysis in CST MICROWAVE STUDIO.

Did you know that when you purchase a single license you can add as many more licenses for free for the first year? After that you can continue to use additional licenses at a 25% maintenance fee. This also will give you access to technical support and latest software upgrades. The first paid license will continue to work without any maintenance payment - it is a perpetual license.

Antenna Magus version 1.3 is now available. With this latest release, 6 further antennas have been added to the existing database: Linear resonant waveguide slot array with longitudinal broad-wall slots, Coaxial-cavity horn, Cavity-backed log spiral, Cavity-backed self-complimentary Archimedes spiral, Wire grid, Vivaldi.

EuMW – technical presentations on CST’s stand

If you are attending EuMW, join CST for three days of application and simulation talks on the stand, plus your run-of-the-mill demonstrations and announcements of our new product release, and our annual EuMW customer appreciation party.

Talks at the booth will include MIMO and UWB antennas, and other RF components. We also have one afternoon dedicated to customer presentations and there will be a series of talks covering the upcoming release of CST STUDIO SUITE 2010. You can download the full agenda from our website.

The "Italian Afternoon" on Wednesday 30th October has a particularly interesting line-up of customer presentations:

• 13:00 Multi-Objective Optimization for Antenna Design
  Marcello Zolesi, Thales Alenia Space
• 13:30 Analysis and Design of Large Slotted Waveguide Arrays with SWAN and CST MWS
  Roberto Gatti, RF Microtech
• 14:00 UWB Double Polarized Sinuous Antenna Design
  Antonio Manna, ELETTRONICA S.p.a
• 14:30 Design of Wideband Corrugated Horns
  Andrea Giacomini, Lucia Scialacqua, SATIMO
• 15:00 Induced Currents due to Nearby Lightning Strike to a Mobile Radar System: an Hybrid 3D/Circuit Analysis
  Antonio Orlandi, UMR AQ, University of L’Aquila
• 15:30 Phase Stable Waveguide Structure for Extreme Thermal Conditions
  Rodolfo Ravanelli, Thales Alenia Space

Oh, and the party.... that's going to be on Tuesday 29th October, from 4.30pm, so if you are going to be in Rome it would be great if you could join us.

Application article spotlight: “Crosstalk effects of shielded twisted pairs”

The range of applications illustrated on the CST website is being extended continuously. You can read about the “Crosstalk effects of shielded twisted pairs” on the CST website.

Calendar of Events

Check our calendar of events for the next CST event in your area.

Conferences and exhibitions

CST workshops

CST training sessions