SmartGrid™
CST MICROWAVE STUDIO® (CST MWS) features properietary techniques for geometry generation that contribute to its unique performance.
First of all there is the PBA; that describes arbitrary geometries conformally on a Cartesian grid. The THIN SHEET TECHNIQUE (TST)™
extends the capabilities of PBA by enabling the he independent treatment of two dielectric parts of a cell,
separated by a metallic sheet. Now structures like arbitrarily shaped housings or thin inclined shields can be modeled with a minimum of effort.
Figure 1: CST MWS geometry approximation techniques demonstrated on a solid (left) and a
hollow (right) sphere with cylindrical drilling. The left model is well represented with PBA alone, while the
right model requires TST in order to represent the thickness of the metal sphere correctly.
CST MWS version 5 introduced the Multilevel Subgridding Scheme (MSS)™. It allows mesh lines to start and be terminated
anywhere in the simulation area. CST MWS fits the shape of the individual objects with nested, conformal layers of
increasingly finer mesh.
Figure 2: MSS applied to the same structures as in (Figure 1). There are three conformal
layers of mesh refinement. For the solid sphere (left), the metallic part is not modeled. PBA and TST also work inside the subgrids.
CST’s SmartGrid™ is the combination of PBA, TST, and the newly implemented Multilevel Subgridding Scheme (MSS)™
that increases computational performance and accuracy.