Figure 2 shows a conical radome enclosing a 3D phased array antenna that was analyzed as a single design within HFSS. HFSS v9 provides an entirely new level of design automation that leverages these broadly accepted technical capabilities.Įngineers also may apply HFSS v9 to next-generation antennas and antenna array designs. The requirement for such technical capabilities has made HFSS an essential and accepted part of the mainstream microwave design process. HFSS quickly and accurately solves complex designs with simulation innovations, including adaptive mesh refinement, improved algorithm speed, broadband frequency sweeps, integrated optimization and resonance solutions. Applying such parameterization, the engineering time required to initiate design changes is essentially eliminated, even for complex designs such as the comparator. HFSS v9's new design environment provides an implicit treatment of all design parameters. HFSS enables designers to perform and verify complex microwave design modifications in nearly real-time, where doing so by traditional cut-and-try methods would require days of effort for both manufacturing and measurement. The computer times required for the analysis will vary from a few minutes for simple designs to a few hours for the most complex designs. Complex designs such as the comparator may be constructed within HFSS or easily imported into HFSS from M-CAD via industry-standard geometry exchange formats, such as ACIS, STEP, IGES, or STL. Preparing advanced designs for HFSS analysis is measured in minutes, not hours.
HFSS SOFTWARE VERIFICATION
This verification stage may well imply further design-tuning requirements, which are performed by integrating HFSS v9's optimization capability. Since circuit simulation does not account for inter-component coupling and other 3D effects, HFSS is required to verify the entire design. The combination of electromagnetic- and circuit-based analyses boosts design speed and provides increased flexibility to perform "what if" analyses. These junctions and signal paths are designed to meet individual specifications and then combined to determine the overall performance using a high frequency circuit simulation tool such as Ansoft Designer.™ For the first time in the industry, engineers can generate parameterized 3D component models through a design link with circuit simulation. This comparator's individual components, such as tapers, tees and entire signal paths, are parameterized and tuned for optimal performance within HFSS. Parameterizing these components at a geometric or material property level enables the tightly integrated capabilities of parametric sweeps, optimization and statistical design. Designs such as the displayed comparator are first broken down into individual components.
HFSS v9 enhances design for manufacturability because all solid models drawn in the program are inherently parametric. HFSS v9's new design environment empowers next-generation design by improving design for manufacturability, electromagnetic-circuit co-simulation and simulation tool design flow. Thirteen years ago, solving the eight-port monopulse comparator shown in Figure 1 (courtesy of Microwave Development Labs) was unthinkable today, an engineer can import it from a mechanical CAD (M-CAD) tool, assign ports and solve the project, all in the normal course of a workday. HFSS v9 now performs a continuous spectral response for that same benchmark in less than a minute on a typical desktop PC. The first version of HFSS could perform a discrete frequency sweep for that benchmark on the first generation of RISC workstations in a few days, a feat considered quite remarkable at the time.
The coax-to-waveguide adapter first introduced in February 1990 became the standard by which designers would judge 3D EM software. With the introduction of HFSS v9, designers are empowered with a new environment perfectly suited to next-generation design. Today, another revolution in microwave design is underway - a revolution that brings electromagnetic precision into the design flow, cuts costs, improves manufacturability and tackles more advanced design.
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