Recommend a simulation software for microstrip antennas
Iam doing a masters project on Microstrip Antennas and Iam in need of simulation software for that purpose. The problem is all the commercially available softwares are quite costly. Will the freely available demo versions be enough for my purpose?I need to simulate gap coupled multi resonant patches and also polygonal shaped patches. If yes which one will be more preferable? I tried using IE3D, trial version but I seemed to lose connection quite frequently and wasn't able to make any significant help.
Thanks in advance.
mstripman
Download Ansoft Designer from the www.ansoft.com ( 115 MB). It uses MoM, which should be easier to use than FEM, and anyhow you need it for a flat structure. There are also some antenna examples provided. Look at the recently posted Designer manual.
Regards:D
Hi mstripman:
I think you can also get a copy of Sonnet Lite for free to look at an antenna like this (www.sonnetsoftware.com/lite/).
You have to take a little care in setting up the problem, since Sonnet is usually a shielded formulation code, but they have good documentation on using it for radiating problems like this.
Sonnet Lite does have a limit for problem size, but you might be able to do a lot of things with it even with the limitation. They even have variables to control geometry that you can sweep and get design curves for things like VSWR vs. feedpoint location, or Zin vs. slot inset depth.
Good luck!
--Max