Microwave & RF Components

Passive microwave & RF component design is traditionally seen as CST's area of core competence. Whether the engineer is optimising a small conformal RFID tag, an UWB antenna, or is interested in the high frequency radar cross section (RCS) of a full sized aircraft, they will find an efficient approach within the range of solution methods in CST MICROWAVE STUDIO® (CST MWS).

Within a single interface, the user has access to a range of solution methods. The transient solver is perfect for the broadband simulation of electrically medium sized or large structures. The frequency domain solver comes into its own when dealing with electrically small, highly resonant devices. Finally, the integral equation solver’s MLFMM method and the asymptotic solver make it possible to determine the RCS or installed antenna performance on extremely large structures of hundreds or even thousands of wavelengths in size.

From this graph it becomes clear that there is no single “best” solution when the engineer is confronted with systems operating at opposite ends of the spectrum, e.g. multiband antennas which are highly resonant at many frequencies, or if it is required to simulate the performance of a finely detailed device in the context of an electrically large superstructure. System Assembly and Modelling (SAM) allows the user to split complex systems into their constituent components and use the optimal approach for each part. For example, an intricate helical antenna could be simulated using the frequency domain solver, then its equivalent near- or farfield could be used as an excitation source for an installed performance simulation of an aircraft or ship.

SAM also enables the user to link CST MWS with the thermal and mechanical simulation capabilities in CST MPHYSICS STUDIO®, perhaps to predict how the heating of a high power filter will detune it, or to run a combined EM/circuit co-simulation.