Tips for using Microwave Office and/or IE2D for simulating EBG/FSS

[T Lavedas]

I've a little research project that is quickly running out of money
because I can't get a good model into MWO. I've too many years of EM
experience, but am new to MWO and IE3D having acquired evaluation
licenses for both, but am having trouble climbing the learning curve.
I can get antenna structures to compute correctly, but every attempt
at a model of a structure to characterize an EBG has failed. I'm
starting with the simplest high impedance surfaces, like those in the
1999 Sievenpiper, et al paper, but so far I'm stymied.

I've tried putting a couple of tracks on either side of the structure
and measuring the transmission (S21), but there is never any
difference between the presence or absence of the EBG surface. I've
tried orienting the tracks parallel and perpendicular, but never get
any obvious changes whether the surface is present or absent. I've
even tried scanning wide frequency ranges, in case the published EBG
parameters are 'in error', but i can't seem to make anything work.

Does anyone here have experience using either one of these tools for
this purpose? What approach did you use to characterize the
structures? Can anyone give me a some pointers?

TIA,

Tom Lavedas

 

[Joel Kolstad]

Tom,

That's a pretty advanced question you have there! I have no experience with
EBG antennas, but I can give you a bit of general advice:

-- The folks at AWR are generally quite helpful if you ask them for support.
They'll probably also be happy to extend your evaluation license... especially
if you're intending to write a paper and tell them you'll mention their name.

-- I'd repost the question in a somewhat more "focused" form, such as those at
http://www.rfglobalnet.com/forums/, the Microwaves 101 forums, or even the
Agilent-Genesys forums. Many people there use ADS/MWO/IE3D/Ansoft routinely,
whereas there's only a small smattering of people here who do. (Most of the
folks here are SPICE guys...)

Good luck,
---Joel

 

[T Lavedas]

Tom,

That's a pretty advanced question you have there! I have no experience with
EBG antennas, but I can give you a bit of general advice:

-- The folks at AWR are generally quite helpful if you ask them for support.
They'll probably also be happy to extend your evaluation license... especially
if you're intending to write a paper and tell them you'll mention their name.

-- I'd repost the question in a somewhat more "focused" form, such as those at
http://www.rfglobalnet.com/forums/, the Microwaves 101 forums, or even the
Agilent-Genesys forums. Many people there use ADS/MWO/IE3D/Ansoft routinely,
whereas there's only a small smattering of people here who do. (Most of the
folks here are SPICE guys...)

Good luck,
---Joel

Thanks for the reply. I pursued the contact with AWR. They provided
their beta version of 7.5 and a new 30 day evaluation license.

I also did some more research and found an oblique description of a
simulation setup different from the ones I had tried. It led me to
something that seems to work, though not as well as I want (yet).

Afain, thanks for the response. It was helpful.

Tom Lavedas