Introduction

The bottlenecks for simulation tools used for antenna design are typically in two areas: project setup and simulation speed. By reducing the time spent in these two areas, RF engineers have more time to design their antennas. Modern full wave simulation tools, like Remcom’s XFdtd® Release 7 (XF7), should effectively address this situation. XF7 is designed to reduce these bottlenecks in several ways, including parameterization, scripting, advanced meshing techniques, and GPU implementation of the computational algorithm.

Project Setup

The design cycle for a mobile device in today’s environment includes many iterations of the CAD model, which is provided to the RF engineer from the mechanical team. Each CAD model has updates to components of the phone; however, the antenna placement is often untouched.

For conformal antennas, the specific antenna components are not included in the CAD model. Instead, an Antenna Carrier, as shown in Figure 1, is provided as the location where the antenna will be imprinted. The RF engineer needs to create their antenna in the EM simulation tool for each model. Once the antenna is created, it then needs to be tuned to meet requirements for the operating frequency, Specifi c Absorption Rate, Hearing Aid Compatibility, and others.

Fig. 1: Antenna Carrier as provided in the CAD fi le