EMSS and Optenni announce workflow between FEKO and Optenni

EDAFocus

Matching circuits for antennas and other RF components based on 3D models can now be easily optimized by designers who use FEKO together with Optenni Lab.

An important challenge in the daily work of antenna design engineers is to ensure that technical specifications are met for antenna bandwidth and efficiency. These characteristics can be enhanced significantly faster and simpler by using matching circuits than by modifying the antenna’s geometry, but traditionally the design of matching circuits required special expertise in the areas of impedance matching and circuit simulation tools. The new workflow between FEKO and Optenni Lab greatly simplifies matching circuit design by allowing the transmission of an antenna’s unmatched S-parameter characterisation from FEKO to Optenni Lab, where a matching circuit is designed to the user’s specifications. Finally an S-parameter characterisation of the matching circuit is returned to FEKO where it can be simulated together with the antenna.

Optenni Lab provides fully automatic matching circuit generation and optimization routines. The user only needs to specify the desired frequency range and number of components in the matching circuit after which Optenni Lab provides a choice of optimized matching circuit topologies. Optenni Lab uses accurate inductor and capacitor models from major component manufacturers and a fast tolerance analysis to ensure that the manufactured matching circuits will meet the design criteria. In addition to matching circuit design, Optenni Lab can be used to predict the obtainable antenna bandwidth from simulated impedance data, using the concept of bandwidth potential, which helps the antenna designer to understand how the antenna is working and how the design should be modified for optimal bandwidth.

“With the easy-to-use Optenni Lab software, matching circuits with optimal total performance can now be designed rapidly using the simulated impedance data from FEKO,” commented Dr. Jussi Rahola, founder and Managing Director of Optenni Ltd. “Optenni’s customers have been very excited to learn about the integrated workflow with FEKO, a recognized market leader in electromagnetic simulation.”

“FEKO has always been known as a powerful antenna and passive microwave component design and simulation software suite,” says Dr. Ulrich Jakobus, FEKO Product Manager. “The FEKO development team strives to make the total design process easier for our customers and this collaboration with Optenni will certainly advance this goal for us.”