Optenni Ltd announced a new module for their Optenni Lab RF Design Automation Platform. The Optenni Lab Array Module simplifies and speeds up the design and performance evaluation of realistic antenna arrays.

With the Array Module, Optenni Lab takes into account the coupling between the antenna elements and the effect of dissimilar antenna patterns in the calculation of the beamforming capabilities, active reflection coefficients and efficiencies of antenna arrays. Optenni Lab offers a fast co-optimization of the circuit and radiation properties of antenna systems starting from the full S-parameter matrix and radiation patterns of all the array elements. This radiation pattern data can be obtained from measurements or from electromagnetic simulators.

The Optenni Lab Array Module offers exact and fast analysis of the array properties through the following features:
• Optimization of the beamforming coefficients for maximal gain, with control of the active reflection coefficients, beam width, side lobe levels and nulls
• Optimization of the array matching for maximal total system efficiency
• Canonical array excitation with different amplitude tapering schemes
• Interactive tuning of canonical excitation parameters
• Extensive visualization of the array patterns, including the polarization ellipses
• Calculation of the beam scanning range (i.e. maximal array gain to any direction) and related Cumulative Distribution Function
• Array factor calculations, giving an estimate of the array performance when using only the radiation pattern of a single element

In summary, Optenni Lab Array Module offers a unique combination of features for the accurate analysis of antenna arrays in an easy-to-use package.