Numerical Tools for Antenna

Analysis

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MAXWELL’S EQUATIONS – Differential form

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MAXWELL’S EQUATIONS – Integral form

 D . ds    v dv
s v

 B . ds  0
s


 E . dl   t  B . ds
C s

 D 
 H . dl    J  t  . ds
C s

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Integral equations Vs Differential equations

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Comparison of Method Types

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 FINITE DIFFERENCE TIME DOMAIN
(FDTD)
Historical background
1966: Kane S Yee proposed the FDTD

1975 : A. Taflove applies the Yee algorithm to an

electromagnetic problem

It is used to solve open-region scattering, radiation,

diffusion, microwave circuit modeling, biomedical etc.

It is good for:
• Modeling devices with nonlinear material properties.
• Simulating the transient response of devices. 10
In this method the coupled Maxwell’s curl equations in
the differential form are discretized, approximating the
derivatives with centered difference approximations in
both time and space domains.

Equations are solved in a leapfrog manner :

E field is solved in the given instant in time, then the H field

is solved in the next instant in time, and process is repeated
over and over again.
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 Discretize the Maxwell’s Equations

• Maxwell’s curl equations can be rewritten as


   H   
 1 1
  t 
t 

x 1  y z   x 1  Hz y 

        x 
t   y z 
t   z y 
y 1  z x   y 1  Hx z 
        y 
t   x z   t   z x 

z 1  x y   z 1  Hy x 

        z 
t   y x  t   x y 

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The time derivative of E field is related to the curl of the
H field.

The temporal rate of change in the E field is related to the

spatial rate of change of H field.
A finite difference approximation of the time derivative
leads to a difference expression where the new value of
the E field is expressed in terms of the old value of the E
field and the spatial partial derivatives of the old value of
the H field.

Similar iterative scheme is used for equation related the

time derivative of the H field to the curl of the E field
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Yee Cell

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Every H component is surrounded by four circulating E
components.

Every E component is surrounded by four circulating H

components.

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 Constraints and Limitations
• Selecting cell size:
δ ≤ (0.1 Co/ f √εr)
• Selecting time step:
δt ≤ (δ/ Co√n)
• Selecting no. of Iteration:
nsteps = P*(2 Co/ f δ)
Where Co = velocity of the electromagnetic waves in free space, n= dimension of the
simulation, f= frequency of operation, P =time periods required to reach steady
state.
• Selecting the domain size will depend on the frequency .
• At lower frequencies , increase in domain size and no. of
iteration.

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 ABCs & PMLs
For free space simulation, the absorbing boundary condition( ABC) are used. In ABC, the
impedance is perfectly matched to the problem space. The ABC must absorb the radiated
outgoing fields
A perfectly matched layer (PML) is an artificial absorbing layer for wave equations, commonly
used to truncate computational regions in numerical methods to simulate problems with open
boundaries

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Summary

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 FINITE ELEMENT METHOD(FEM)
Historical background
1943: R Courant proposed the FEM method

1969: PP Silvester applied FEM in microwave

engineering and Electromagnetics

It is used to solve waveguide problems, semiconductor

devices, microstrips and absorption of EM radiation by
biological bodies.

It is good for:
• Modeling volumetrically complex structures in the
frequency domain. 24
 Introduction
FEM is a full-wave numerical method that discretizes the
variational formulation of a functional.
The evolution of this method within the scope of
electromagnetics traces back to the solving of two types of
problems, eigenmode problems & boundary-value
problems.

The eigenmode problems usually have types of

waveguide and cavity.

The boundary value problem can be categorized into

closed-domain EM problems and open-domain
scattering/radiating problem. 25
The variational formulation of a functional is generally
derived from the partial differential equation (PDE) which
describes the problem to be solved.
For example, To solve the eigenmodes of a dielectric-loaded
waveguide, a functional can be constructed by using the
longitudinal electric and magnetic fields, by using transverse
electric and magnetic fields, or by using vector potentials
and scalar potentials.

Procedure:
• discretizing the solution region into a finite
number of subregions or elements.
• deriving governing equations for a typical element.
• assembling of all elements in the solution region.
• solving the system of equations obtained. 26
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Summary

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 METHOD of MOMENTS(MoM)
Historical background
1965: J H Richmond and R F Harrington use MoM in EM
problems.

It is used to solve radiation due to thin wire elements and

arrays, scattering problems, analysis of microstrips and
lossy structures and etc.

It is good for:
• Modeling metallic devices at radio frequencies.
• Modeling large scale metallic structures at radio
frequencies
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 Introduction
It is an Integral equation based approach.

It uses PEC approximations

The entire approach is based on current density.

Procedure:
• derivation of the appropriate integral equation (IE).
• conversion of the IE into a matrix equation using
basis and weighting functions. (Galerkin’s method).
• evaluation of the matrix elements.
• solving the matrix equation and obtain the
parameter of interest.
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Lorentz Gauge condition:

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Summary

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 Comparison
FDTD FEM MoM
discretizes discretizes the discretizes the integral
the Maxwell’s equations in variational functional equation representations of
differential form formulations of EM EM problems
problems
dealing with a wide-band A dielectric object with suitable to solve for open
problem complex geometry can be domain problems
treated accurately
numerical dispersion numerical dispersion NO numerical dispersion
introduced introduced
only neighboring variables only neighboring variables Any two variables
interact directly, the interact directly, the FEM in MoM interact directly,
equivalent matrix of the matrix is sparse. the corresponding
FDTD time-marching discretized matrix is a full
equations is also sparse matrix

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Commercial Software Packages

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 References

• Matthew N.O. Sadiku,“Numerical Techniques in Electromagnetics”.

CRC press,1992.
• A. Taflove. “Computational electrodynamics: The Finite-Difference
Time-Domain Method”. Artech House, Norwood, MA, 1995.
• Jin, J.M. (1993) The Finite-element method in Electromagnetics, Wiley,
New York.
• Harrington, R.F. (1993) Field Computation by Moment Methods, 2nd
edn,IEEE Press, New York.

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