WASP-NET’s CAD Features

WASP-NET’s efficient full-wave design and optimization capabilities cover – in addition to antenna and antenna array structures - the entire class of waveguiding components, from standard waveguide structures with canonical and arbitrary cross-sections to mm-wave waveguiding structures, such as substrate integrated (SIW), micro-strip and gap waveguides. WASP-NET’s calculation speed for components that include structural waveguide element parts with standard or non-standard cross-sections, is particularly high, as these structural parts are calculated using the highly efficient quasi-analytical mode-matching (MM) method. Waveguide components can conveniently be composed in the user interface by selecting and combining via mouse click corresponding basic elements, such as steps, irises, junctions, transitions etc., from the element library. The library comprises ca. 400 often used fundamental elements. More general and special user-specific elements and structures, not available in the element library, can easily be set-up in form of multi-port black-box elements with parametrized geometry dimensions, and then be combined full-wave with library elements or with additional black-box elements.

WASP-NET’s efficient full-wave design and optimization capabilities cover the entire class of common arrays: Waveguide slot-arrays (resonant, travelling, ridge, circular polarized, dual polarized, edge, SIW, gap), horn arrays, microstrip arrays (patch, multilayer, Vivaldi), wire antenna arrays, phased arrays, frequency selective structures (FSS), absorber arrays, and reflect-arrays. Due to WASP-NET’s full-wave generalized S-matrix combination of sub-circuits and elements, complete feed-networks can directly and accurately be included in the array design, and the complete antenna system efficiently be optimized as a whole to meet final overall specifications. Finite array sizes can accurately and efficiently be taken into account. Slot-arrays can conveniently be designed by using WASP-NET’s user-friendly slot-array wizard. Many array types can be selected directly as a template and be modified and optimized to special needs from WASP-NET’s comprehensive designer data base. For phased array design and optimization, WASP-NET offers a user-friendly array tool. Since the arrays are modeled via general multi-port black-box elements, which work with (by text or graphic editor) editable geometry input files, WASP-NET offers full flexibility for the design of practically all kind of arrays. For radiating structural parts, the accurate method-of-moments (MoM) with higher-order basis functions is applied, large structures and finite sizes are taken into account by efficient periodic boundary solutions and tailored algorithms, such as domain decomposition methods. On standard state-of-the-art PCs, the analysis and optimization speed for array structures (including feed networks) is typically in the range from a few tens of seconds to several hundreds of seconds per frequency point.