A Software Package for Computer Aided Design of Printed Circuit Antenna Systems

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project develops the basic framework of an efficient and fast computer aided design environment for printed circuit antenna systems. By applying the techniques of Macromodeling Theory, very accurate but simple analytical models are derived for a variety of printed radiating elements, array configurations, and feed networks. These macromodels are constructed from numerical data obtained through rigorous full-wave simulations of the components under study. The set of various macromodels corresponding to different segments of the antenna system are then integrated using a multiple network modeling approach to provide the overall system parameters. The proposed macromodel-based real-time CAD system will eliminate the exhaustive cut-and-try iteration cycles of the existing design methodology, which relies upon full-wave EM simulation of the antenna structure. A graphical user interface (GUI) for the proposed CAD package will be developed.