Antenna Designer

R2026b

Design, visualize, and analyze antennas

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Description

The Antenna Designer app lets you design, visualize, and analyze antennas in the Antenna Toolbox library interactively.

Using this app, you can:

  • Select antennas based on general properties or antenna performance.

  • Select backing structures from the gallery of backing structures.

  • Visualize antennas based on frequency and frequency range.

  • Analyze antennas based on radiation pattern, polarization, and bandwidth.

  • Export selected and designed antennas as a variable to the MATLAB® workspace, as either script or a variable. The exported MATLAB script has two sections: Antenna Properties and Antenna Analysis.

  • Save and load an existing antenna .mat file to the app and analyze the antenna.

  • Optimize antennas for various analysis results under given constraints using SADEA or Surrogate optimization methods.

    Note

    • To use Parallel Computing for SADEA optimizer, you need the Parallel Computing Toolbox™.

    To use the Surrogate optimization algorithm, you need the Global Optimization Toolbox.

Antenna Designer app

Open the Antenna Designer App

  • MATLAB Toolstrip: In the APPS tab, under RF AND MIXED-SIGNAL, click the Antenna Designer app icon.

  • MATLAB command prompt: Enter antennaDesigner.

Examples

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The Antenna Designer opens a blank canvas.

Antenna Designer app new canvas showing the various options on the toolbar.

  1. Select and Visualize Antenna

    • Click

      GUI button to create a new design

      in the canvas toolstrip to choose the antenna you want to analyze.

    • The default antenna is a dipole antenna.

    • App toolstrip

      You can filter the antennas based on Radiation pattern, Polarization, and Bandwidth.

    • Using options in the BACKING STRUCTURE menu, you can add cavity and reflector type backing structures to the antenna.

    • You can add dielectric material as a substrate to the supported antennas using the DIELECTRIC CATALOG drop-down options. You can add predefined material, single or multiple dielectric layers, or specify a material using its dielectric property values.

    • You can also specify the Design Frequency of the antenna. Setting this value scales the antenna to resonate at the specified frequency. You can also tune the antenna using Antenna Properties tab during analysis.

    • Use Reset, to go back to default settings.

    • Use Accept, to analyze the antenna characteristics.

    • Use Cancel, to start over.

  2. Antenna Gallery

    • You can choose your antennas from the ANTENNA GALLERY.

      Antenna designer app canvas showing the different types of antenna in a drop down list. This canvas also shows the dipole as the default antenna.

    • When you filter antennas based on Radiation pattern, Polarization, or Bandwidth, the antenna gallery greys out the antennas that do not belong to the chosen filter.

  3. Back Structure Gallery

    • You can choose your antenna backing structures from the BACKING STRUCTURE GALLERY.

      Antenna designer app canvas showing the different types of antenna in a drop down list. This canvas also shows the dipole as the default antenna.

  4. Analyze Antenna

    Antenna designer canvas showing the antenna properties pane on the left side of the canvas, the antenna on the right side of the canvas, and the analysis tools in the toolbar at the top of the canvas.

    • You can estimate the memory required to solve the antenna mesh by clicking the Memory Estimate button.

    • You can manually mesh the antenna by changing the Meshing Mode to manual in the Analysis Settings menu, defining and saving mesh parameters, and then clicking on the Mesh button.

    • You can plot the Impedance and S Parameter of the antenna based on the specified Frequency Range in Hz.

    • You can visualize the Current distribution on the antenna based on the specified Frequency in Hz.

    • You can visualize the 3D Pattern, AZ Pattern, EL Pattern of the antenna based on the specified frequency. Here AZ stands for azimuth and EL stands for elevation.

    • Use Export to view your antenna in MATLAB workspace or MATLAB script.

    • Manually change the antenna properties using the Antenna Properties tab. In this tab, you can change the geometrical properties of the antenna, add a dielectric substrate and metal conductor parameters to the antenna, and change the value and location of the load.

  5. Optimize Antenna

    • Click on Optimize to open the optimizer canvas of the antenna designer app.

      Antenna designer canvas showing the antenna properties pane on the left side of the canvas, the antenna on the right side of the canvas, and the analysis tools in the toolbar at the top of the canvas.

      Use options from the OBJECTIVE FUNCTION menu to choose the main goal of antenna optimization.

    • Use the Design Variables panel to select variables and specify their bounds. The variables are then changed by the optimizer depending on their lower and upper bounds.

    • Use the Geometric Constraints panel to specify coefficient matrix corresponding to linear constraint equations of design variables, and nonlinear constraints.

    • Use constraint functions from the Analysis Constraints panel to restrict a desired analysis function value for the antenna. You can add multiple constraint functions along with their weightage.

    • Use the Optimizer menu to choose between SADEA, Surrogate Opt, or TR-SADEA optimizers.

      Note

      • To use Parallel Computing for SADEA and TR-SADEAoptimizer, you need a Parallel Computing Toolbox license.

      To use the Surrogate optimizer, you need a Global Optimization Toolbox license.

    • After adding the required values, click Run to start the optimization.

Open Live Script

Use the Antenna Designer app to plot the radiation pattern of a cavity-backed dipole antenna.

Open the app and click New to show the default dipole antenna.

From the BACKING STRUCTURE GALLERY, click Rectangular Cavity to create a cavity-backed dipole antenna.

ex2_cavity_backed_dipole_1.png

Click Accept.

In SCALAR FREQUENCY ANALYSIS, click 3D Pattern to calculate the radiation pattern of the cavity-backed dipole. The default frequency used is 75 MHz. Click Tile to view both the antenna and the radiation pattern.

ex2_cavity_backed_dipole_2.png

Open Live Script

Use the Antenna Designer app to plot the radiation pattern of a patch microstrip antenna with a dielectric substrate.

Open the app and click New. In the ANTENNA GALLERY section, under PATCH FAMILY, click Microstrip. Click Accept.

On the Antenna Properties tab, change the ground plane length and width to 0.120 m. Click Apply to see the changes.

ex3_patch_microstrip_antenna_1.png

Add an FR4 dielectric as a substrate to the microstrip patch antenna. To add the dielectric, open the Substrate section and select required dielectric from the Dielectric Catalog drop-down. Set the substrate Name to FR4, EpsilonR to 4.8000, and Loss Tangent to 0.0260. Also add Gold metal as a conductor to the microstrip patch antenna. To add the metal, open the Conductor section and select required metal from the Metal Catalog drop-down. You can also use custom dielectric or metal materials by setting the fields: Name, EpsilonR, Loss Tangent, Conductivity and Thickness. Click Apply to see the antenna.

ex3_patch_microstrip_antenna_2.png

Click 3D Pattern to plot the radiation pattern of the antenna at the default frequency of 1.67 GHz.

ex3_patch_microstrip_antenna_3.png

Open Live Script

Create and export a discone antenna using Antenna Designer app.

ex4_discone_antenna_1.png

The exported antenna is visible in the MATLAB workspace in the form of a MAT file.

Change the parameters of the antenna to the below given values at the MATLAB command line and save the MAT file again to a known folder.

Rd = 55e-3;              % Radius of disc
Rc1 = 72.1e-3;           % Broad Radius of cone
Rc2 = 1.875e-3;          % Narrow Radius of cone
Hc = 160e-3;             % Vertical height of cone
Fw = 1e-3;               % Feed Width
S = 1.75e-3;             % Spacing between cone and disc

Open the updated MAT file of the discone antenna using the open button.

ex4_discone_antenna_2.png

The app overwrites the previous discone antenna design and open the updated discone antenna.

ex4_discone_antenna_3.png

Calculate the S-parameter of the antenna at the specified frequency range.

ex4_discone_antenna_4.png

Plot the radiation pattern of the antenna at the specified frequency.

ex4_discone_antenna_5.png

Open Live Script

Minimize the occupied area of a dipole antenna such that gain of the antenna is greater than 4 dBi.

Open Antenna Designer app and accept the default dipole antenna.

ex5_optimize_gain_1.png

Analyze the pattern of the antenna. Notice that the Max value for directivity in the plot is 2.1 dBi.

ex5_optimize_gain_2.png

Optimize Dipole Antenna

Click on Optimize to open the Optimizer canvas of the Antenna Designer app.

ex5_optimize_gain_3.png

From the OBJECTIVE FUNCTION drop down choose, Minimize Area. Enter the bounds for the length and the width of the antenna in the Design Variables tab. Click Apply.

ex5_optimize_gain_4.png

Enter the constraints in the Constraints tab. Click Apply.

ex5_optimize_gain_5.png

Set the number of iterations to 50. Click Run.

First the optimizer builds the model.

ex5_optimize_gain_6.png

Then starts the optimization based on the objective function and the constraints.

ex5_optimize_gain_7.png

Click Accept.

Analyze the antenna again for the 3D pattern. See that the Max value of the directivity is now 4.01 dBi.

ex5_optimize_gain_8.png

Open Live Script

Minimize the occupied area of a dipole antenna such that gain of the antenna is greater than 4 dBi.

Open Antenna Designer app and accept the default dipole antenna.

ex6_surrogate_optimize_1.png

Analyze the pattern of the antenna. Notice that the Max value for directivity in the plot is 2.1 dBi.

ex6_surrogate_optimize_2.png

Optimize Dipole Antenna

Click on Optimize to open the Optimizer canvas of the Antenna Designer app.

ex6_surrogate_optimize_3.png

From the OBJECTIVE FUNCTION drop down choose, Minimize Area. Enter the bounds for the length and the width of the antenna in the Design Variables tab. Click Apply.

ex6_surrogate_optimize_4.png

Enter the constraints in the Constraints tab. Click Apply.

ex6_surrogate_optimize_5.png

Change the Optimizer from SADEA to Surrogate Opt. The number iterations is always 200 and Parallel Computing is grayed out. Click Run.

The optimization starts based on the objective function and the constraints.

ex6_surrogate_optimize_7.png

Click Accept.

Analyze the antenna again for the 3D pattern. See that the Max value of the directivity is now 4.57 dBi.

ex6_surrogate_optimize_8.png

Related Examples

Programmatic Use

antennaDesigner opens the Antenna Designer app, enabling you to design, analyze, and optimize antennas present in the Antenna Toolbox library.

Version History

Introduced in R2017a

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See Also

Apps

Functions

Topics