Help needed with antenna gain settings

Basically, I just want to be able to create an antenna object for use in my txsite() and rxsite() functions for ray tracing, and I've seen so many functions and tried pretty much everything, but no luck so far in setting the gain to the value I want (7dBi). All I need is an antenna object that's of horn type, basic horn from the catalog, runs at 900MHz, and has a gain of 7dBi. I don't even care about its facing direction, because I can just rotate or do whatever with it once I set it as my transmitter and receiver. I can't seem to figure out anything that allows me to do so, there's a bunch of functions and properties that set everything else except the gain, then there's stuff I found like rfantenna() or Antenna Block object idk, that can allow me to set the gain, but not for a horn type of antenna. Is it impossible to do such a thing currently?

I have all the toolboxes downloaded btw, and RF and Antenna ones are no luck somehow.

Answer 1

[Umeshraja]

Hi @Saad Humayun,

I understand that you wanted to create antenna object with a custom gain setting. As the gain property is typically a result of the physical dimensions and operating frequency of the antenna, you can optimize these parameters using 'optimize' function of MATLAB’s Antenna Toolbox.

It optimizes the antenna or the array at the specified frequency, using a specified objective function, antenna or array properties and their bounds.

% Define the operating frequency
frequency = 900e6;

% Design the initial horn antenna at the specified frequency
Hornantenna = design(horn, frequency);

% Define the design variables and their bounds
designVariables = {'FlareLength', 'FlareHeight'};
XVmin = [0.001, 0.001];
XVmax = [0.1, 0.1];

% Set the constraints for gain
constraints = {'Gain < 7.01'};

% Optimize the antenna to maximize gain
HornOpt = optimize(Hornantenna, frequency, "maximizeGain", designVariables, {XVmin; XVmax}, ...
    Constraints=constraints, Iterations=10);

HornOpt

HornOpt = 
  horn with properties:

    FlareLength: 0.0898
     FlareWidth: 0.7303
    FlareHeight: 0.0310
         Length: 0.3644
          Width: 0.2915
         Height: 0.1457
      FeedWidth: 0.0093
     FeedHeight: 0.0777
     FeedOffset: [-0.1069 0]
      Conductor: [1x1 metal]
           Tilt: 0
       TiltAxis: [1 0 0]
           Load: [1x1 lumpedElement]

You can modify any simulation parameter in the above code as needed. You can use the optimized antenna object for further analysis. Alternatively, you can utilize the ‘AntennaDesigner’ app in MATLAB by clicking the following icon to visually adjust and optimize the antenna properties.

For more detailed information, refer to the MATLAB R2023b documentation on the 'optimize' function:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2023b/antenna/ref/optimizationanalysis.optimize.html

Hope this helps!