AN-SOF Antenna Simulation Software
AN-SOF is a simulation software for the modeling, analysis, and design of antennas. It allows users to describe antenna geometry, choose material properties, simulate far-field radiation patterns, analyze antenna parameters, and optimize designs.
AN-SOF is a must-have for anyone involved in the design and simulation of antennas. It offers a user-friendly interface, high accuracy, a growing library of antenna models >, and a wide range of simulation capabilities, making it an ideal tool for both professionals and students.
Areas of application
- Modeling and design of wire antennas.
- Antennas above a lossy ground plane.
- Broadcast antennas over radial wire ground screens.
- Single layer microstrip patch antennas.
- Radiated emissions from printed circuit boards (PCBs).
- Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) applications.
- Passive circuits and non-radiating networks.
AN-SOF specializes in the modeling of wire antennas, including dipoles, monopoles, yagis, log-periodic arrays, helices, spirals, loops, horns, fractals and many other antenna types. The calculation method has been extended to also include single-layer microstrip patch antennas as well as printed circuit boards.
AN-SOF can be used to…
- design better antennas
- predict antenna performance
- tune for performance
- account for environment effects
- optimize a design using scripts
- get insight into the behavior of an antenna
- try many times before building the real model
- learn more about antennas
- share our findings with colleagues
- and enjoy this exciting field!
Fast and easy to use
Data entry with AN-SOF is easy. To edit a wire just click on it and an edit box will come up with the relevant dimensions. This is easier and quicker than searching through a spreadsheet to find a wire. Also, sources and loads can be seen graphically. To visualize output data, you can have quite a collection of plotted images to compare and save as you run through a design. Electromagnetic fields, currents, voltages, input impedances, VSWR, consumed and radiated powers, gain, directivity, and far more parameters can be computed in a frequency sweep and plotted in 2D and 3D graphical representations.
Accurate simulations
AN-SOF is based on the Conformal Method of Moments (CMoM) with Exact Kernel >. Old MoM codes suffer from many drawbacks and inaccuracies due to a linear approximation to geometry and the use of the so-called thin-wire Kernel, such as: divergent input impedance, poor convergence for curved antennas (helices, loops, spirals) and bent wires, and singularities that appear when two parallel wires are close to each other or close to a lossy ground plane. With the CMoM and an exact Kernel formulation we have removed these limitations and obtained the following advantages:
- Decreased number of calculations and increased accuracy of results.
- Decreased simulation time and computer memory usage, allowing us to model larger and more complex designs.
- Ability to simulate from extremely low frequencies (circuits at 60 Hz) to very high ones (microwave antennas).