AN-SOF 8.70: Enhancing Your Antenna Design Journey

We are thrilled to present AN-SOF Version 8.70 🚀. Packed with enhanced functionalities, this release is designed to empower you in the realm of antenna design. We have focused on both Input and Output Data Improvements to refine your experience and offer greater flexibility.

Input Data Improvements:

✅ Solid Surfaces with Thickness: We introduce the capability to model solid surfaces, not just wire grids. These solid surfaces are composed of conductive strips that can have a defined thickness. This enhancement opens the door for more realistic simulations, enabling you to model surfaces that are not infinitesimally thin. While, at present, these solid surfaces may appear as “skeletons” in the AN-SOF workspace, rest assured that we are diligently working on developing an interface to visualize them more realistically.

✅ Material Selection: We’ve added a feature that allows you to select the material of wires, grids, and surfaces from a list of metals. This selection automatically sets the resistivity. We’ve also included a ‘Custom’ option to set the resistivity manually.

✅ Substrate Dielectric Materials: We have integrated a list of dielectric materials into the Substrate ground plane option. Materials like FR4, RT/Duroid, and Rogers RO slabs are now readily available. This means that the permittivity is automatically set for the chosen material, simplifying the design process.

Output Data Improvements:

✅ EIRP Compliance: Compliance with electromagnetic field regulations is paramount. To assist you in this regard, we have added the Average and Peak Effective Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP) to the Power Budget table. These values are presented in both Watts and dBW, and can be plotted against frequency. This feature enables you to evaluate whether an antenna model adheres to the maximum EIRP limits stipulated by regulations.

✅ AN-3D Pattern Enhancements: Visualizing the 3D radiation pattern lobes just got easier. The AN-3D Pattern app now includes up/down buttons, allowing you to effortlessly resize the antenna relative to the radiation pattern. This feature enhances your ability to grasp the antenna’s directional properties.

✅ Axial Ratio: Recognizing the importance of polarization analysis, we’ve introduced the Axial Ratio in both dB and dimensionless formats. This addition is available in 2D rectangular and polar diagrams, 3D radiation patterns, as well as in graphs depicting the far-field spectrum. The Axial Ratio helps you determine the polarization of the field by providing the minor-to-major axis ratio of the polarization ellipse. Perfect circular polarization is indicated by an Axial Ratio of ±1 (with +1 representing right-handed and -1 representing left-handed polarization), while linear polarization is characterized by an Axial Ratio of 0. Additionally, AN-SOF offers both right and left circular components of the field.

✅ S₁₁ in Decibels: In response to the specific needs of users in microwave frequencies, we’ve added S₁₁ in decibels (representing return loss) to plots and tables. This addition, along with the already available VSWR, offers valuable insights for RF analysis of antenna bandwidth.

We are committed to continuously enhancing your experience and equipping you with the tools necessary for your success 🛠️. Please explore these features, and feel free to reach out with any questions or feedback.