{"id":9420,"date":"2026-02-22T23:43:35","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T23:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antennasimulator.com\/?echo_kb_faq=what-types-of-pcbs-and-microstrip-antennas-can-be-simulated-with-an-sof"},"modified":"2026-02-22T23:43:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T23:43:35","slug":"what-types-of-pcbs-and-microstrip-antennas-can-be-simulated-with-an-sof","status":"publish","type":"echo_kb_faq","link":"https:\/\/antennasimulator.com\/?echo_kb_faq=what-types-of-pcbs-and-microstrip-antennas-can-be-simulated-with-an-sof","title":{"rendered":"What types of PCBs and microstrip antennas can AN-SOF simulate?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While AN-SOF was originally designed for simulating wire structures using the Method of Moments (MoM), its calculation engine has been extended to support specific PCB and microstrip antenna designs. For structures that do not comply with the following conditions, a Finite Element Method (FEM) solver (not included in AN-SOF) should be used instead.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key Limitations and Requirements:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Single-Layer, Lossless Substrate Only:<\/strong>\u00a0Only one dielectric layer is supported; multilayer substrates are not available. Additionally, the substrate must be lossless (loss tangent is assumed to be zero), and no holes or cutouts are permitted.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Finite-Size Substrate Constraints:<\/strong>\u00a0The substrate must be rectangular. To ensure accuracy, traces must be positioned at least five times the trace width away from any substrate edge.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ground Plane and Vias:<\/strong>\u00a0A perfect electric conductor (PEC) ground plane is mandatory. Vertical vias can be modeled as short vertical wires connecting traces to the ground plane, which is often used for antenna feeding.<\/li>\n<li><strong>No Slot-Based Designs:<\/strong>\u00a0Slot antennas or patches with internal slots cannot be modeled due to current software limitations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We currently have no plans to integrate an FEM solver into AN-SOF. For advanced PCB designs, such as multilayer structures or lossy substrates, we recommend using alternative simulation tools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While AN-SOF was originally designed for simulating wire structures using the Method of Moments (MoM), its calculation engine has been extended to support specific PCB and microstrip antenna designs. For structures that do not comply with the following conditions, a Finite Element Method (FEM) solver (not included in AN-SOF) should be used instead. Key Limitations [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"echo_kb_faq_category":[109],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/antennasimulator.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/echo_kb_faq\/9420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/antennasimulator.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/echo_kb_faq"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/antennasimulator.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/echo_kb_faq"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antennasimulator.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antennasimulator.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9420"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/antennasimulator.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/echo_kb_faq\/9420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20901,"href":"https:\/\/antennasimulator.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/echo_kb_faq\/9420\/revisions\/20901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/antennasimulator.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"echo_kb_faq_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antennasimulator.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/echo_kb_faq_category?post=9420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}