Reflector antenna design with efield® MLFMM

Efield® provides powerful tools for reflector antenna design. This example shows how to simulate a horizontal polarized L-Band Cassegrain reflector antenna for a satellite application using efield® MLFMM solver.

Geometry creation

The efield® macro tool was used for creating all shapes and surfaces in this example.

Antenna configuration
Description
Parameter Value[m]
Diameter of the main reflector in azimuth
7.5
Diameter of the main reflector in elevation
5.0
Diameter of the sub reflector in azimuth
1.005
Diameter of the sub reflector in elevation
0.67
Focal length of main reflector
2.3
Focal length of sub reflector
0.625
Apex length of sub reflector
0.347
The starting geometrical structure generated by macros
The starting geometrical structure generated by macros


Surfaces and shapes
Surfaces and shapes


Surface currents on a Cassegrain antenna
Surface currents on a Cassegrain antenna simulated with efield® MLFMM.


Simulation data

  • Frequency 1.3 GHz
  • Port excitation
  • EFIE
  • SPAI preconditioner
  • 361x361 farfield angles, 0.5° resolution
  • 2 processors on an AMD Dual Core Opteron 285 2.6 GHz with 16 Gb memory
  • Convergence within 165 iterations
Simulation data
Frequency Number of unknowns Number of elements Mesh resolution [m] CPU-time total (hours)
1.3 GHz 164 180 109 100 0.027 2.3
Azimuth antenna diagram
Azimuth antenna diagram


Elevation antenna diagram
Elevation antenna diagram