Getting Started with

HFSS TM
Monocone Antenna

ANSYS, Inc. November 2012

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Tel: (+1) 724-746-3304
Fax: (+1) 724-514-9494
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Technical Support: [email protected]

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 The information contained in this document is subject to change with-
out notice. ANSYS makes no warranty of any kind with regard to this
material, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of mer-
chantability and fitness for a particular purpose. ANSYS shall not be
liable for errors contained herein or for incidental or consequential
damages in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of
this material.

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Unauthorized use, distribution, or duplication is prohibited.
© 2012 SAS IP, Inc. All rights reserved.

ANSYS, HFSS, and Optimetrics are registered trademarks or trade-

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respective owners.

New editions of this manual incorporate all material updated since the
previous edition. The manual printing date, which indicates the man-
ual’s current edition, changes when a new edition is printed. Minor
corrections and updates that are incorporated at reprint do not cause
the date to change.
Update packages may be issued between editions and contain addi-
tional and/or replacement pages to be merged into the manual by the
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not considered to be revised.

Edition Da te Software
Ve rs io n
1 May 2003 9
2 June 2005 10
3 June 2007 11
4 Sept 2009 12
5 October 2010 13.0
6 August 2011 14.0

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 Getting Started with HFSS: Monocone Antenna

Conventions Used in this Guide

Please take a moment to review how instructions and other
useful information are presented in this guide.

• Procedures are presented as numbered lists. A single bul-

let indicates that the procedure has only one step.
• Bold type is used for the following:
- Keyboard entries that should be typed in their entirety
exactly as shown. For example, “copy file1” means to
type the word copy, to type a space, and then to type
file1.
- On-screen prompts and messages, names of options and
text boxes, and menu commands. Menu commands are
often separated by carats. For example, click
HFSS>Excitations>Assign>Wave Port.
- Labeled keys on the computer keyboard. For example,
“Press Enter” means to press the key labeled Enter.
• Italic type is used for the following:
- Emphasis.
- The titles of publications.
- Keyboard entries when a name or a variable must be
typed in place of the words in italics. For example,
“copy file name” means to type the word copy, to type
a space, and then to type a file name.
• The plus sign (+) is used between keyboard keys to indi-
cate that you should press the keys at the same time. For
example, “Press Shift+F1” means to press the Shift key
and the F1 key at the same time.
• Toolbar buttons serve as shortcuts for executing com-
mands. Toolbar buttons are displayed after the command
they execute. For example,

“On the Draw menu, click Line ” means that you can
click the Draw Line toolbar button to execute the Line
command.

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Getting Started with HFSS: Monocone Antenna

Getting Help
ANSYS Technical Support
To contact ANSYS technical support staff in your geographical
area, please log on to the ANSYS corporate website, https://
www1.ansys.com. You can also contact your ANSYS account
manager in order to obtain this information.
All ANSYS software files are ASCII text and can be sent conve-
niently by e-mail. When reporting difficulties, it is extremely
helpful to include very specific information about what steps
were taken or what stages the simulation reached, including
software files as applicable. This allows more rapid and effec-
tive debugging.

Help Menu
To access online help from the HFSS menu bar, click Help and
select from the menu:
• Contents - click here to open the contents of the online
help.
• Seach - click here to open the search function of the
online help.
• Index - click here to open the index of the online help.
Context-Sensitive Help
To access online help from the HFSS user interface, do one of
the following:
• To open a help topic about a specific HFSS menu com-
mand, press Shift+F1, and then click the command or
toolbar icon.
• To open a help topic about a specific HFSS dialog box,
open the dialog box, and then press F1.

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 Table of Contents

1. HFSS-IE: Monocone Antenna

Creating the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2
Set Model Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2
Set Default Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2
Adding the Infinite Ground Plane . . . . . . . . . . 1-4
Draw the Cone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-5
Draw the Rectangle for the Port . . . . . . . . . . . 1-6
Add a Lump Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-7
Adding the Solution Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-8
Run the Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-8
Plotting the Radiation Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-9

Contents-1

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Getting Started with HFSS-IE: A Monocone Antenna

Contents-2

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 HFSS-IE: Monocone
Antenna

This example looks at the radiation pattern from a mono-

cone antenna.

HFSS-IE: Monocone Antenna -1

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Getting Started with HFSS-IE: A Monocone Antenna

Creating the Model

Creating this model is very straightforward. We will create a
3D solid cone.
1 Open a project and insert a new HFSS-IE design.

Set Model Units

To set the units:
1 Click Modeler>Units
The Set Model Units dialog opens.
2 Select Units: meter

3 Click the OK button

Set Default Material
To set the default material:
1 Using the 3D Modeler Materials toolbar, choose Select...
2 This opens the Select Definition window with the Materi-
als tab.

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 Getting Started with HFSS-IE: A Monocone Antenna

3 Type pec in the Search by Name field.

This highlights the pec material.
4 Click the OK button.
This sets the default material to pec and closes the Select
Definition window.

Adding the Infinite Ground Plane

The next step is to add an infinite ground plane. All ground
planes are parallel to the X-Y plane at a user specified height.
1 With nothing selected, right-click on Boundaries in the
Project tree and select Infinite Ground Plane from the
short cut menu.
The Infinite Ground Plane dialog appears, with the materi-
als button showing copper.
2 Click the Copper button to open the Materials dialog.
3 Type pec in the Materials dialog search window.
The specified material is highlighted.
4 Click OK to close the Materials dialog.
5 The Infinite Ground Plane dialog shows the material as
pec.

HFSS-IE: Monocone Antenna -3

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Getting Started with HFSS-IE: A Monocone Antenna

6 Click OK to close the dialog.

The infinite ground plane appears in the Project tree
under Boundaries.

Draw the Cone

1 Click Draw>Cone.
Use the coordinate entry fields at the lower right of the
modeler window to enter the center location as 0.0, 0.0,
0.0125. The units should be meters. Press Enter.

2 Use the coordinate entry fields to enter the lower radius

as: dX: 0.0125, 0.0, 0.0. Press Enter.

3 Use the coordinate entry fields to enter the upper radius

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 Getting Started with HFSS-IE: A Monocone Antenna

as 0.5, 0.0, 0.4875. Press Enter.

The cone should appear as follows:

In the History tree you can select the CreateCone com-

mand to view the Properties dialog. It should show the fol-
lowing values:

If any of the values do not match, you can edit them here.

Draw the Rectangle for the Port

1 Use Draw>Rectangle to create an arbitrary rectangle, and
select the CreateRectangle icon in the History tree to view

HFSS-IE: Monocone Antenna -5

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Getting Started with HFSS-IE: A Monocone Antenna

the Command Properties.

2 Edit the Command Properties as follows.

Select the Rectangle in the History tree and click

View>Fit. The rectangle should appear underneath the
cone as shown.

Add a Lump Port

We next need to assign a Lump Port to the rectangle.
1 With the rectangle selected, right click on Excitations in
the Project tree and select Assign Excitation from the
short cut menu.
The Lumped Port and Terminal assignments appear in the

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 Getting Started with HFSS-IE: A Monocone Antenna

Project tree.

Adding the Solution Setup

The last step is to add the solution setup.
1 Right click on Analysis under the IEDesign in the Project
Manager window and select Add Solution Setup.

This opens the Solution Setup dialog.

2 In the General tab change the Frequency to 0.3 GHZ.
Leave the rest at its default values.
3 That is all that is needed, click OK now, or if you desire
you can look at the Options tab where you should see that
the default lambda refinement is 0.25 (=λ0/4).
The Monocone project setup is compete.

Run the Simulation

To run the simulation:
1 Right-click on the Setup just created in the Project Man-
ager window and select Analyze.
2 It should first ask you to save the project by asking a proj-
ect name - enter anything you desire. Once the project has
been saved it will simulate and should solve quickly.

HFSS-IE: Monocone Antenna -7

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Getting Started with HFSS-IE: A Monocone Antenna

Plotting the Radiation Pattern

To plot the radiation you first must enter a Far Field setup -
the same as for HFSS. We will create a far field setup with
two pattern cuts at φ = 0 and 90o.
1 Right click on Radiation in the Project tree of the Project
Manager window and select Insert Far Field Setup>Infi-
nite Sphere...

The Far Field Radiation Sphere Setup dialog opens.

2 Enter Start and Stop for Phi as 0 and 90; step size=0.
3 Enter Start and Stop for Theta as -90 and 90; step size=1.
You should have the following:

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 Getting Started with HFSS-IE: A Monocone Antenna

4 Click OK.
This closes the dialog and creates InfiniteSphere1 under
Radiation in the Project tree.
5 To create the plots, right click on Results in the Project
tree and click Create Far Fields Report>Radiation Pat-
tern.
The Reports dialog opens.
6 Specify the following: for Category: rE; for Quantity: rETo-
tal; and for Function: dB.
7 Click New Report.
The resulting plot should resemble this:

Again these post processing functions are the same as for

HFSS. You may want to take some time and work with the post
processor. For example it is interesting to create an animation
of the current shade plot. You may also want to look at the
input characteristics under Analysis>Setup>Matrix Data.

HFSS-IE: Monocone Antenna -9

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Getting Started with HFSS-IE: A Monocone Antenna

-10 HFSS-IE: Monocone Antenna

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