Altair Feko + WinProp
Sales Guide
Version 1
Nov 2019
Altair Internal document - For Altair Channel Partners V1.0, Nov 2019
Level 1: Altair Feko + WinProp Overview
Introduction to Electro-Magnetics waves
Electromagnetic waves are formed when an electric field comes in contact with a magnetic
field. These waves that do not require a medium for transmission and regulate our way of
living in numerous ways. They help us communicate, cook, and even solve complex medical
issues. From the radiation produced by your mobile phone to that derived from X-ray check-
ups and airport control, electromagnetic waves seem to be ever-present in everyday life.
Why do we need Electro-Magnetic (EM) Simulations?
Products that we use today have more wires and antennas than probably a 1950’s airplane.
It is estimated that a modern car that we use every day has over 30 computers to run
everything from the air intake of the engine to your blue tooth enabled entertainment
system. This quote sums it up nicely, “It would be easy to say the modern car is a computer
on wheels, but it’s more like 30 or more computers on wheels,” said Bruce Emaus, the
chairman of SAE International’s embedded software standards committee.
All these electronics, wires and antennas should do their job – efficient, reliable and safe.
The design and placement of an antenna is defining its performance. The local surrounding
(housing or parts nearby) needs to be accounted as well. In addition, electronic parts and
wires should not interfere with each other. Interference of any crucial system could result in
minor inconveniences like hearing static on the radio to something more critical like
disabling a safety system like proximity alerts which could cause an accident.
Finally, emitter and receiver have to communicate. Information that is sent out needs to be
captured by the receiver. Therefore, the propagation of the waves needs to be analysed so
that antenna design and placement can be adapted.
Tools like FEKO are designed to be a comprehensive electromagnetic simulation platform for
antenna design, placement and EMC analysis. It has been developed with the goal of
addressing the abovementioned simulation challenges right at the product design stage.
This early application of this technology ensures that the product will perform as designed,
will ensure the reliable information transmission and pass all the regulatory EMC tests which
are typically performed just before shipment to the customer.
What is Altair Feko?
Altair Feko is a global leading comprehensive electromagnetic simulation software based on
a suite of accurate and parallelized solvers with true hybridization in an integrated and easy
Altair Internal document - For Altair Channel Partners V1.0, Nov 2019
to use interface. It is focusing on antenna design, placement and EMC for a wide range of
modern products and for all IoT devices (whiteware, household robots, wearables …)
What is Altair WinProp?
Altair WinProp is a reference software focused on wireless propagation modelling and radio
network planning, providing accurate and fast propagation models for a wide range of
scenarios and air interfaces
Altair Feko Highlights
Altair Feko offers several EM solvers under a single license.
By offering a selection of different solvers, Altair FEKO users
can choose the method that is most suitable to the problem
that they are trying to solve or use more than one solver for
One Product, Multiple cross validation purposes. All solvers are included in Altair
Solvers Feko and are not licensed separately.
Altair Feko has a nice and unique interface with Altair
WinProp, which includes a set of fast and accurate solvers
for wave propagation modeling and radio network planning.
In some instances, a single solver might still not be enough
to solve a challenging problem. Altair Feko offers industry
leading hybridization of different solvers, combining the
True Hybridization
beneficial characteristics. This allows more efficient and
accurate analysis of multi-scale problems, that are both
complex and electrically large.
Extensive validation (analytical solutions, measurement,
cross validation) of the numerical methods and
Accurate Solvers
enhancements in Altair Feko is carried out to ensure the
accuracy of our approaches.
Altair Feko’s solvers are fully parallelized and optimized to
exploit multi-CPU distributed memory resources. Some of
Productivity Features the solvers also support GPU acceleration.
Optimized out-of-core solver to deliver solutions when RAM
limits are reached.
Altair Internal document - For Altair Channel Partners V1.0, Nov 2019
Excellent local technical support network. Comprehensive
Technical Support and
and in-depth training sessions can be requested to
Free Online Trainings
accelerate the learning curve.
As part of the HyperWorks suite, Altair Feko can be used with
other products (e.g. HyperMesh to speed up model clean up
and meshing for very complex CAD models, HyperStudy for
HWU License Value antenna design and placement optimization using machine
learning, Activate with HyperSpice for electronic circuit
simulation, and others) at no extra cost. This is the value of
the patented HyperWorks unit licensing scheme.
Altair Feko is the only commercial code that offers
characteristic mode analysis (CMA) solver for smart antenna
design. Futhermore, specialized numerical solutions for
bidirectional cable coupling, windscreen antennas and large
Specialized Solutions
finite arrays reduce computational requirements. Model
decomposition workflows for classical antenna placement
problems enable equivalent representation of the
transmitting/receiving antenna.
How Does Feko Look?
Electromagnetic Simulation Software | Altair Feko
Key Industries to Focus on with Feko ?
Altair Internal document - For Altair Channel Partners V1.0, Nov 2019
Typical Scenarios to look for?
Antenna Design: Altair Feko offers broad range of solver technologies which makes it well
suited to solve a range of different antenna types like Wire Antennas, Planar/conformal
Antennas, Reflector Antennas, Aperture Antennas, Mobile / Wireless Antennas, Broadband
Antennas, Windscreen Antennas, Array Antennas.
Antenna Placement: Altair Feko is leading tool for antenna placement and co-site
interference analysis. It is often necessary to understand (and optimize) how an antennas
performance is influenced by the structure (e.g. an aeroplane, vehicle or ship) it is mounted
on. The electrically large nature of the structures that need to be considered make them
challenge to simulate.
EMC Analysis: Altair Feko helps to predict emission and immunity performance like
immunity and radiated emissions testing, cable modelling, shielding effectiveness, noise
coupling, radiation hazard (RADHAZ) analysis, electromagnetic pulses (EMP), lightning
analysis, high intensity radiated fields (HIRF), reverberation and anechoic chamber
simulations.
RCS (Radar cross-section) / Scattering: The scattering performance of an object describe
how energy is scattered when the object is exposed to incident electromagnetic fields.
Applications include scattering from wind turbines, optimization of radar systems like
automotive collision detection systems for motor vehicles, and radar cross sections of
platforms, including defense ones. Altair Feko’s high frequency methods are typically used
to solve these typically electrically large platforms.
Special Materials: Synthetic materials like composites are used increasingly often in product
design. In some cases, the material is chosen intentionally to influence how the structure
interacts with an incident EM field. It is therefore important that these materials can be
modelled accurately. Altair Feko offers a range of different features for treatment of
different materials.
Bio Electromagnetics: Useful in designing products and investigating safety aspects for
healthcare systems, which often include wireless telemetry. Applications include wireless
biosensors, implanted devices like pacemakers and neuro-stimulators, and MRI systems.
Altair Feko’s broad solver offering allows the most efficient method to be used for each
task.
Microstrip Circuits: Altair Feko offers tools for microstrip circuit design and analysis of
filters, resonators, couplers, passive components like spiral inductors, or even complex feed
structures for array antennas.
Radomes: Although Radomes are designed to be transparent, they typically have some
small effect on the antenna performance which needs to be quantified. This can be
challenging because they are generally electrically large structures, often consisting of
multiple thin dielectric layers. Altair Feko offers a range of features and methods that are
well suited to simulation of Radomes.
Whom to sell?
Antenna and RF engineers use Altair Feko to design and place antennas
in many different types of devices and platforms. Altair Feko’s solver
Antenna Team offering make it the leading tool for antenna placement and co-site
interference analysis, for any structure like a car, aircraft, smart watch,
wireless devices, pacemakers, etc.
Altair Internal document - For Altair Channel Partners V1.0, Nov 2019
EMC analysis is used to predict emission and immunity performance; and
also, in the product design phase to mitigate problems due to external or
co-site interfaces.
Altair Feko can be used extensively for:
• Emissions and immunity of any product
EMC Team • Cable Harness Analysis
• Shielding effectiveness
• Radiation hazard (RADHAZ) analysis
• Electromagnetic pulses (EMP)
• Lightning analysis
In some organizations the EMC Team is part of the Electronics and
Electrical Team.
Radar Team • Radar teams use Altair Feko to calculate scattering and RCS of objects.
In some organizations like automotive companies, there is typically a
group called Mobility Group or V2X Communication Group working on
Other Teams
V2X communications, who is using not only Altair Feko but, in some
cases, also Altair WinProp.
Whom not-to-sell?
Field Applications
Altair Feko offers Weak offering for signal and power integrity and EMC
analysis of PCBs and Integrated Circuits (IC)s) **
• Signal integrity (SI) and power integrity (PI) on Printed Circuit
EM simulation of Boards (PCB) and Integrated Circuit (IC) packages.
Printed Circuit • RFICs, RFMEMS
Boards • Electrostatic Discharges (ESD)
** Instead of Altair Feko, for customers interested in PCB simulation
you need to consider Altair PollEx (https://www.altair.com/pollex/)
RF Analysis of Altair Feko does not offer Chip Package Board System simulation
Chip Package
Board Systems
Altair Internal document - For Altair Channel Partners V1.0, Nov 2019
Level 2: Deep Dive - Altair Feko + WinProp
Key Talking Points (USP’s) – Altair Feko:
During prospect discussion, highlight the following competitive advantages of Altair FEKO
• Altair Feko includes solves like MoM, MLFMM, FEM, FDTD, PO, LE-PO, RL-GO and UTD.
These wide set of solvers are with true hybridization, giving the possibility to
combine methods to solve electrically large and complex problems.
• Model decomposition to break the problem into smaller ones to faster and efficiently
solve the full problem.
• Specialized tools, including wind-screen antenna modeling, cable coupling,
anisotropic layers, large finite arrays and CMA.
• Can be controlled from outside via scripts, and built-in scripting tool for data
manipulation and tasks’ automation.
• Excellent local technical support
• All solvers included in the same package for the same price.
• HW’s licensing scheme.
• User Interface and User Experience: Intuitive and easy to use User Interface designed
to simplify main workflows and enrich the user experience.
• Dedicated tools for antenna arrays including perfect boundary condition (PBC) for
periodic and domain Green’s function method (DGFM) for large finite arrays
• Parametric modelling and automated optimization engine
• Fully parallelized solvers with multi-core CPU and GPU support, also supporting HPC.
• All CAD geometry and mesh import/export modules included.
Key Industries & its Areas to Focus
Industry Where Altair Feko could be used
• Automotive antenna design, placement and optimization
(Antenna like GPS, Bluetooth, etc.)
• Simulation of automotive electromagnetic compatibility (EMC)
emissions and immunity tests; and Cable coupling
Automotive • Auto electronics, and devices like remote keyless entry systems,
tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS), etc.
• Wireless communications, automotive radars, and telematics
• Radio channel planning for Car-2-Car Communication, using
Altair WinProp
• Design communication and radar antennas for aircrafts, ships,
UGVs
• Investigation of optimum antenna placement scenarios on
electrically large platforms, including planes and ships.
Aerospace, Naval & • Radar cross section (RCS) simulation for target detection and
Defence recognition and getting stealth properties.
• Lightning, electromagnetic pulses (EMP) and EMC analysis of
platforms including cables.
• Radomes
• Radio channel over topographical scenario, using Altair WinProp
Electronics & IOT This includes wireless connectivity between devices (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth),
communication over larger distances of both voice and data (e.g.
Altair Internal document - For Altair Channel Partners V1.0, Nov 2019
GSM, 3G, LTE) and the design of circuits and cabling solutions to
support these technologies.
• Antenna design for a wide set of products such as mobile
phones, tablets, cameras, laptops and TVs.
• Antenna integration in the device showing coupling with nearby
components or with other antennas within the same device.
• Simulation of designs against EMI standards before entering
production.
• Base station antenna design and virtual prototyping
Telecommunications • Radio Network Planning Simulation with Altair WinProp
• Radio Coverage & Channel Analysis with Altair WinProp
The complete Altair Feko’s solver offering provides approaches for
each design stage, from conceptual investigations through to
accurate prediction of the radio frequency (RF) and safety
performance of the final system.
Medical &
• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) coil design and implant
Healthcare
telemetry.
• Simulation of antennas near or inside the human body; like
pacemaker antennas.
• Antennas for wearable health devices
Key Talking Points – Altair WinProp:
• Altair WinProp is a leading electromagnetic simulation tool, complementing Altair
Feko, focused on wireless propagation modelling and radio network planning. With
applications ranging from satellite to terrestrial, from rural via urban to
indoor/tunnel radio links.
• Altair WinProp’s innovative wave propagation models combine accuracy with short
computation time and are available also under API for integration into other software
tools.
• Altair WinProp offers radio network planning modules for almost every standard (5G,
4G LTE, 2G & 2.5G (GSM, GPRS, EDGE), WiMAX, W-LAN, Broadcasting (DVB-T, DVB-H...
etc)).
Key Markets & Applications - Altair WinProp:
Main Markets:
Automotive Electronics
Telecommunications Railway
Defence, including naval Heavy engineering
Aerospace IoT
Main Applications:
✓ Radio coverage and radio channel modeling,
✓ Deployment and optimization of radio networks
✓ Virtual drive tests for antenna performance analysis, V2X and ADAS scenarios
✓ Co-existence of radio networks and electromagnetic exposure
✓ Virtual flight tests to analyse communication link coverage and installed
antenna performance
Altair Internal document - For Altair Channel Partners V1.0, Nov 2019
Level 3: Altair Feko + WinProp Competition
A. Altair FEKO SWOT
- -
STRENGTHS WEEKNESS
- Leadership position in the market - Dassault and Ansys have a much bigger
- Advanced features, including WinProp presence on the Electronics market
and accuracy - Altair Recent Acquisition Polliwog will
- HWUs, local support and PD contribute in competing with EDA market
SWOT
OPPORTUNITIES
- Leverage more WinProp, key THREATS
differentiators today
- Dassault pushing CST more aggresively
- In the past we have not really focused in some Regions
on Electronics and EDA market. With
Recent axquisition of Polliwog, this - ANSYS more comprehensive offering on
deficiency is taken care. ADAS
B. Altair FEKO Direct Competition:
Imp Note: Altair WinProp is a key differentiator when competing against ANSYS & Dassault
1) Ansys - HFSS:
o Their strength is seamless integration with multiphysics package.
o Better positioned with EM simulation for integrated circuits, where we do not play.
o Before having PollEx we could not compete against them because they had better
capabilities to analyse EMC of boards. Now with Altair Feko and PollEx we can
compete on PCB simulation against ANSYS.
o Have advanced Automatic mesh refinement feature.
o For electrically large structures HFSS is improving but Feko is still stronger.
2) Dassault systems - CST with Microwave Studio:
o Their strength is seamless integration with multiphysics package.
o The advantage of CST is that in one run user can obtain the results on a wide band
because it starts in time domain and convert the results to FD via Fourier
Transform.
o CST have different modules and are sold to match the price. So, the complete
package will be very costly.
3) Other Minor Competition
CEM One from ESI, WIPL-D, SEMCAD, GRASP, savant, Ship EDF, Empire, XFDTD and
EMPro from Keysight
C. Competition Weakness
• Due to better quality mesh, Altair FEKO gives more accurate results. Other codes
might end up giving abnormal results due to bad quality mesh.
Altair Internal document - For Altair Channel Partners V1.0, Nov 2019
• Competitor codes are available in modular tool set (Customer needs to purchase
individually) making them more expensive than Altair FEKO.
• Weak Technical support in all regions.
• Weaker performance in Problems related to Antenna design, Antenna placement
and EMC analysis in Electrically large objects.
D. Altair WinProp Competition Information
1) iBwave Design (more for indoor)
2) Atoll (FORSK) (more for outdoor)
3) RANPLAN iBuildNet
4) REMCOM Wireless Insite
5) ATDI
6) SIRADEL Volcano
7) EKAHAU Wi-Fi
8) ANSYS Savant
E. Altair WinProp Differentiators
• Wave propagation models for various scenarios
• Rural, urban, indoor, tunnel, combined, …
• Ray tracing and dominant path models
• Highly accurate and fast
• Radio planning for various systems
• Installed antenna performance
• Mobile cellular (e.g. LTE, and now also 5G communications)
• Wi-Fi
• Broadcasting
• Separate tools for 3D vector data incl. materials and antenna handling
•
• Altair WinProp API allows integration into other software tools
• HWU licensing model
F. Departments / Groups to Contact with WinProp:
Considering as basic applications:
• Radio network planning (coverage, interference, deployment of Tx
antennas, verification of deployment options)
• Radio channel analysis (antenna performance e.g. for car antennas,
connectivity in sensor networks, receiver design)
The departments / groups / teams to approach are:
• R&D
• Radio planning
• Radio channel modelling
• Antennas
• V2X Communications
• Automotive radar systems
• IoT
Altair Internal document - For Altair Channel Partners V1.0, Nov 2019
G. Altair Feko/WinProp Customer References
Kathrein / Chinese Aeronautical Establishment / Leihua Electronic Technology Research
institute / Raytheon / Hyundai / Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) / Huawei / Alenia
Aeroautica / NICT-koganei / Renault / Asahi Glass Corporation / NASA / DSTO / Airbus
Defense and space / Rohde and Schwarz / Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) /
DELPHI / National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) / TataMotors / Hyundai-Mobis / Mahindra
Research Valley (MRV) / Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) / SABIC
Altair Internal document - For Altair Channel Partners V1.0, Nov 2019
Resources
• General Product live updated Information: ALTAIR Website - FEKO page:
https://altairhyperworks.com/product/FEKO
https://altairhyperworks.com/product/FEKO/WinProp-Propagation-Modeling
• Latest Altair FEKO Brochure for different Business vertical:
Automotive / Aerospace / Defense / Health care – Bio medical / Electronics /
• Technical Papers:
https://www.altair.com/resourcelibrary/?keywords=FEKO
https://www.altair.com/ResourceLibrary/?keywords=FEKO%20Winprop
• BLOG REFERENCES
https://blog.altair.com/tag/FEKO/
https://blog.altair.com/tag/Winprop/
• Virtual and Instructor Led classes & Learning Library
https://altairhyperworks.com/TrainingCourseSchedule.aspx?region=Online
• Altair FEKO / Altair WinProp Resources
https://www.altair.com/ResourceLibrary/?keywords=FEKO%20Winprop
• Articles
Dynamic Models and the Digital Twin at the Heart of the Schneider Electric R&D
Strategy
Antenna Design for 5G Communications
EMC Simulation during the Product Development Process
Highlights from the Biggest Antennas and Propagation Conference in Europe
SKA Radio Telescope – a Global Project for a Better Understanding of the Universe
Changing the Way Antennas Are Designed using CMA
https://insider.altairhyperworks.com/meeting-the-challenges-of-5g-antenna-design-
and-radio-coverage/
Altair Internal document - For Altair Channel Partners V1.0, Nov 2019
CASE Studies
Surrogate Models for Antenna Placement on Large Platforms
The RF Engineering group at the Institute of High-Performance Computing (IHPC), develops
advanced computational electromagnetics and multiphysics algorithms and tools, leveraging
vast know-how in EMC for a wide range of applications. Typical challenges include
electrically-large and multi-scale EM problems such as antenna placement on large
platforms, and Multiphysics problems such as the electrical –thermal–mechanical analysis of
composite materials. In a project that dealt with electrically large platforms, an efficient
modelling tool was required to identify optimum antenna positions and minimize
interference between various antennas. Altair FEKO was used during the development
process, helping to determine the design parameters of the surrogate models using its
powerful optimization function.
Hyundai Mobis Automotive Group Improves the EMC Analysis Process from 2D to 3D
Using Altair FEKO for Shielding Effectiveness Simulation
To analyze and optimize the shielding
effectiveness of the housing in an Around View
Monitor (AVM) while meeting EMC requirements,
Hyundai MOBIS automotive group improves the
Electromagnetic Compatibility Analysis (EMC)
process from 2D to 3D using Altair FEKO for
shielding effectiveness simulation
Altair Internal document - For Altair Channel Partners V1.0, Nov 2019
Using Altair FEKO™ to reduce heating during
MRI for Deep Brain Stimulation
See how Altair FEKO helped reduce heat during
MRI procedures in DBS implants.
Patients routinely undergo Magnetic Resonance
Imaging (MRI) testing both pre- and post-
implantation. Pre-operative MRI testing is done
to determine target placement as well as
implant positioning, whereas post-operative
testing helps verify implant positioning and
evaluate potential side-effects as well as other
health conditions. The project’s goal at the lab
has therefore been to create a method for
imaging patients that reduces the heating in
DBS implant MRI procedures.
Using Altair FEKO to Facilitate Development of the World's Smallest TV Antenna
Dr. Margarita Tecpoyotl-Torres leads a
team of students and researchers at the
Centre for Research in Engineering and
Applied Sciences (CIICAp) at UAEM. They
use Altair FEKO for simulation technology
in the design and development small, low
cost, lightweight antennas for TV and
automotive applications. Her team
demonstrated an outstanding level of
innovation in the development of the
world’s smallest antenna.
Daimler: Optimizing the Layout of Passenger
Car Glass Antennas
integrating antennas in windscreens has
become popular due to the enhanced
aesthetics and the increased antenna surface
area that enables improved reception.
However, the design of such antennas is a
complex procedure. Antenna systems contain
different antennas with mutual coupling,
making it very inefficient and time consuming
to optimize the FM-, DAB-, RKE- and TV
antennas independently. Wanting to make the
optimization process of its multi-port antenna
more efficient, Daimler turned to Altair for
assistance.
Altair Internal document - For Altair Channel Partners V1.0, Nov 2019
