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Free and Open Source Software Codes for Antenna Design: Preliminary Numerical Experiments ISSN 2255-9159 (online) ISSN 2255-9140 (print) Electrical, Control and Communication Engineering 2019, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 88–95 doi: 10.2478/ecce-2019-0012 https://content.sciendo.com Free and Open Source Software Codes for Antenna Design: Preliminary Numerical Experiments Alessandro Fedeli* (Assistant Professor, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy), Claudio Montecucco (Consultant, Atel Antennas s.r.l., Arquata Scrivia, Italy), Gian Luigi Gragnani (Associate Professor, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy) Abstract – In both industrial and scientific frameworks, free and the natural choice when ethical concerns about science open source software codes create novel and interesting diffusion and reproducibility [2] are faced. opportunities in computational electromagnetics. One of the For these reasons, work has started, aiming to identify and possible applications, which usually requires a large set of numerical tests, is related to antenna design. Despite the well- evaluate possible open source programs that can be usefully known advantages offered by open source software, there are employed for the design of antennas and possibly other passive several critical points that restrict its practical application. First, electromagnetic devices such as, for example, filters, couplers, the knowledge of the open source programs is often limited. impedance adapters. The research also aims at finding software Second, by using open source packages it is sometimes not easy to that allows for the pre- and post-processing of data. obtain results with a high level of confidence, and to integrate open Furthermore, it has been decided to consider the possibility of source modules in the production workflow. In the paper, a discussion about open source programs for antenna design is easily integrating the design into the complete production and carried out. Furthermore, some preliminary numerical tests are testing cycle. presented and discussed, also in comparison with those obtained First, let us note the differences between FLOSS and other by means of commercial software. Results are related to the programs that could be obtained free of charge. Free/libre and simulation of various typologies of antennas in order to assess the open source software is available in the form of source code and capabilities of open source software in different configurations. is freely modifiable and adaptable to the user needs (while some The presented comparisons show that, despite the above- restrictions may exist for the redistribution of a modified mentioned limitations, the examined open source packages have similar performance with respect to their commercial version of a program), nor it is mandatory, although very counterparts. common, that the program is distributed at no cost. Instead, other free programs are usually offered only in executable form Keywords – Antennas; Computational electromagnetics; Finite and do not allow for any intervention, integration, or porting by difference methods; Method of moments; Open source software; the user. For these reasons, they are not considered in the paper, Time-domain analysis. although sometimes they may be useful. The study presents the preliminary phases of the project I. INTRODUCTION along with some numerical experiments with open source Over the past years, simulation software for electromagnetic programs for antenna design. The present paper extends and analysis and design has become more and more popular and discusses more deeply the research that has recently been today many commercial companies offer sophisticated presented at the MTTW’19 Workshop on “Microwave Theory packages targeting this topic. In general, these high-level and Techniques in Wireless Communications” [3]. commercial products contain all the tools necessary to manage In particular, a background discussion about the project flow the whole project flow. However, they present high costs, both and numerical techniques is carried out in Sections II and III, at the time of purchase and for the maintenance of licenses and while in Sections IV and V two products are examined in more upgrades. Furthermore, being closed source, commercial code detail, namely OpenEMS [4] and xnec2c [5]. A set of selected cannot be easily extended by the user or modified and studied open source tools for pre- and post-processing of data is briefly for research purposes. discussed in Section VI. Section VII is devoted to the In the light of the last considerations, the availability of presentation of some numerical examples, after which free/libre and open source software (FLOSS) [1] for conclusions are drawn. electromagnetic design would be of great value not only for the scientific communities, but also for small companies, struggling II. PROJECT FLOW to face the costs related to commercial products. Furthermore, Without going into details, inside the general workflow of an open source codes could be proposed as an interesting antenna design – or, more generally, the design of any kind of alternative to commercial codes in courses about electromagnetic device – a sequence of many actions can be electromagnetic theory and design. Open source would also be recognised. According to the commonly used terminology, one must deal with: * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] ©2019 Alessandro Fedeli, Claudio Montecucco, Gian Luigi Gragnani. This is an open access article licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), in the manner agreed with Sciendo. 88 Electrical, Control and Communication Engineering ________________________________________________________________________________________2019, vol. 15, no. 2 1) pre-processing – The geometric and electrical although a very promising framework, named ONELAB [8], is specifications are translated to an approximate numerical in rapid development. model, which is compatible with the calculation engine that will be used. Development may occur by means of a A. Commercial Versus FLOSS Simulation Packages graphical interface, by writing command files in a special There is a popular opinion that open source products are language, or mixing the two possibilities. During the pre- generally worse than their commercial analogues. In general, processing phase, the documentation (drawings, layout, this is not necessarily true: there are many excellent quality list of components, etc.) needed for prototyping (and open source products in the most varied fields and the scientific eventually for production) could also be generated; and academic worlds make more and more use of them. 2) solution – A proper solver is used for computing the Unfortunately, as regards the electromagnetic simulation and solution of the electromagnetic problem. The solver antenna design in particular, it must be recognised that now stores results in a set of files, ready for being post- commercial products can offer, in terms of usability and processed. Different typologies of solvers (which are versatility, much more than the open source counterpart. In fact, common in the open source world) will be discussed in computational electromagnetics at high frequencies represents the next Sections; a field in continuous evolution but still young, and this reflects 3) post-processing – The obtained results are processed in on the open source community. For these reasons, the order to extract the required data. Scripting languages or development of complete FLOSS packages for electromagnetic graphical user interfaces may be adopted to perform this computation and design is going slow. operation. As a result, a set of output graphs or tables is In general, high-level commercial products contain all the usually produced, with the aim of verifying the design and tools necessary to cover the entire flow of the project. However, the simulation, generating part of the documentation, organising comparisons. It is worth noting that the they are typically expensive, both at the time of purchase and produced output may be used as input for other numerical for the maintenance of licenses. Instead, the use of open source simulations (e.g., antenna arrays). software implies the need to integrate non-homogeneous products, which are usually not characterised by comparable III. NUMERICAL METHODS functionalities. To build an omni-comprehensive suite that goes from pre-processing to post-processing, it will certainly be Methods for electromagnetic simulation can be divided into necessary to integrate various software with other parts, which various classes, depending on the numerical model used to must be developed “in-house”. In spite of this fact, there are approximate the Maxwell equations. Some software directly some packages that are already usable profitably and are implements a numerical version of such equations, while other constantly being developed. Furthermore, access to the sources derives the fields by means of potentials. Furthermore, many and the existence of a community of developers that are usually codes are implemented in the frequency domain, while others very available, sometimes allow problems to be solved much work directly in the time domain. Not all possible numerical more quickly than commercial products. A list, even though not methods are implemented in an open-source version. As regards exhaustive, of salient points for commercial packages as well antenna design in particular, open source essentially focuses on for open source is reported in Table I. the method of Finite Differences
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