Pennsylvania-based Ansys has improved the simulation capabilities in its Discovery suite to deliver early-stage antenna design for IoT and 5G.

The upfront simulation capabilities should help accelerate the development of IoT devices, autonomous vehicles and 5G applications while improving their efficiency and performance.

It has expanded the upfront simulation capabilities in Discovery to include high-frequency electromagnetics (EM) modelling for antennas. This lets designers virtually explore several design areas at once, reducing the need for physical prototyping and testing, which helps accelerate development, reduce costs, and improve performance and efficiency.

The EM features add to Discovery’s existing capabilities and create a multiphysics simulation environment coupled with interactive geometric modelling along with seamless integration with the greater Ansys portfolio. The offering lets companies investigate new concepts early in the antenna design process leading to better performance for IoT applications as well as 5G technology and autonomous vehicles.

“Smart, highly miniaturised, implantable medical devices are enabling whole new therapeutic areas and improving patient care,” said Arun Venkatasubramanian, senior vice president at Cambridge Consultants. “A critical component of designing a smart implant is developing an efficient and robust wireless antenna. We are looking forward to using Discovery to augment our existing Ansys HFSS antenna design workflow. This will allow us to rapidly explore conceptual antenna designs and accelerate the delivery of innovations to our clients.”

Discovery helps engineers quickly evaluate changes to element design and antenna placement without having to interpret or clarify complicated CAD geometry. It automates the creation of EM regions based on desired frequency ranges and assigns conductive and dielectric material based on port definitions.

This automation supports the rapid evaluation and integration of antenna concepts while eliminating manual geometry clean up. Additionally, engineers and designers can seamlessly transfer the model and physics setup to Ansys HFSS 3D high-frequency EM simulation software for final design validation.

“Adding EM capabilities in Ansys Discovery for antenna design not only shifts simulation left, but it democratises simulation for all users from beginner to expert,” said Shane Emswiler, senior vice president at Ansys. “Discovery provides an easy-to-use interface with integrated modelling and access to other Ansys tools, which streamlines the antenna design process and results in optimised development, performance and efficiency.”