HFSS Getting Started Guides

General Guidance

In addition to the Getting Started with HFSS guides listed further down in this topic, the following general HFSS documentation is available:

• HFSS Scripting Guide 
• An Introduction to HFSS 
• HPC Administrator's Guide 
• An Introduction to Multi-Frequency Adaptive Meshing in HFSS 

Getting Started with HFSS

The following guides are tutorials covering various types of HFSS designs. These Getting Started guides typically walk you through the steps to build the geometry, set up the solution, run the analysis, and evaluate the results (by generating plots, overlays, and animations):

• 20 GHz Waveguide Combiner 

This Getting Started Guide describes how to set up and solve a two-way, low-loss waveguide combiner.

 

• Ball Grid Array IC Package 

This Getting Started Guide is written for HFSS Transient beginners as well as experienced users who are using HFSS for the first time. This manual guides you through the setup, solution, and analysis of a transient simulation.

 

• Bandpass Filter 

This Getting Started Guide assumes some familiarity with HFSS. It guides you through the process of creating a bandpass filter. It includes the use of Duplicate Around Axis commands.

 

This design has a frequency sweep. If you want to distribute the solutions of the frequencies for efficient simulation, you can use High Performance Computing (HPC). The HPC options are discussed in this guide. For more information about how to set up HPC, see the Add HPC Analysis Setup section in the Getting Started Guide for Bandpass Filter. You can access the design from the Examples folder, which also contains a short description on the HPC setup in the associated PDF.

• Bow Tie Antenna 

This Getting Started Guide contains three separate tutorials that show you how to create a coplanar, waveguide-fed, bow tie antenna in Ansys HFSS. There are multiple ways to create and solve designs in HFSS. A bow tie antenna is a simple design that can be created using any of the following methods:

• Parametric Method: Makes use of advanced 3D Modeler commands
• Linear Method: The traditional approach of creating the antenna in a "linear" fashion
• Antenna Design Toolkit: Automatically generates the antenna in a ready-to-solve state

 

The first tutorial covers the parametric method, the second one covers the "linear" method, and the third one covers the automatic method of creating the antenna. You will create 2D plots of the radiation pattern and create a 3D gain plot (far field pattern). You will also overlay the 3D gain plot and the 2D radiation pattern plots on the model geometry.

• Cable Modeling 

This Getting Started Guide covers the cable modeling workflow. You can now complete the entire cable modeling workflow within a single HFSS design. Cables are defined as 3D components. Required 2D Extractor and Circuit simulations are set up and run automatically in the background as part of the HFSS solution process. No manual setup, linking, or transfer of data is required on the analyst's part.

 

• Coax Connector 

This Getting Started Guide assumes some familiarity with HFSS. It guides you through the process of creating a coax connector. This includes the use of relative coordinate systems as an aid to building the model. It also uses Boolean and sweep operations.

 

• Coax Tee 

This Getting Started Guide is suitable for beginners and advanced users. It includes instructions to create and solve a Coax Tee and evaluate the results of the simulation (including creating an S-parameters vs. Frequency plot and an E-Field overlay). The E-Field is overlaid on the Coax Dielectric, which is modeled as a vacuum region surrounding the Coax Center Pin.

 

• Dielectric Resonator Antenna 

This Getting Started Guide is written for Ansys Electronics Desktop beginners as well as experienced users who are using HFSS for the first time. This guide leads you step-by-step through creating, solving, and analyzing the results of a dielectric resonator antenna.

 

• Floquet Ports 

This Getting Started Guide is intended as supplementary material to HFSS users. We assume you have some experience designing projects using HFSS. The document includes instructions to create, solve, and analyze results of models that are excited with Floquet ports.

By following the steps in this guide, you will learn how to set up Floquet ports in Ansys Electronics Desktop.

 

• Keyboard Shortcuts 

For those who prefer communicating instructions using a keyboard more often than a mouse, this Getting Started guide presents two different techniques for working with Ansys Electronics Desktop:

• Shortcut keys (either predefined or user-defined)
• Keystroke sequences for menu bar navigation to trigger desired actions

 

This guide shows you how to create, simulate, and analyze a probe fed, slot coupled patch antenna using the HFSS design environment, with an emphasis on using keyboard shortcuts to complete the work.

• Matching Network – Using Tuning in Circuits 

In this Getting Started Guide, you will learn about dynamic linking capabilities between HFSS and Circuit designs in the Ansys Electronics Desktop application. Specifically, the guide provides an example of a matching network for a Bluetooth chip antenna.

 

• Monocone Antenna 

This Getting Started Guide looks at the radiation pattern from a monocone antenna using the HFSS design type with an IE hybrid region applied to the model objects. An IE Region results in a fullwave Integral Equation solver being used to analyze the model. This solver is particularly well suited for analyzing large conducting objects, and it eliminates the necessity of creating an open region (that is, a vacuum or air box) around the model to determine far field effects.

 

• Monostatic RCS using SBR+ 

This Getting Started Guide describes how to use HFSS to model a Monostatic Radar Cross Section (RCS) of a metal trihedral reflector using an SBR+ Hybrid Region.

 

• Probe Feed Patch Antenna 

This Getting Started guide assumes some familiarity with HFSS. It includes the use of Perfect E and Radiation boundaries and a Radiation Pattern plot.

 

• Radar Cross Section 

This guide shows how to create and solve a model for computing a radar cross section (RCS).

 

• RCS Test Model (Ogive) 

This Getting Started Guide looks at the scattering from a standard Radar Cross Section (RCS) test model (specifically, the ogive) using the HFSS design type with an IE region assigned to the ogive. An IE region results in a full-wave Integral Equation solver being used to analyze the model. This solver is particularly well suited for analyzing large conducting objects, and it eliminates the necessity of creating an open region (that is, a vacuum or air box) around the model to determine far field effects.

 

• Ridged Horn Antenna 

This Getting Started Guide is written for HFSS Transient beginners as well as experienced users who are using HFSS for the first time. This manual guides you through the setup, solution, and analysis of a transient horn antenna problem.

 

By following this guide, you will learn how to set up HFSS transient antenna problems.

• Silicon Spiral Inductor 

This Getting Started guide assumes some familiarity with HFSS. It includes the use of Perfect E and Radiation boundaries and Output Variables in generating plots.

 

Related Topic: Application Specific Modeling Guide: Spiral Inductors on Silicon Substrate 

• Skin Depth Seeding 

By following the steps in this guide, you will learn to use Skin Depth-Based mesh refinement for HFSS or Maxwell Modelers to specify a number of layers and a skin depth as an alternative to modeling physical layers.

 

The guide also shows how to use mesh plots with cut planes, as well as a repurposed Model Analysis dialog to view and obtain statistics on layering success.

• TDR for Coax Bend 

This Getting Started Guide is written for HFSS Transient beginners as well as experienced users who are using HFSS for the first time. This manual guides you through the setup, solution, and analysis of a time delayed response problem for a coax bend.

 

By following this guide, you will learn how to set up HFSS transient problems.

• Ultra High Frequency Probe 

This Getting Started Guide assumes some familiarity with HFSS. It includes the use of boolean operations and the use of a ground plane and radiation boundaries.

 

• Waveguide T-Junction 

This Getting Started Guide is written for Ansys Electronics Desktop beginners as well as experienced users who are using the HFSS design type for the first time. This guide will lead you step-by-step through creating, solving, and analyzing the results of a T-shaped waveguide with an inductive septum. This type of structure is used to split an incoming microwave signal into two outgoing signals. The waveguide's transmission and reflection of the signal will depend on the position of the septum.

 

• Waveguide T-Junction Optimization 

This Getting Started Guide is written for Optimetrics beginners as well as experienced users who are using Optimetrics for the first time. You must have completed Getting Started with HFSS: A Waveguide T-Junction before you begin this guide. The guide also shows how to import the Tee Geometry to SpaceClaim, and link it to HFSS for parameterization and optimization.

 

You will use Ansys Electromagnetics Optimetrics software to find an optimal position for the septum. Prior to performing the optimization, you will set up and solve a parametric analysis.