A Brief Introduction for Designing a Patch Antenna Using CST

1. Accessing CST MWS

a. From start menu select Programs > CST STUDIO SUITE 2006 > CST
DESIGN ENVIRONMENT

b. The main window shown in Fig. 1 will be opened

c. From the main window click on “CST Microwave Studio” icon then click
OK

Click Here then

click OK

Fig. 1 CST main window

d. A new pop-up window called “Create a New project” will appear, from this
window that shown in Fig. 2 you can select the type of project you are
working on, i.e. Antenna (on planar substrate) in case of designing a
 microstrip patch antenna or Antenna in free space in case of designing a
dipole or a monopole.

Note: the purpose from selecting the project type is to adjust the boundary
condition automatically, if you don’t like this you can select “None” and you
can adjust the boundary conditions later.

Fig. 2 Create new project window

e. After click on OK the main layout window will appear as shown in Fig. 3.
Now we need to give a name to the project and save it.

f. From Main Menu select > File > Save as, now you should write the name of
your project in the specified area e.g. “Rectangular Patch” as shown in Fig. 4
 Fig. 3 Main Layout window

Write the
project name
here

Fig. 4 Saving the working project

2. Rectangular patch antenna design

Step 1 specifying the project units

From main menu select > Solve > Units, then from the units window select
the dimensions to be in mm, Frequency in GHz and time to be in ns as shown in
Fig.5.

Fig. 5 Main units definition

Step 2 Assigning the Background material

From main menu select > Solve > Background Material, Now a new
window called “Background properties” will pop up. Choose Material type to be
normal and keep all other parameters as the defaults as shown in Fig. 6

Fig. 6 Background material definition

Step 3 Antenna substrate definition

From main menu select > Objects > Basic Shapes > Brick, Then double
click on the working area and drag the mouse and double click again to end the
drawing mode. Now a new window called “Brick” will appear, from this window
that shown in Fig.7 you can adjust the required dimensions of the substrate, its
name and its material.
In this project we need to adjust the substrate dimensions to be 100*100
2
mm by changing Xmin to be -50 and Xmax to be 50 and Ymin to be -50 and Ymax
to be 50. And in this example we will choose the thickness of the substrate to be
1.575 mm, so change Zmin to be -1.575 and Zmax to be 0.
For the substrate material we need to change it to RT 5880 (εr=2.2) to do that
click on the material select box and choose “Load from material library” then
select the material stated before as shown in Fig.8
 Click here to
Click here to
assign the
change the
substrate
dimensions
material

Fig. 7 Substrate definition

Fig. 8 Changing the Material of the substrate to RT 5880

Step 4 Antenna ground definition

For the antenna ground you need to create another brick “same as stated
before” with a very thin thickness (I choose it to be 0.1 mm) as shown in Fig.9 and
change its material to be copper

Fig. 9 Adding the ground plane of the antenna

Step 5 Drawing the radiating patch

To draw a rectangular patch create another brick with the following

parameters Xmin = (-49.4/2), Xmax = (49.4/2) and Ymin = (-41.3/2), Ymax = 50.
And Zmin = 0, Zmax = 0.1 and assign its material to be copper as shown in Fig.10.

Step 6 Drawing inset feed slot

Create a brick with the following parameters Xmin = (-41.3/2), Xmax =

(41.3/2 +14.5) and Ymin = -3.5, Ymax = 3.5. And Zmin = 0, Zmax = 0.1 and assign
its material to be copper as shown in Fig.11.
 Fig. 10 Drawing the radiator patch

Fig.11 Drawing the inset feed slot

Step 7 Cutting the inset feed slot from the patch

a. From the left pane click on “Component1” to show all the components of your
projects
b. Click on patch to select it
c. Click on “Boolean subtract (-)” icon from the toolbar, see Fig.12
d. Now, click on slot and press enter key, see Fig. 13
e. You should now see something looks like Fig.14

Boolean
subtract icon

Select
Patch

Fig. 12 Cutting the inset feed slot from the patch (a,b,c)
 Select slot

Fig. 13 Cutting the inset feed slot from the patch (d)

Fig. 14 Cutting the inset feed slot from the patch (e)
Step 8 Drawing the 50 ohm feed line

Create a brick with the following parameters Xmin = (-4.85/2), Xmax =

(4.85/2) and Ymin = -50, Ymax = 0. And Zmin = 0, Zmax = 0.1 and assign its
material to be copper as shown in Fig.15.

Fig.15 Drawing the 50 ohm feed line

Step 9 Merging the feed line with the patch

a. From the left pane under “Component 1” sub-menu click on Feedline then hold
the ctrl key in the keyboard and click on Patch to select both of them
b. From the toolbar click on “Boolean add (+)”, see Fig.16
c. Now they are merged together and become one component as shown in Fig.17

Boolean Add
icon

Select
feedline and
Patch

Fig.16 Merging the feed line with the patch

 Fig.17 The feed line and the patch after merging

Step 10 Defining the wave port for the antenna

a. From main menu select > Solve > waveguide ports or by click on waveguide
ports icon in the toolbar
b. From the waveguide port window select Normal to be Y
c. Select free in the position box and enter the following dimensions for the wave
port : Xmin = -20, Xmax = 20 and Zmin = -1.575, Zmax = 10
d. Check “free normal position” in position box and change Ypos to be -50 as
shown in Fig.18
e. After you click ok you should see port 1 defined as shown in Fig.19
 Select Y

Check free
normal position Select
Free

Fig.18 Definition of the wave port

Fig.19 Definition of the wave port

Step 11 Defining the simulation frequency range

a. From main menu select > Solve > Frequency or by click on frequency range
icon in the toolbar
b. Enter the frequency range of your simulation as Fmin =1, Fmax=5 then click ok

Fig.20 Definition simulation frequency range

 Step 12 Adding radiation pattern and surface current to your simulation results

a. From main menu select > Solve > Field Monitors or by click on field monitors
icon in the toolbar
b. From Monitor window select Farfield/RCS for plotting the radiation pattern and
type the monitoring frequency (in this example it is 2.4 GHz) then click apply
as shown in Fig.21
c. To plot the surface current distribution select H-field/Surface current and type
the monitoring frequency then click apply

Monitoring
frequency

Field
monitor icon

Fig.21 Adding radiation pattern(s) and surface current to the simulation results
 Step 13 Running the simulation

a. From main menu select > Solve > Transient solver or by click on Transient
solver icon in the toolbar
b. Form transient solver window you can adjust the solver accuracy “the error
margin” in this example I choose it to be -30 dB then click start as shown in
Fig.22

Transient
solver icon

Fig.22 Running the transient solver

Notes:
1. Increasing the accuracy resulting in slower simulation
2. There are more solvers in CST package like frequency domain solver and eigen
mode solver but in this example we choose only the transient solver to be presented
 Step 14 Displaying the simulation results

a. To show the S- parameter curves (i.e. linear, dB, phase, smith chart,….. ) go to the
left pane then click on 1D Results then select the curve you want to display as
shown in Fig.23
b. To show the current distribution plots go to the left pane then click on 2D/3D
Results then select Surface current > h-fields as shown in Fig.24
c. To show the radiation pattern(s) plots go to the left pane then click on 2D/3D
Results then select Farfields > farfield (f=2.4) as shown in Fig.25

Display S11
in dB

Fig.23 Displaying S-parameter curves

Display the
current
distribution

Fig.23 Displaying current distribution plots

Display the
radiation
pattern(s)

Fig.24 Displaying radiation patterns plots

Step 15 Displaying the post processing results

a. To show some post processed results (i.e. VSWR, Z-parameters, group

delay,…….) go to the main menu > Template based postprocessing as shown in
Fig.25
b. From Template based postprocessing window select the graph you want to display
(in this example I pick VSWR) then click Evaluate as shown in Fig.26
c. Now, go to the left pane then select 1D Results > Tables > 1 D results > VSWR to
show the plot as shown in Fig. 27

Fig.25 Displaying the post processing results (a)

Fig.26 Displaying the post processing results (b)

Fig.27 Displaying the post processing results (c)

 References:

For details of CST documentation you may see:

http://www.cst.com/Content/Products/MWS/Overview.aspx