Welcome to the December edition of CST’s E-News, our series of regular news and feature updates. We hope that you find the contents relevant, interesting, and informative. Any feedback and suggestions for future editions is welcome.
News in brief
- Beta Testing of CST STUDIO SUITE 2012
- CST European User Conference 2012
- MRI System Simulation Workshop
- CST STUDIO SUITE links to SPARK3D
- CST University Publication Award 2011, Winners Announced
- CST Leading Technology Webinar Series 2011
- Application Spotlight – Switched Reluctance Motor
- Calendar of events
Beta Testing of CST STUDIO SUITE 2012
The beta testing of the upcoming CST STUDIO SUITE version 2012 started back in October and is now in full swing. Through the intensive internal testing and the invaluable feedback provided by our beta-testing customers, the new version has already achieved an excellent quality standard. The final steps towards the release will be taken in the next few weeks. Shipment of the new version is scheduled for end of February 2012.
CST STUDIO SUITE 2012: System Assembly and Modeling
The key challenge facing RF engineers today is to minimize the time taken for the design and optimization of components, but the ability to do so is impeded by the need to use different EM simulation tools for different aspects of the design. By embedding state-of-the-art solvers based on different numerical techniques, such as Finite Integration Technique (FIT), Finite Element Method (FEM) or Method of Moments (MoM), in one single user interface, CST has provided engineers with a universal toolbox to choose from. However, although the optimization of individual components in isolation is important, it might not be enough. The systems’ performance might be affected by the interdependence of components and an optimization of the entire system may, therefore, be required.
Read the Microwave Journal article here.
CST European User Conference 2012
The 7th CST European User Conference (previously European User Group Meeting) will be held in the Dorint Kongresshotel Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany on 23-25 May 2012. This conference offers you a great opportunity to advance your simulation skills and exchange ideas with other users.
More information about this event, including the preliminary agenda and on-line registration, is available at: www.cst.com/euc.
Call for Contributions
We are interested in your work with the CST STUDIO SUITE product family. If you would like to contribute to this event, share your experience, and discuss your questions in a forum of your peers, please submit a text abstract of between 100 and 200 words to Email Contact
CST honors your contribution to the EUC by offering a discount of 50% on the attendance fee for an accepted presentation. Please note that in order to qualify for this discount; the final abstract has to be received by 31.3.2012 and the finished presentation by 30.04.2012.
MRI System Simulation Workshop
MRI simulation is well-established in the bio-medical industry since many years. However, new challenges arise in the relatively young high-field MRI domain which recently led to intensive new research including the search for new concepts. Due to higher frequencies, e.g. multi-channel approaches are favoured, which typically require advanced full system simulation with many excitations, include network tuning and finally optimize amplitudes and phases for the field overlay.
Safety aspects are also a concern in this community, since SAR values are far more critical at the required higher frequencies. Since they cannot be measured in-vivo, simulation is crucial to estimate the safety of new coil designs. Beyond the pure SAR evaluation, full bio-heat simulations are also coming into focus to ensure safe usage. The multi-physics capabilities of CST STUDIO SUITE have proven to be useful here.
Since several different workflows are currently being discussed and tried out in the community, CST hosted a user workshop to promote the exchange of information and discuss these different approaches. 30 scientists accepted the invitation, coming from both industry and well-established European research centers. Eight of them presented their simulation work, and this was followed by a fruitful discussion between the MRI researchers and members of the CST support and development teams.
“The MRI system simulation workshop was a great opportunity to interact with many other CST users and to learn about the versatile approaches CST Studio Suite offers to solve typical MR-related simulation tasks concerning RF coil design and patient safety,” said Dr. Andreas Bitz, Erwin L. Hahn Institute for Magnetic Resonance Imaging. “The direct contact with the CST developer team and the chance to discuss current and future CST STUDIO SUITE features was highly appreciated.”
CST STUDIO SUITE links to SPARK3D
In space applications, it is mandatory to prove that used devices are not likely to break down due to electron avalanche effect (Multipaction) and discharge phenomena (Corona). While the power threshold for Multipaction can be found by the CST PARTICLE STUDIO SUITE Particle–in-Cell solver, the corona cannot be investigated inside CST STUDIO SUITE. This gap in the portfolio is now filled by a newly developed link to SPARK3D, a simulation tool developed by Aurora Software and Testing, S.L. When using this link, our frequency domain solver is run with the necessary settings to write out field and mesh data to be read by Spark 3D. The link is not restricted to hollow waveguide filters but can be applied for arbitrary structures. It will be available free of charge to all customers with the CST STUDIO SUITE 2012 frequency domain solver.
CST University Publication Award 2011, Winners Announced
The CST University Publication Award is an annual grant to university institutes and researchers for their work in the application of 3D EM field simulation. The winners are awarded with extensions to their CST STUDIO SUITE installations.
Prerequisites for participation are that the papers are authored or co-authored by university researchers, published either in scientific journals or conference proceedings, and the numerical results are entirely or in part obtained through simulation using CST software products.
Submissions were evaluated on a number of criteria including originality of the application or the theory, clarity of presentation, as well as the skilful usage of CST software features. There is a special award for short papers which acknowledges the importance of short conference papers in promoting the practical application of simulation.
“CST’s University publication award has proven very popular among our customers and continues to attract papers illustrating the numerous application areas of CST STUDIO SUITE.” said Dr. Martin Timm, Marketing Director, CST. “This is the eighth time we have made this award and the quality of the publications was outstanding. Selecting the winning entries was not easy. We would like to thank everyone who contributed and hope to welcome an even larger number of participants in 2012.”
The following papers have been selected to receive the CST University Publication Award 2011:
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"A Compact UWB Antenna for On-Body Applications"
IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 59, no. 4, 28. Jan. 2011, pp 1123 - 1131
Nacer Chahat, Maxim Zhadobov, Ronan Sauleau, Koichi Ito -
"Investigation of Wave Propagation in a Dielectric Rod Array: Toward the Understanding of HF/VHF Propagation in a Forest"
IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 58, No. 12, 23 Sep. 2010, pp 4025 – 4032
Yang Li, Hao Ling -
"Radially Inhomogeneous Spherical Dielectric Lens for Matching 100-ps Pulses Into Biological Targets"
IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Vol. 38, No. 8, 18. May 2010, pp 1915-1927
Prashanth Kumar, Serhat Altunc, Carl E. Baum, C. Jerald Buchenauer, Christos G. Christodoulou, Edl Schamiloglu -
"SETUP AND RESULTS OF PYRAMIDAL MICROWAVE ABSORBERS USING RICE HUSKS"
Progress In Electromagnetics Research, Vol. 111, pp.141- 161, 2. Dec. 2010
H. Nornikman, F. Malek, M. Ahmed, F. H. Wee, P. J. Soh, A. A. H. Azremi, S. A. Ghani, A. Hasnain, M. N. Taib
Short paper award:
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"Miniature Ceramic Dual-PIFA Antenna to Support Band Group 1 UWB Functionality in Mobile Handset"
IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 59, no. 1, 01. Nov. 2010, pp 336 – 339
David Kearney, Matthias John, Max J. Ammann
More information about CST’s university program and the upcoming award 2012 can be found on the CST corporate website at: http://www.cst.com/Content/Company/UniProgram.aspx
CST Leading Technology Webinar Series 2011
The last webinar of the 2011 series “Electromagnetic Simulation in Radar System Design” was held on December 15. It concluded a very successful application based series of 13 webinars. The majority of the 45 minutes webinars were based on real world applications and systems and how simulation played a major role in the design process in each case. A focus on current as well as forward looking industrial topics with an educational element proved popular, with registrations ranging from 200 to 700 per webinar.
The presentations were divided into tracks with several for each track:
- MW&RF
- Optimization of a Reflector Antenna System
- Simulation: Enabling In-flight Connectivity
- Reconfigurable Antenna Simulation
- Electromagnetic simulation in radar system design
- EDA
- EDA workflow using CST MICROWAVE STUDIO - from Layout to Eye Diagram
- Simplifying the Workflow - benefits of the CST and Cadence Partnership
- PCB and package co/design and co/optimization
- EMC/EMI
- EMC/E3 analysis of rotorcraft electrical system exposed to antenna radiation and incident EMP
- Modeling the susceptibility of enclosures to ESD and the effect of attaching cables
- New simulation workflows for predicting radiated emissions from electronics systems
- BioEM
- Advanced system simulation for multi-channel MRI coils
- BioEM simulations for improved medical diagnosis and treatment
- Advances in EM Simulation
- Faster Design Cycles with High Performance Hardware
All presentations are archived and available for on-demand viewing at our showroom.
The next webinar will show highlights of CST STUDIO SUITE 2012 and will take place late January.
Application Spotlight – Switched Reluctance Motor
A Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM) can be optimized on two fronts; the magnet design itself and the dynamic performance.
Such a motor can be easily simulated with parametric magnetostatic solutions which can be solved using either the CST EM STUDIO® (CST EMS) 2D or 3D magnetostatic solvers. Only a single 3D model is required for both types of simulation ensuring that the geometry, excitation, materials and boundary conditions are consistent between the 2D and 3D models. The user merely has to specify the cut-plane in the 3D model on which the 2D simulation should be performed. Full parametric and post-processing capabilities are defined independent of the solver choice. This allows the user to, for example, perform rapid 2D parametric analyses and obtain end-effect correction factors from a 3D simulation for the same model.
Calendar of Events
Check our calendar of events for the next CST event in your area.