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Cobham Technical Services Press Release - September 7, 2011
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Cobham Technical Services Enhanced Electromagnetic Analysis Software
to Accelerate RF and Microwave Design
Aurora,
IL, September 7, 2011 — Cobham Technical Services has announced a new release of the Concerto electromagnetic
design software for RF and microwave applications from its Vector Fields Software product line. Concerto provides
developers with a very cost-effective means of achieving the best solution in the shortest possible time. The
latest version – Concerto v7.5R1 – incorporates numerous enhancements to accelerate further every aspect of
design, simulation, analysis and optimization. Many of the enhancements in this release centre on the
powerful 3D geometric Modeler that forms an integral part of all Concerto configurations. This has new meshing
options for the finite element (FE) Eigenvalue solver, which can result in significantly shorter solution times,
and the Modeller now provides access to a range of additional features in Concerto’s finite difference time domain
(FDTD) simulation engine. Among these is the ability to present frequency domain field plots over any regions of
the model, and for any number of frequencies, from a single time domain analysis.
The Modeler now also supports features for the efficient simulation of complex materials in FDTD. One new facility
allows the definition of lumped ports with frequency dispersive properties, based on the Drude, Debye and Lorentz
models, providing a circuit element representation of discrete structures within complex materials. The
properties of metamaterials are being explored increasingly for use in microwave devices such as antennas and
filters. Support for the simulation of these materials has been enhanced by allowing their representation by bulk
constitutive properties. Since these types of materials generally rely on small-scale structure for their desired
electromagnetic characteristics, their simulation can be very computationally intensive; using their bulk
properties greatly increases the speed of simulation.
One common application of Concerto is in the design of antennas. A new tool in the Modeler enables swept far-field
results to be generated by the FDTD solver in arbitrary directions, giving the ability to assess the broad-band
far-field performance both on and off bore-sight. The Concerto Manager has also been improved, and now
features tabbed folder windows for simpler and faster navigation, together with an enhanced capability for running
Concerto’s frequency domain solvers in batch mode. Underlying Concerto is an advanced and flexible
scripting capability, allowing automation of almost all of the features of model creation analysis and post
processing. The latest release extends the range of commands and features in the scripting language, and provides
a redesigned and enhanced editor for creating and editing command files. Concerto provides an FDTD
simulator as standard, enabling users to quickly and easily model a wide variety of microwave devices such as
antennas, waveguides, filters, cavities and resonators. Two further simulation options are available. A Method of
Moments (MoM) analysis module uses a highly accurate formulation for the analysis of arbitrary geometries. Typical
applications include radar cross-section calculation and the evaluation of antenna performance and placement on
aircraft and ships. For designers wishing to characterize the performance of devices such as RF cavities and
microwave resonators, Concerto offers a Finite Element Method (FEM) analysis module, which determines the
eigenvalues and associated eigenvectors of resonant structures. Concerto v7.5R1 is available in a number
of configurations, including several low-cost versions, all of which use the 3D geometric Modeler for model build
or import and employ the FDTD solver as standard. These versions can be upgraded to the full professional version
at any time. Concerto ES is an entry-level 3D package which provides an ideal introduction for designers who are
new to virtual prototyping software. Concerto 2D is an extremely fast 2D analysis module, which is primarily
intended for designing components with axisymmetric geometries, such as circular and corrugated horn antennas. For
designers of axisymmetric coaxial devices, such as connectors, Concerto AS offers a highly cost-effective means to
optimize their electromagnetic designs very quickly.
Image captions vf40p1: A typical use
of Concerto’s FDTD simulation engine, showing the electric field of a waveguide filter at two frequencies – one in
the filter’s pass-band, the other in its stop-band. vf40p2: Concerto speeds simulation of RF designs
employing advanced metamaterials, allowing representation by bulk properties. Here, a plane wave strikes
metamaterial with a negative refractive index. For more information please contact Lois Lee at:
Cobham Technical Services, 1700 N Farnsworth Ave Aurora, IL 60505, USA
t: (630) 851-1734 f: (630) 851-2106
vectorfields.info@cobham.com
http://www.cobham.com/technicalservices
About Cobham Cobham specialises in meeting the insatiable demand for data, connectivity and
bandwidth in defence, security and commercial environments. Offering a technically diverse and innovative range of
technologies and services, the Group protects lives and livelihoods, responding to customer needs with agility
that differentiates it. The most important thing we build is trust. Employing more than 11,000 people on five
continents, the Group has customers and partners in over 100 countries, with annual revenue of some £1.9bn / US$3
billion.
About Cobham Technical Services Cobham Technical Services produces the world's most advanced
software for modelling and analysing electromagnetic equipment and effects. Its virtual prototyping tools speed
the design process - helping to achieve a user's goal, whether that is lowest cost, optimum performance, ease of
manufacture, or the best combination.
Posted 9/7/2011
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