NUST SCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER

SCIENCE

MICROWAVE DEVICES
AND ANTENNAS
LAB REPORT #1
118-MEHRAN MUSTAFA-BEE 3A
6/15/2009
PROCEDURE TO MODEL A COAXIAL CABLE IN HFSS 9
1. Start HFSS 9 software
and insert and HFSS
design in the project
(As shown in the
figure). This will open
the environment which
will assist in the
modelling of the coaxial
cable. Basically this will
be an environment for
any activity one wants
to do in HFSS.

The figure (2) shows

the environment in which
the modelling is done.

Figure 1- Inserting a HFSS design

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 Figure 2- The working environment

2. A coaxial cable is cylindrical in shape. To draw a cylindrical shape, go to Edit

and select “cylinder” from the drop box (see figure 3).

Figure 3-
Selecting to
draw a cylinder.

3. When the cylinder option is

selected, a black square
accompanies the mouse. Bring it
near the origin on the axis, left
click and then drag outward to
draw a circle as shown in figure
4. (Release the left mouse
button after clicking once.)

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Figure 4a- Drawing a cylinder

4. Once an arbitrary sized circle is

drawn, left click again. Move the
cursor in the z direction and notice
that a red arrow head is placed on
the edge of the cylinder indicating
the direction of the cylinder z-axis.
Stretch it to an arbitrary length and
then left click again. An arbitrary
sized cylinder is constructed. A table
similar to the one shown in figure 4c
where the cylinder can be accurately edited. The options in the table are self
explanatory.

Figure 4b- Drawing a cylinder

Figure 4c- Drawing a cylinder

In this lab, the coaxial cable is 50mm in length and the inner conductor has a
radius of 0.5319mm. These specifications are entered in the table.

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5. While modelling
a coaxial cable
in HFSS, only
two concentric
cylinders are
required. One is
the inner
conductor and
the other is the
insulation. The
outside
environment is
made vacuum.
As seen from
the figure, there
is an inside
cylinder and an
outside cylinder around it.

Figure 5- Constructing the outer cylinder

6. Once both the

cylinders are drawn
complete with the
specific dimensions,
it’s time to assign
the type of material
to them. Select the
inner cylinder and
then right click on it.
A drop box will open.
Go to “Assign
Material” in the drop
box. A library of all
the materials in
HFSS will open. As
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 this is the inner conductor, it should be a perfect conductor. Chose “Perfect
Conductor” or “Copper” from the library and click “OK”. This will make the
inner conductor a perfect conductor. Similarly, the outside cylinder needs to
be a dielectric insulator. A suitable material can be assigned to it in a similar
manner (in this case: Teflon).

Figure 6b- Material

Library

7. After the materials

have been
assigned, the next
step is to separate 3D
the two cylinders.
This can be done by
subtracting the
inner cylinder from
the outer cylinder.
The inner cylinder
must not be deleted
completely but it
should be cloned.

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 Cloning it separate the two cylinders but not completely remove the inner
cylinder.
Figure 7- Subtracting
8. Next step is to provide boundary conditions. The boundary conditions are
only required for the outer cylinder. The boundary to be applied is to the
circular face of the outer cylinder. This can be done by first choosing “Face”
from the drop box in the upper right corner (as shown) and then selecting the
circular face of the outer cylinder. Right click the selected surface and go to
assign boundaries and chose “Perfect Electric”. See figure 8 below.

Figure 8a- Setting

face selection

Figure 8b-
Assigning boundary
conditions

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 9. Now it’s time to
apply an excitation
to the coaxial cable.
Wave ports are to be
assigned through
which the wave will
enter and leave the
coaxial cable. These
are the two ends to
the coaxial cable.
The procedure is
somewhat the same
as assigning the
boundary conditions.
In this the face of
one end is selected.
Go to “Assign
Excitation” and then
chose “Wave Port”. A
box will open which will
then assign a wave port
to the selected end.
There is only one
setting to be done and
that is to renormalize
the port to 50Ω. Do the
same to the other port
as well.

Figure 9- Assigning wave

port

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10.Now in the project
menu, in the left
most box, go to
“Mesh Operations”.
Select the whole
object and assign a
mesh to it. The links
are shown in the
figure. The mesh
should be length based. This will create a number of meshes on the object for
analysis and modelling.

Figure 10- Mesh Operations

11.Now to complete the model, provide an analysis to analyse the drawing and
model it in to an actual coaxial cable.

Just below Mesh Operations, there’s an option of “Analysis”. Right click on it

and choose “Add solution setup”. In the box, assign a number to “Maximum
number of passes”. Keep this a low number so that for testing, it doesn’t take
long time to analyse.

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 Figure 11- Analysis

12.Now chop the coaxial cable from the

middle in the XZ plain so that the
wave, when applied, can be visible
travelling in the coaxial cable.
13.Now, when everything is finalized,
validate the design and then start
the analysis. After sometime it will
provide a report on the model and
indicate and errors or warnings. The
model will be complete after that.

Figure 12-
Sectioning

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 Figure 13- Plotting electric fields

14.Now select one half of the sectioned coaxial cable right click on it. Now go to
“Plot Fields” and in there, select “Mag E”. To see the field pattern inside the
cable, go to “Field Overlay” in the project box and select “E-field”. Inside “E-
field” there will be Mag_E1. Right click it and select “Animate”. Assign the
number of frames and then animate.

Figure 14- Plotting fields.

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The results of the lab assignment are shown on the following pages.

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