Array Domain Decomposition (or FADDM) takes advantage of unit cell simplicity and creates a full

model using the meshing information generated in a unit cell. In this blog we will review the creation
of unit cell. In the next blog we will explain how a unit cell can be used to simulate a large array and
FADDM.

Fig. 1 (a) Explicit Array

Fig. 1 (b) Unit Cell

Fig. 1 (c) Finite Array Domain Decomposition (FADDM)

In a unit cell, the following assumptions are made:

The pattern of each element is identical.

The array is uniformly excited in amplitude, but not necessarily in phase.

Edge affects and mutual coupling are ignored

Fig. 2 An array

, (b) Floquet port, (c) PML boundary, or combination of them.

To create a unit cell with P/S boundary, first start with a single element with the exact dimensions of
the cell. The next step is creating a vacuum or airbox around the cell. For this step, set the padding in
the location of P/S boundary to zero. For example, Figure 4 shows a microstrip patch antenna that
we intend to create a 2D array based on

Fig. 4 (a) A unit cell starts with a single element with the exact dimensions as it appears in the lattice
Fig. 4 (b) A vacuum

get to calculation of this size in a bit, for now let’s just assign a value or parameter to it, as it will be
determined later. The next step is to define P/S to generate the lattice. In AEDT 2020R1 this
boundary is under “Coupled” boundary. There are two methods to create P/S: (1) Lattice Pair, (2)
Primary/Secondary boundary.

Lattice Pair

The Lattice Pair works best for square lattices. It automatically assigns the primary and secondary
boundaries. To assign a lattice pair boundary select the two sides that are supposed to create infinite
periodic cells, right-click->Assign Boundary->Coupled->Lattice Pair, choose a name and enter the
scan angles. Note that scan angles can be assigned as parameters. This feature that is introduced in
2020R1 does not require the user to define the UV directions, they are automatically assigned.

Fig. 5 The lattice pair assignment (a) select two lattice walls
Fig. 5 (b) Assign the lattice pair boundary

Fig. 5 (c) After, right-click and choosing assign boundary > choose Lattice Pair

Fig. 5 (d) Phi and Theta scan angles can be assigned as parameters
Primary/Secondary

Primary/Secondary boundary is the same as what used to be called Master/Slave boundary. In this
case, each Secondary (Slave) boundary

Fig. 6 Primary and secondary boundaries highlights.

Floquet Port and Modes Calculator

Floquet port excites and terminates waves propagating down the unit cell. They are similar to
waveguide modes. Floquet port is always linked to P/S boundaries. Set of TE and TM modes travel
inside the cell. However, keep in mind that the number of modes that are absorbed by the Floquet
port are determined by the user. All the other modes are short-circuited back into the model. To
assign a Floquet port two major steps should be taken:

Defining Floquet Port

Select the face of the cell that you like to assign the Floquet port. This is determined by the location
of P/S boundary. The lattice vectors A and B directions are defined by the direction of lattice (Figure
7).

Fig. 7 Floquet port on top of the cell is defined based on UV direction of P/S pairs

The number of modes to be included are defined with the help of Modes Calculator. In the Mode
Setup tab of the selecting those, a table of modes and their attenuation using dB/length units are
created. This is your guide in selecting the height of the unit cell and vaccume box. The attenation
multiplied by the height of the short, then you will see many modes are not attenuated enough. The
product of the attenuatin and height of the airbox should be at least 50 dB. After the correct size for
the airbox is calcualted and entered, the model with high attenuation can be removed from the
Floquet port definition.

The 3D Refinement tab is used to control the inclusion of the modes in the 3D refinement of the
mesh. It is recommended not to select them for the antenna arrays.

Fig. 8 (Left) Determining the scan angles for the unit cell, (Right) Modes Calculator showing the
Attenuation

In our example, Figure 8 shows that the 5th mode has an attenuation of 2.59dB/length. The height
of the airbox is around 19.5mm,

A simpler alternative for Floquet port is radiation boundary. It is important to note that the size of
the airbox should still be kept around the same size that was calculated for the Floquet port,
therefore, higher order modes sufficiently attenuated. In this case the traditional quarter wavelength
padding might not be adequate.
Fig. 9 Radiation boundary on top of the unit cell

Perfectly Matched Layer

Although using radiation boundary is much simpler than Floquet port, it is not accurate for large scan
angles. It can be a good alternative to Floquet port only if the beam scanning is limited to small
angles. Another alternative to Floquet port is to cover the cell by a layer of PML. This is a good
compromise and provides very similar results to Floquet port models. However, the P/S boundary
need to surround the PML layer as well, which means a few additional steps are required. Here is
how you can do it:

Reduce the size of the airbox* slightly, so after adding the PML layer, the unit cell height is the same
as the one that was generated using the Modes Calculation. (For example, in our model airbox
height was 19mm+substrte thickness, the PML height was 3mm, so we reduced the airbox height to
16mm).

Choose the top face and add PML boundary.

Select each side of the airbox and create an object from that face (Figure 10).

Select each side of the PML and create objects from those faces (Figure 10).

Select the two faces that are on the same plane from the faces created from airbox and PML and
unite them to create a side wall (Figure 10).

Then assign P/S boundary to each pair of walls (Figure 10).

*Please note for this method, an auto-size “region” cannot be used, instead draw a box for
air/vacuum box. The region does not let you create the faces you need to combine with PML faces.

Fig. 10 Selecting two faces created from airbox and PML and uniting them to assign P/S boundaries

The advantage of PML termination over Floquet port is that it is simpler and sometimes faster
calculation. The advantage over Radiation Boundary termination is that it provides accurate results
for large scan angles. For better accuracy the mesh for the PML region can be defined as length
based.

Seed the Mesh

To improve the accuracy of the PML model further, an option is to use length-based mesh. To do this
select the PML box, from the project tree in Project Manager window right-click on Mesh->Assign
Mesh Operation->On Selection->Length Based. Select a length smaller than lambda/10.

Fig. 11 Using element length-based mesh refinement can improve the accuracy of PML design

Scanning the Angle

In phased array simulation, we are mostly interested in the performance of the unit cell and array at
different scan angles. To add the scanning option, the phase of P/S boundary should be defined by
project or design parameters. The parameters can be used to run a parametric sweep, like the one
shown in Figure 12. In this example the theta angle is scanned from 0 to 60 degrees.

Fig. 12 Using a parametric sweep, the scanned patterns can be generated

Comparing PML and Floquet Port with Radiation Boundary

To see the accuracy of the radiation boundary vs. PML and Floquet Port, I ran the simulations for
scan angles up to 60 degrees for a single element patch antenna. Figure 13 shows that the accuracy
of the Radiation boundary drops after around 15 degrees scanning. However, PML and Floquet port
show similar performance.
Fig. 13 Comparison of radiation patterns using PML (red), Floquet Port (blue), and Radiation
boundary (orange).
S Parameters
To compare the accuracy, we can also check the S parameters. Figure 14 shows the comparison of
active S at port 1 for PML and Floquet port models. Active S parameters were used since the unit cell
antenna has two ports. Figure 15 shows how S parameters compare for the model with the radiation
boundary and the one with the Floquet port.

Fig. 14 Active S parameter comparison for different scan angles, PML vs. Floquet Port model.
Fig. 15 Active S parameter comparison for different scan angles, Radiation Boundary vs. Floquet Port
model.