Geometric Construction Steps

After you have started CST STUDIO SUITE you have the possibility

to create a new project template, that will pre-define basic settings

for the simulation of your specific application. In this tutorial the

settings are optimized for an RF waveguide component,

consequently the units are set to mm and GHz.

Because the background material (that will automatically enclose

the model) is specified as being a perfect electrical conductor, you

only need to model the air-filled parts of the waveguide device. In

the case of the Magic Tee, a combination of three bricks is sufficient

to describe the entire device. In addition, all boundaries are set to be

perfect electrical conductors, which is also already defined as default.

o Create a New Project

 After launching the CST STUDIO SUITE you will enter the start

screen showing you a list of recently opened projects and allowing

you to specify the application which suits your requirements best.

The easiest way to get started is to configure a project template

which defines the basic settings that are meaningful for your typical

application. Therefore click on the Create Project button   in the

New Project section.

Next you should choose the application area, which is

Microwaves & RF for the example in this tutorial and then select the

workflow by double-clicking on the corresponding entry.

For the Rectangular Waveguide device, please select Circuits &

Components    Waveguide Couplers & Dividers    Time Domain

Solver  .
 At last you are requested to select the units which fit your

application best. For the Rectangular Waveguide device, please select

the dimensions as follows:

Di m

mensio m

ns:

Fr G

equenc H

y: z

Ti n

me: s

For the specific application in this tutorial the other settings can

be left unchanged. After clicking the Next button, you can give the

project template a name and review a summary of your initial

settings:
 Finally click the Finish button to save the project template and to

create a new project with appropriate settings. CST MICROWAVE

STUDIO will be launched automatically due to the choice of the

application area Microwaves & RF.

Please note: When you click again on the File: New

and Recent you will see that the recently defined

template appears below the Project Templates section.

For further projects in the same application area you can

simply click on this template entry to launch CST

MICROWAVE STUDIO with useful basic settings. It is not

necessary to define a new template each time. You are

now able to start the software with reasonable initial

 settings quickly with just one click on the corresponding

template.

Please note: All settings made for a project template

can be modified later on during the construction of your

model. For example, the units can be modified in the

units dialog box (Home:Settings    Units  ) and the

solver type can be selected in the Home: Simulation   

Start Simulation drop-down list.

o Define Working Plane Properties

Usually, the next step is to set the working plane properties in

order to make the drawing plane large enough for your device.

Because the structure has a maximum extension of 100 mm along a

coordinate direction, the working plane size should be set to at least

100 mm. The raster width and snap width are set to 10 and 5

respectively. These settings can be changed in a dialog box that

opens after selecting View: Working Plane      Working Plane

Properties.

Change the settings in the working plane properties window to

the values given above before pressing the OK button.

o Define the First Brick

Now you can create the first brick:

 This is most easily accomplished by selecting Modeling: Shapes   

Brick  .
CST MICROWAVE STUDIO now asks you for the first point of the

brick. The current coordinates of the mouse pointer are shown in the

bottom right corner of the drawing window in an information box.

After you double-click on the point x=50 and y=10, the information

box will show the current mouse pointers coordinates and the

distance (DX and DY) to the previously picked position. Drag the

rectangle to the size DX=-100 and DY=-20 before double-clicking to

fix the dimensions. CST MICROWAVE STUDIO now switches to the

height mode. Drag the height to h=50 and double-click to finish the

construction. You should now see both the brick, shown as a

transparent model, and a dialog box, where your input parameters

are shown. If you have made a mistake during the mouse based input

phase, you can correct it by editing the numerical values. Create the

brick with the default component and material settings by pressing

the OK button:

The new solid now should look as follows:

 You have just created the waveguide connecting ports 2 and 3.

Adding the waveguide connection to port 1 will introduce another of

CST MICROWAVE STUDIO′s features, the Working Coordinate System

(WCS). It allows you to avoid making calculations during the

construction period. Lets continue and discover this tools advantages.

o Align the WCS with the Front Face of the First Brick

To add the waveguide belonging to port 1 to the front face, as

shown in the above picture, please select Modeling: WCS   Align

WCS   or just use shortcut W.  Now simply double-click on the front

face of the brick. This action moves and rotates the WCS so that the

working plane (uv plane) coincides with the selected face.

 o Define the Second Brick

With the WCS in the right location, creating the second brick is

quite simple. Start again the brick creation mode by selecting

Modeling: Shapes    Brick   . Please remember that all values used

for shape construction are relative to the uvw coordinate system as

long as the WCS is active.

The new brick should be aligned with the edge midpoints of the

first brick as shown in the picture above. Without leaving the current

brick creation mode, you should pick the lower edges midpoint by

simply activating the appropriate pick tool Modeling: Picks    Pick

Point    Pick Edge Center   or use the shortcut M). Now all edges
become highlighted and you can simply double-click on the first

bricks lower edge as shown in the picture. Then, continue with the

brick creation by repeating the procedure for the bricks upper edge.

Because you have now selected two points that are located on a

line, you will be requested to enter the width of the brick. Please note

that this step will be skipped if the two previously picked points
already form a rectangle (not only a line). Now you should drag the

width of the brick to w=50 (watch the coordinate display in the lower

right corner of the drawing window) and double-click on this

location.

Finally, you must specify the bricks height. Therefore, drag the

mouse to the proper height (h=30) and double-click on this location.

Please note that instead of specifying coordinates with the mouse (as

we have done here), you can also press the TAB key whenever a

coordinate is requested. This will open a dialog box where you can

specify the coordinates numerically.

After the bricks interactive construction is completed, a dialog

box will again appear showing a summary of the bricks parameters.

Some of the coordinate fields now contain mathematical

expressions because some of the points were entered using the pick

tools. Here, the functions xp(1), yp(1) represent the point coordinates

of the first picked point (the midpoint of the first bricks lower edge).

Analogously, the functions xp(2) and yp(2) correspond to the upper

edges midpoint.
 Because you are currently constructing the inner waveguide

volume, you can still keep the default Vacuum Material setting and

the same Component (component1) as for the first brick.

Please note: The use of different components allows

you to gather several solids into specific groups,

independent of their material behavior. For this tutorial,

however, it is convenient to construct the complete

structure as a single component.

Finally, you should confirm the bricks creation again by pressing

the OK button. Let's now construct the third brick.

o Align the WCS with the First Bricks Top Face

The next brick should be aligned with the top face of the first

brick. To align the local coordinate system with this face, please select

Modeling: WCS   Align WCS   or use shortcut W and then directly

double-click on the desired face.

 o Construct the Third Brick

Please enter again the brick creation mode by selecting

Modeling: Shapes    Brick  . When you are requested to enter the

first point, you should activate the center edge pick tool (shortcut M),

as you did for the previous brick, and double-click on the top faces

upper edge midpoint (see picture above).

The next step is to drag the mouse in order to specify the

extension of DV=-50 along the v direction (hold down the Shift key

while dragging the mouse to restrict the coordinate movement to the

v direction only) and double-click on this location. Afterwards, you

should specify the width of the brick as w=20 and the height as h=30

in the same manner, or by entering these values numerically using

the Tab key.

The last brick is also created as a vacuum material and belongs to

the component component1. Finally, confirm these settings in the

brick creation dialog box. Now the structure should look as follows:
 o Define Port 1

In the next step you will assign the first port to the front face of

the Magic Tee (see picture above). The easiest way to do this is to

pick the port face by selecting Modeling: Picks   Picks    Pick Points,

Edges or Faces   or using shortcut S and then double-click on the

desired face.

Once the ports face is selected you can open the waveguide port

dialog box either by selecting Simulation: Sources and Loads   

Waveguide Port   . The settings in the waveguide port dialog box

will automatically specify the extension and location of the port

according to the bounding box of any previously picked elements

(faces, edges or points).

 In this case, you can simply accept the default settings and

press OK to create the port. The next step is the definition of ports 2,

3 and 4.

o Define Ports 2, 3, 4

Repeat the last steps (pick face and create port) to define port 2,

port 3 and port 4. After you have completed this step, your model

should look like the below figure. Please double-check your input

before proceeding to the solver settings.

 o Define the Frequency Range

The frequency range for this example extends from 3.4 GHz to 4

GHz. Change Fmin and Fmax to the desired values in the frequency

range settings dialog box by selecting Simulation: Settings   

Frequency   . Please note that the currently selected units are shown
in the status bar.

o Define Field Monitors

Because the amount of data generated by a broadband time

domain calculation is huge even for relatively small examples, it is

necessary to define which field data should be stored before the

simulation is started. CST MICROWAVE STUDIO uses the concept of

monitors in order to specify which types of field data to store. In

addition to the type, you also must specify whether the field should

be recorded at a fixed frequency or at a sequence of time samples.

You can define as many monitors as necessary to get different field

types or fields at various frequencies. Please note that an excessive

number of field monitors may significantly increase the memory

space required for the simulation.

To add a field monitor, please select Simulation: Monitors   

Field Monitor   :

In this example, you should define an electric field monitor

(Type = E-Field) at the center Frequency of 3.6 GHz before pressing

the OK button to store the settings. The green box indicates the

volume in which the fields will be recorded.

Calculation of Fields and S-Parameters
A key feature of CST MICROWAVE STUDIO is the Method on

Demand  approach that allows a simulator or mesh type that is best

suited for a particular problem. Another benefit is the ability to

compare the results obtained by completely independent

approaches. We demonstrate this strength in the following sections

by calculating fields and S-parameters with the transient solver and

the frequency domain solver. In this case, the transient simulation

uses a hexahedral mesh while the frequency domain calculation is

performed with a tetrahedral mesh. Both sections are self-contained

and it is sufficient to work through only one of them, depending on

which solver you are interested in. The section on the frequency

domain solver also provides a comparison with the transient

simulation.
Transient Solver

o Transient Solver Settings

The transient solver parameters are specified in the solver control

dialog box that can be opened by selecting Simulation: Solver   

Start Simulation   Time Domain Solver   or directly from within

your Home Ribbon Home: Simulation    Start Simulation   :

You should now specify whether the full S-matrix should be

calculated or if a subset of this matrix is sufficient. For the Magic Tee

device we are interested in the input reflection at port 1 and in the

transmission from port 1 to the other three ports (2, 3 and 4).
 Accordingly, we only need to calculate the S-parameters S1,1,

S2,1, S3,1 and S4,1. All of the S-parameters can be derived by an

excitation at port 1. Therefore, you should change the Source

type field in the Stimulation settings frame to Port 1. If you leave this

setting at All Ports, the full S-matrix will be calculated.

Finally, press the Start  button to begin the calculation. A progress

indicator appears in the Progress window displaying some

information about the calculation. If any error or warning messages

are produced by the solver, they will be displayed in the Messages

window.
Transient Solver Results

Congratulations, you have simulated the Magic Tee! Lets review

the results.

o 1D Results (Port Signals, S-Parameters)

First, we observe the port signals by opening the 1D Result folder

in the navigation tree and clicking on the Port signals folder:

 This plot shows the incident and reflected or transmitted wave

amplitudes at the ports versus time. The incident wave amplitude is

called i1, the reflected wave amplitude is o1,1 and the transmitted

wave amplitudes are o2,1, o3,1 and o4,1. You can see that the

transmitted wave amplitudes o2,1 and o3,1 are delayed and distorted

(note that o2,1 and o3,1 are identical, so do not be concerned if you

only see one curve).

The S-parameters can be plotted by clicking on the 1D Results   

S-Parameters  folder and selecting 1D Plot: Plot Type    dB   for dB

representation:
 As expected, the transmission to port 4 (S4,1) is extremely small (-

150 dB is close to the solvers noise floor). It is obvious that this

simple device is very poorly matched so that the transmission to

ports 2 and 3 is of the same order of magnitude as the input

reflection at port 1.

o 2D and 3D Results (Port Modes and Field Monitors)

Finally, we will review the 2D and 3D field results. We will first

inspect the port modes that can be easily displayed by opening

the 2D/3D Results    Port  Modes    Port1 folder from the navigation

tree. To visualize the electric field of the fundamental port mode you

should click on the e1 subfolder.

 Because we have selected the main entry, a 3D vector plot is

shown. Selecting either of the subentries will produce a scalar plot.

The plot also shows some important properties of the mode such as

mode type, cut-off frequency and propagation constant. The port

modes at the other ports can be visualized in the same manner.

The full three-dimensional electric field distribution in the Magic

Tee can be shown by selecting the 2D/3D Results    E-Field    efield

(f=3.6)[1] folder from the navigation tree. If the Normal item is

clicked, the field plot will show a three dimensional contour plot of

the electric field normal to the surface of the structure.

 You can display an animation of the fields by checking

the Animate Fields option in the context menu (right mouse click in

the plot window). The appearance of the plot can be changed in the

plot properties dialog box, that can be opened by selecting 2D/3D

Plot: Plot Properties    Properties   or Plot Properties from the

context menu. Alternatively, you can double-click on the plot to open

this dialog box.

Accuracy Considerations

In this case, the transient S-parameter calculation is mainly

affected by two sources of numerical inaccuracies:

1. Numerical truncation errors introduced by the finite simulation

time interval.

2. Inaccuracies arising from the finite mesh resolution.

 In the following section we provide hints on how to minimize

these errors and obtain highly accurate results.

o Numerical Truncation Errors Due to Finite Simulation Time

Intervals

As a primary result, the transient solver calculates the time

varying field distribution that results from an excitation with a

Gaussian pulse at the input port. Thus, the signals at the ports are the

fundamental results from which the S-parameters are derived using a

Fourier Transform.

Even if the accuracy of the time signals themselves is extremely

high, numerical inaccuracies can be introduced by the Fourier

Transform that assumes the time signals have completely decayed to

zero at the end. If the latter is not the case, a ripple is introduced into

the S-parameters that affects the accuracy of the results. The

amplitude of the excitation signal at the end of the simulation time

interval is called truncation error. The amplitude of the ripple

increases with the truncation error.

Please note that this ripple does not move the location of minima

or maxima in the S-parameter curves. Therefore, if you are only

interested in the location of a peak, a larger truncation error is

tolerable.

The level of the truncation error can be controlled using

the Accuracy setting in the transient solver control dialog box. The

default value of -30 dB (moderate) will usually give sufficiently

accurate results for coupler devices. However, to obtain highly

accurate results for waveguide structures it is sometimes necessary to

increase the accuracy to -40 dB (high) or- 50 dB (very high).

If you find large ripples in the S-Parameter, it might be necessary

to further increase the solvers accuracy setting or use the AR-Filter

feature that is explained in more detail in the online help.

o Effect of the Mesh Resolution on the S-parameters Accuracy

The inaccuracies arising from the finite mesh resolution are

usually more difficult to estimate. The only way to ensure the

accuracy of the solution is to increase the mesh resolution and

recalculate the S-parameters. If these results no longer significantly

change when the mesh density is increased, then convergence has

been achieved.

In the example above, you have used the default mesh that has

been automatically generated by an expert system. The easiest way

to prove the accuracy of the results is to use the fully automatic mesh

adaptation that can be switched on by checking the Adaptive mesh

refinement option in the solver control dialog box:

 After activating the adaptive mesh refinement tool, you should

now start the solver again by pressing the Start  button. After a

couple of minutes (during which the solver is running through mesh

adaptation passes), the following dialog box will appear:

This dialog box informs you that the desired accuracy limit (2% by

default) could be met by the adaptive mesh refinement. Because the

expert systems settings have now been adjusted such that this

accuracy is achieved, you may switch off the adaptation procedure

for subsequent calculations (e.g. parameter sweeps or optimizations).

You should now confirm the deactivation of the mesh adaptation

by pressing the Yes button.
 After the mesh adaptation procedure is complete, you can

visualize the maximum difference of the S-parameters for two

subsequent passes by selecting 1D Results    Adaptive Meshing   

Delta S from the navigation tree:

As you can see, the maximum deviation of the S-parameters is

below 0.5%, indicating that the expert system based meshing would

have been fine for this example even without running the mesh

adaptation procedure.

The convergence process of the input reflection S1,1 during the

mesh adaptation can be visualized by selecting 1D Results   

Adaptive Meshing    S-Parameters    S1,1 from the navigation tree

and selecting 1D Plot: Plot Type    dB   to show the results in dB

representation :
 The convergence process of the other S-parameters can be

visualized in the same manner. Please note that S4,1 is extremely

small (< -120dB) in this example; its variations are mainly due to the

numerical noise and are therefore ignored by the automatic mesh

adaptation procedure.

The advantage of this expert system based mesh refinement

procedure over traditional adaptive schemes is that the mesh

adaptation needs to be carried out only once for each device to

determine the optimum settings for the expert system. There is

subsequently no need for time consuming mesh adaptation cycles

during parameter sweeps or optimizations.

Please note: Refer to the CST MICROWAVE STUDIO -

Workflow and Solver Overview manual how to

use Template Based Postprocessing  for automated

 extraction and visualization of arbitrary results from various

simulation runs.
Frequency Domain Solver

CST MICROWAVE STUDIO offers a variety of frequency domain

solvers specialized for different types of problems. They differ not

only by their algorithms but also by the grid type they are based on.

The general purpose frequency domain solver is available for

hexahedral grids, as well as for tetrahedral grids. In this tutorial we

will use a tetrahedral mesh. The availability of a frequency domain

solver within the same environment offers a very convenient means

of cross-checking results produced by the time domain solver.

o Making a Copy of Transient Solver Results

Before performing a simulation with the frequency domain solver,

you may want to keep the results of the transient solver in order to

compare the two simulations. The copy of the current results is

obtained as follows: Select, for example, the S-Parameters  folder

in 1D Results, then press Ctrl+c and Ctrl+v.  The copies of the results

will be created in the selected folder. The names of the copies will

be S1,1_1, S2,1_1  etc. You may rename them to S1,1_TD, S2,1_TD  and

so on with the Rename command from the context menu. Use Add

new tree folder from the context menu to create an extra folder.

Please note that at the current time it is not possible to make a copy

of 2D or 3D results.

o Frequency Domain Solver Settings

 In order to now start a frequency domain simulation the currently

active solver has to be changed to Home: Simulation    Start

Simulation    Frequency Domain Solver    :

There are three different methods to choose from. For the

example here, please choose the General Purpose frequency domain

solver. In the Mesh Type combo box you may choose Hexahedral or

Tetrahedral Mesh. Please choose Tetrahedral Mesh.

You should now specify whether the full S-matrix should be

calculated or if a subset of this matrix is sufficient. For the Magic Tee

device we are interested in the input reflection at port 1 and in the

transmission from port 1 to the other three ports (2, 3 and 4).

Consequently, we only need to calculate the S-parameters S1,1,

S2,1, S3,1 and S4,1. All of the S-parameters can be derived by an

excitation at port 1. Therefore, you should change the Source type

field in the Excitation settings frame to Port 1 unless already done. If

this is set to All Ports, the full S-matrix will be calculated.

S-parameters in the frequency domain are obtained by solving

the field problem at different frequency samples. These single S-

parameter values are then used by the broadband frequency sweep

to get the continuous S-parameter values. With the default settings

in the frequency samples frame the number and the position of the

frequency samples are chosen automatically in order to meet the

required accuracy limit throughout the entire frequency band.

Unlike the time domain solver, the tetrahedral frequency domain

solver should always be used with the Adaptive tetrahedral mesh

refinement. Otherwise, the initial mesh may lead to a poor accuracy.

Therefore, the corresponding check box is activated by default. All

other settings may be left unchanged.

After everything is ready, you may press Start to begin the

calculation.

Because the old results will be overwritten when starting a

different solver, the following warning message appears:

Press Yes to acknowledge the deletion. A progress bar will appear

at the bottom of the main frame as soon as the solver starts.

Additional information about the simulation progress will be shown

in the message window that will be activated automatically, if

necessary.
Frequency Domain Solver Results

After the desired accuracy for the S-parameter has been reached

the simulation stops.

o 1D Results (S-Parameters)

As for the transient solver run, you can view the S-parameters by

selecting 1D Results    S-Parameters  in the navigation tree and

selecting 1D Plot: Plot Type    dB   for dB representation.

Similar to the case of transient solver, an extremely small

transmission to port 4 (S4,1) is observed here. In addition, you can

conclude that the other S-parameters have at least the same order of

magnitude as the S-parameters computed with the transient solver.

 The next figure shows the S-parameters S1,1 and S1,2 for both

transient and frequency domain solvers plotted in the same graph.

This can be done by copying all these results to an extra folder.

As you can see, the results agree very well. For this specific

structure, the transient solver does provide more accurate results by

default. The accuracy of the frequency domain simulation can be

increased by lowering the accuracy limit for the adaptive mesh

refinement.

o 2D and 3D Results (Port Modes and Field Monitors)

The 2D and 3D field results can be found in the 2D/3D

Results folder of the navigation tree. The electric field of the

fundamental mode at port 1 can be visualized by selecting

the Port  Modes    Port1    e1 folder:

 The mode properties shown in the lower left corner of the field

plot are close to those computed with the transient solver. Note that

the frequency of the mode is not exactly equal to the frequency used

by the transient solver. For inhomogeneous ports the frequency

domain solver calculates the modes for every frequency sample, in

this example the ports are calculated only once, here at a frequency

of 4GHz.

The three-dimensional electric field distribution in the Magic Tee

can be visualized by opening the 2D/3D Results    E-Field    efield

(f=3.6)[1] folder of the navigation tree. After selecting

the Normal item the field plot will show a three dimensional contour

plot of the electric field normal to the surface of the structure.

 You can display an animation of the fields by checking

the Animate Fields option in the context menu (right mouse click in

the plot window). The appearance of the plot can be changed in the

plot properties dialog box, that can be opened by selecting 2D/3D

Plot: Plot Properties    Properties   or Plot Properties from the

context menu. Alternatively, you can double-click on the plot to open

this dialog box.

The next section describes how to influence the mesh refinement

and improve the quality of the computed field distribution.

Accuracy Considerations

The results of the frequency domain solver using the tetrahedral

mesh are mainly affected by the inaccuracies arising from the finite

mesh resolution. In the case of a tetrahedral mesh the adaptive mesh

refinement is switched on by default. The mesh adaptation is

performed by checking the convergence of the S-parameter values at

the highest simulation frequency. The adaptation is oriented towards

achieving highly accurate S-parameter calculations.

In the presented example three mesh adaptation passes have

been performed according to the Minimum  number setting in the

Number of passes frame. This setting can be accessed by

pressing Properties in the Adaptive mesh refinement frame of the

Frequency Domain Solver Parameters dialog:

Getting More Information

Congratulations! You have just completed the Rectangular

Waveguide tutorial that should have provided you with a good

working knowledge on how to use transient and frequency domain

solvers to calculate S-parameters. The following topics have been

covered:

1. General modeling considerations, using templates, etc.

2. Use picked points to define objects relatively to each other.

3. Define ports.

4. Define frequency ranges.

5. Define field monitors.

 6. Start the transient or the frequency domain solver.

7. Visualize port signals and S-parameters.

8. Visualize port modes and field monitors.

9. Check the truncation error of the time signals.

10. Obtain accurate and converged results using the automatic

mesh adaptation.

You can obtain more information for each particular step from

the online help system that can be activated either by pressing

the Help button in each dialog box or by pressing the F1 key at any

time to obtain context sensitive information.

In addition to this tutorial, you can find some more S-parameter

calculation examples in the examples folder in your installation

directory. Each of these examples contains a Readme item in the

navigation tree that will give you some more information about the

particular device.

Finally, you should refer to the Online documentation for more

in-depth information on issues such as the fundamental principles of

the simulation method, mesh generation, usage of macros to

automate common tasks, etc.