Rigorous Windscreen Antenna Modelling in FEKO 5.5 (release scheduled August 2009)
84 MHz radiation pattern of windscreen antenna
Existing Coated Wire Method
Luxury vehicle manufacturers include a variety of receiving antennas in their vehicles for AM, FM, television, GPS, automated tolling, etc. Aesthetically, placing all these antennas on the surface of the vehicle is a big problem and so antennas that are integrated into windscreens have become a popular solution. The design of antennas embedded in windscreens is a complex electromagnetic problem as windscreens consist of multiple layers of glass with different dielectric properties, which are difficult to simulate. FEKO features a dielectric coating modelling method for conducting wires. In the past this model was used to model windscreen wires with great success by assigning coating properties to represent the effect of the glass sheet, but the method breaks down for wires that are closely spaced where mutual coupling effects are strong.
New Windscreen Modelling Method
FEKO 5.5 will now feature a rigorous simulation method for antennas in windscreens to overcome this problem. The method is based on a Method of Moments (MoM) approach and takes into account all physical features of windscreen antennas, while only meshing the radiating elements. Windscreen antenna models can be included in a vehicle for complete antenna placement simulations and takes the following physical constrains into account:
- Finite sized glass
- Curved glass surfaces, in 3 dimensions.
- Mutual coupling between antenna elements.
- Multiple glass layers in the windscreen.
- Multiple windscreens in the vehicle.
Contact your local distributor for more information about windscreen antenna modelling in FEKO 5.5, or to obtain an evaluation version of FEKO 5.5. when it is released early in August 2009.
