New approach for the simulation of bent and crumpled antennas on a flexible substrate

Abstract

This paper presents a new approach for simulating bent or crumpled antenna structures. A combination of two different simulation tools is used. At first a textile simulator is used to reproduce crumpling actions according to the fabric’s material parameters. The resulting model can then be imported into a boundary-element based electromagnetic solver. Such an approach offers the flexibility to fold the device in any possible form, without distorting the shape, that means the surface area remains constant.