Automation of reflectarrays in HFSS using visual basic scripting

Abstract

High gain, large radiating structures such as multi-element antenna arrays and reflectarrays are finding an increasing number of applications to fulfil the demands of higher capacity and better coverage. For large reflectarrays, number of elements may be more than a thousand. Before fabrication, we need to model of whole reflectarray assembly in simulation software to predict its performance. Problematic part is that dimension of each element may be different, and it becomes extremely cumbersome to draw all the elements manually. To circumvent the problem, we have laid out step by step procedure that how Visual Basic (VB) code can be effectively integrated with HFSS to automate the drawing procedure of reflectarrays. As per user need, this VB script can also be extended to carry out further iterations and modifications in the design for tuning and optimization.