60 GHz Phased Array Antenna Design And Beamforming Analysis Using XFdtd

Designing a high-gain phased array for the 60 GHz WiGig band requires accurately capturing the full electromagnetic behavior of a multilayer, aperture-coupled structure— including S-parameter coupling between elements, far-field radiation patterns, and beam-steered EIRP coverage. XFdtd’s full-wave FDTD solver, combined with its superposition and array optimization post-processing capabilities, addresses each stage of this workflow efficiently.

This example models a dual-array, 8-element (2×4) aperture-coupled patch antenna operating in the WiGig channel 2 band centered at 60.48 GHz (frequency range of interest: 55–65 GHz). Two orthogonally oriented 1×4 arrays are mounted on a shared L-frame structure. The simulation characterizes individual element patterns, mutual coupling (S-parameters), superposed beamforming states, and beam-steered EIRP— culminating in a CDF of EIRP for each array and a composite max-hold plot showing total spatial coverage.