Meep – Free simulation software to model electromagnetic systems

http://ab-initio.mit.edu/wiki/index.php/Meep

by un_publishable • 12 years ago

17 8 12 years ago

ab-initio.mit.edu

johnm1019• 12 years ago

So could this (would this?) be used to simulate antenna design?

davorak• 12 years ago

You could use it to do that, though my non-expert understanding is that FEM will beat out FDTD for antenna design on many occasions.

nikitabu2• 12 years ago

It depends on the application. FEM software like COMSOL and CST Studio is typically used for simulating individual antennas. FDTD software like Lumerical is more popular for simulating metamaterials, which are basically large periodic arrays of sub-wavelength antennas.

nikitabu2• 12 years ago

MEEP is typically used in the nanophotonics community for simulating things metamaterials, photonic crystals, and waveguides. All of which can be thought of as optical antennas.

aaronsnoswell• 12 years ago

I've got the same question as johnm1019 - I've used FEM for mechanical stress analysis before, but never for electromagnetic stuff - what would the applications of this software be?

un_publishable• 12 years ago

The primary focus of Meep is simulating the interaction of light with Photonic Crystals (periodic materials that control light based on both their shape and composition).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photonic_crystal

http://ab-initio.mit.edu/wiki/index.php/Meep_Tutorial/Band_d...

You may have heard of optical metamaterials (aka "invisibility cloaks"). They are sometimes made with photonic crystals, but photonic crystals aren't always considered metamaterials. Butterfly wing coloring is a good example.

analog31• 12 years ago

This is a cool example of solving a problem by developing a general purpose tool, then programming the tool to solve the specialized problem. It's cool for a couple of reasons. First, many aspects of the tool's behavior can be confirmed at the general purpose level, i.e., does it behave according to the expected laws of electromagnetism. Second, it provides the entire community with something useful.

Meep – Free simulation software to model electromagnetic systems

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