Full-wave modeling of RF exciters using WIPL-D: Road to real-time simulation and optimization

Computational tools for full-wave three-dimensional (3-D) simulations of linear passive electromagnetic (EM) components have reached a point where they became both practical and necessary in computer aided design (CAD) of RF devices. Although circuit-based solvers still offer unprecedented speed and true real-time tuning, full-wave software tools, which take into account almost all physical EM phenomena, rapidly approach similar efficiency and applicability. This, however, is not possible by just using modern hardware environment, but it also requires the numerical method of choice, encapsulated within a software tool, to be extremely precise and conservative in consumption of computer resources, i.e., CPU and memory. We here report a case study which demonstrates highly efficient utilization of higher order large-domain method of moments (MoM) modeling and optimization using WIPL-D. The example includes an RF exciter, based on axial-mode helical antennas mounted on a dielectric support, designed for utilization in the state-of-the-art pre-clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners.