Antenna component matching
Sample from Network Analyzer
BetaMatch is a software tool that is used to design component matching networks for antennas and other 1-port devices. The built-in optimizer is very fast and will find the best matching network within seconds.
Inductors and capacitors that are based on measured S-parameter data are used for the calculations. This gives accurate results and shortens the time it takes to design a functioning matching network.
BetaMatch is written by an antenna designer for antenna designers and with ease of use as a priority. If you have some experience from VNA you will immediately feel at home with BetaMatch’s intuitive User Interface.
The VNA Connection Option is a major improvement to antenna design procedure and work-flow: Sample data directly from your Network Analyzer [1]. Match and optimize your antenna while BetaMatch continuously reads and displays trace data from the VNA in real time.
You can now design the antenna and the matching network together which both shortens the design time and improves the quality of the design. BetaMatch can even optimize and update the matching network while the data is sampled (“live optimization”).
The Launch BetaMatch macro in CST will launch BetaMatch with port data from the active project in CST Microwave Studio and CST Design Studio.
Matching networks that are designed in BetaMatch can, together with the load data, be exported to CST Design Studio in various formats for further processing.
CST Result Template BetaMatch Calculations that calculates an optimized matching network automatically after run of the CST’s solver. Intrinsic Bandwidth and Bandwidth Potential can also be calculated in BetaMatch and sent to CST.
With this powerful feature you can optimize the radiating structure (in CST) and the matching network (from BetaMatch) at the same time.
The Tolerance Analyzer makes it is easy to estimate how sensitive the matching network is with respect to the component tolerances.
A Monte Carlo simulation is run with the actual tolerances as given by the component manufacturer.
S11 and Accepted Power plots will also display the tolerance variations.
The automatic optimizer finds the best matching network for any cascaded net of 2-5 components. Multiband optimization for up to five separate frequency bands at the same time.
The optimization will of course use component data based on real components.
Optimize your antenna for any frequency bands in three simple steps:
Very Fast Calculations: 2-4 component optimization in typically less than 1 second and 5 components normally completes in 10-40 seconds.
Any source impedance: The source can have any complex impedance and can also be frequency dependent.
Reject Bands: Any frequency band can be set a reject-band. The optimizer will try to minimize the accepted power in these bands. This is a useful feature when there is a need to increase the isolation between antennas or to suppress the signal at certain frequencies.
Weighting between frequency bands allows to set different optimization targets for different frequency.
Multi-optimization: Optimize for data and memory traces simultaneously to find best network to compromize between e.g. different user cases.
When the program is installed it will start in demo mode unless you have a valid license. In demo mode you can use the included example data to test and get a feeling for BetaMatch. Demo mode is fully functional except for data loading.
Click here to download latest version.
If you wish to test BetaMatch with your own data, from Touchstone files, CST or sampling from VNA, please contact MNW Scan to obtain an evaluation license.
Please also contact us if you would like to use BetaMatch for research, education or other non-commercial purposes.
Click here to send us a mail.
Latest version is 3.7. Major news are:
BetaMatch provides you with some additional tools and utilites to make your work more convenient:
These videos demonstrates how to optimize antenna matching networks with BetaMatch. Starting with a basic optimization in the first video it then becomes more advanced with non-50Ω matching in the second video. Finally a full active matching is demonstrated in video number three.
You can either watch these videos from MNW’s web-site or you can click the links to the lower right to watch the videos via YouTube.
All the videos have subtitles that can be toggled ON and OFF via the CC-button on the player.
Basic multi-band optimization of a mobile phone antenna. This shows the normal way to design an optimized matching network. Both a T-network and a 5 component network are calculated and then compared to each other and also to the unmatched antenna. Stream from MNW Scan
Shows how to use BetaMatch to design matching networks when the source has an impedance that is not 50Ω. A single band antenna is used and the source impedances are: 50Ω, 15-20jΩ and 300+300jΩ. The resulting designs have similar performance but at the same time they have vastly different impedances. Stream from MNW Scan
This video shows how to perform active matching on a mobile phone antenna when the source impedance at the TX-part of the 900MHz band differs significantly from 50Ω, but the remaining frequencies have an impedance close to 50Ω. Stream from MNW Scan