Dec 9, 2014 -- Altair today announced that Gastón Ezequiel Pérez, a final year electrical engineering student from the Universidad Tecnológica Nacional, Facultad Regional Buenos Aires, Argentina, has won the 2014 FEKO Student Competition, an international contest organized in support of engineering education and academic excellence. Students interested in antennas, microwave devices, bio-electromagnetics, electromagnetic compatibility, and other electromagnetic related fields are given the opportunity to showcase their work with FEKO, the electromagnetic solver of Altair HyperWorks®. The 2014 competition generated global interest, attracting entries from Taiwan, Spain, Italy, and the United States.

Mr. Pérez' winning entry, entitled Design of a Patch Antenna Array for Beamforming Combined with Metamaterials at 5.8 GHz, described the systematic design of a planar array system and how each design decision was informed by electromagnetic simulation. The goal was to provide a solution for satellite applications that require the onboard antenna to be low profile, high gain, and dynamically orientable while adhering to strict weight and volume constraints. Phased signals were used for beamforming, eliminating the drawback of requiring a change in mechanical parts to reorient the radiation pattern.

 “The judges were very pleased to see the large variety of FEKO tools and features that Gastón used in his patch antenna array design project,” commented Gronum Smith, Marketing Director at Altair.

Gastón began his investigation in FEKO, by first considering a single patch antenna with a planar multilayered substrate. He compared designs with different feeds which could have implications for the manufacturing of the antenna. Next, he considered a linear patch array and then a two-dimensional array, which improved the gain and allowed him to control the angle of the main beam. Various tools in FEKO were used, including optimization and finite array functionality. A corporate feed was also designed for the system and included in the simulation of the full prototype.

Mr. Pérez' academic advisor, Mr. Silvio Tapino, will receive this year's supervisor award.

 “We were thrilled with the quality of entries we received this year. With FEKO now being a part of the Altair HyperWorks suite, we look forward to the launch of another exciting competition in March 2015 with an even more pronounced commitment to worldwide engineering education,” added Gronum Smith.

The 2015 FEKO Student Competition topics will be announced in early 2015.