Extraction of Material Parameters for Metamaterials Using a Full-Wave Simulator [Education Column]

In this paper, a step-by-step procedure is devised for extracting the material parameters to facilitate and simplify the design procedure of metamaterial structures using commercial software packages. A parameter-retrieval method using the S parameters is used to calculate the curves for the complex permittivity and permeability of the metamaterial based on its unit element. The S parameters are extracted using HFSS^TM, which is a Finite-Element-Method (FEM)-based full-wave simulator. The permittivity and permeability curves are calculated using a MATLAB script. Two different methods are used in HFSS to extract the S parameters: one using perfect electric and perfect magnetic (PE-PM) boundary conditions, and the second using the master-slave boundary conditions. Wave ports and Floquet ports are used to excite the structure. The results of the proposed procedure are validated by comparing the calculated curves with already published results.