Overview of radiofrequency simulation for automotive antennas at Renault

Performance of embedded radiofrequency (RF) devices used in the automotive industry such as Remote Keyless Entry (RKE), Hand Free Systems (HFS), RADARs (Radio Detection and Ranging) for ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) functions, TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring systems), FM (Frequency Modulation) and DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) antennas, and TCUs (Telematic Control Unit) is unavoidably modified from that awaited under ideal conditions. The most difficult part in designing and implementing those antennas is that the final specification is described according to vehicle mounting position. Nevertheless, during the development phase of a new antenna, the vehicle is often unavailable, or practically does not exist yet. Furthermore, the acceleration in the development of vehicles allows less to wait for the first vehicle prototype in order to tune the product to its environment. Therefore, it becomes mandatory to apply numerical techniques covering entire project phases. This paper shows how 3D simulation can be applied to predict the installed performance of RF antennas in their operational environment.