1. National Defense Industrial Association February 1, 2011
CREATE-RF Status
National Defense Industrial Association February 1, 2011

2. CREATE-RF Development
Product Description
Product: SENTRI
SENTRI – Scalable Engineering Tools for RF Integration
What it is:
Computer Aided Engineering Software for DoD Electromagnetic Applications
Designed for High Accuracy – Full Wave (non-optical) Numerical Methods
Finite Elements
Boundary Integral
Harmonic Expansions
Designed for Extensibility, Maintainability, and Flexibility
Not All Electromagnetic Applications are the same
Need for Specific and Tailored Methods for Unique Applications
Designed to Run on Wide Range of Computers
from Engineering Workstations to High Performance Computers
SENTRI v1.5 is a re-architected version of SENTRI v1.0. To the external customer, there would be no difference, but internally, the code now allows for better maintainability, extensibility, and capability, due to the extensive software engineering that was performed during the re-factoring process.

3. CREATE-RF Requirement Summary
Antennas on Air, Sea, Ground, And Space Platforms
Communication, Navigation, Surveillance, Target Recognition, Electronic Attack, Countermeasure, Etc.
Global Hawk
These requirements were identified by a number of tri-Service CEM experts. After arranging and binning them into near-, mid-, and far-term requirements, they were validated by the senior-level CREATE-RF Board of Directors. These requirements indicated where capability gaps existed; the Board’s “seal of approval” allowed CREATE-RF to take these requirements and construct/deliver our roadmaps, schedule, cost, etc. These requirements trace though almost all of our project execution and documentation., and are documented in our Board-approved Initial Capabilities Document, dated December 2008.
We understand the other CREATE projects are moving towards use cases as a way to connect requirements and capabilities into their development strategy and development plan. These example problems are where we would begin to look to identify our project’s use cases. We will discuss with the Program Office and the other teams the benefits of identifying appropriate use cases for software development and testing.
CREATE-RF undergoes a yearly requirements re-validation.
Computational Electromagnetics Applies to Almost All DoD Systems

4. Development Approach Background Benefits to DoD Acquisition Community
‘First-Pass’ Designs
Develop High-Fidelity Codes to Model All Design Variables Reducing Risk That Design Goals Will Not Be Met
Less Prototyping  Faster and More Productive Engineering
Hardware Prototyping is Time Consuming, Expensive, Provides Little Insight to Physical Phenomena
New Concept Designs  Higher Performance at Lower Cost
Methods Allow for the Exploration of Entire Design Space
Higher Performance Requires New Designs and Materials to be Explored
A Single DoD Vehicle can have More Than 100 Antenna Systems

5. CREATE-RF Development
Product Description
Challenge of Computational Electromagnetics
Complex Geometries, Complex Material Application, Multi-Scale Geometries
Computationally Expensive for Accurate Full-Wave Analysis
Electromagnetic Phenomena (Singularities, Resonances, Wide-Band)
Prof. Jin-Fa Lee

6. CREATE-RF Development Problem Size (Unknowns)
Product Description
Challenge of Computational Electromagnetics
Unknown Count with Notional Aircraft
1010
VHF
UHF L S C X Ku K Ka
109
20M
108 5M
500M
107 1M
180M
Length = 15.5 m
Width = 8.9 m
Height = 4.1 m
Problem Size (Unknowns)
50M
200K
106
20K
105
100 MHz to 40 GHz
10 samples/λ
104
103
102
103
104
105
Frequency (MHz)
Source: Riverside Research Institute

7. Development Approach SENTRI at version 1.5 Product Roadmap
Antenna Modeling
Patch, Notch, Horn, Spirals (Applications: Radar, Communication, GPS)
Phased Array Antennas
Cavity Backed Antenna (Approximate In-Situ Analysis)
Periodic Structures
Frequency Selective Surfaces
Circuit Analog Absorbers
Metamaterials
Infrared Filters / Absorbers
Microwave Circuits
Power Splitting
Material Measurement
Filters
Circulators
Radar Cross-Section Prediction
As an example, the following slides go into some of the technical issues associated with solving phased array antennas. The other functions listed above have many unique technical issues of their own.

8. Development Approach Future Releases of SENTRI
Product Roadmap
Future Releases of SENTRI
Full End-to-End Analysis System
Graphical User Interface
Material Database
Visualization of Solutions
Analysis Traceability
Optimization
Programmable System
Software Release as a Application Programming Interface for Further Tailoring by End User

9. Development Approach Rapid Design Codes
Development Strategy
Rapid Design Codes
What Engineers Need for Their Design Work
High Fidelity Codes
Design Optimization Techniques Integrated with Rapid Design / High-Fidelity Codes
Making Engineers Productive by Automating Design Tools
Specialized Codes for Particular Applications
Big Payoff – Solving Problems that Others Can’t

10. Rapid Design Methods High Fidelity Methods Design Space
Development Approach
Development Strategy
Design Space
Rapid Design Methods
High Fidelity Methods
Optimal Design
Rapid Design Methods  Narrow Design Space
High Fidelity Methods  Model All Variables, Optimal Design

11. Development Approach Rapid Design Codes
Development Strategy
Rapid Design Codes
What Engineers Need for Their Design Work
High Fidelity Codes
Design Optimization Techniques Integrated with Rapid Design / High-Fidelity Codes
Making Engineers Productive by Automating Design Tools
Specialized Codes for Particular Applications
Big Payoff – Solving Problems that Others Can’t

12. Development Approach Rapid Design Codes
Development Strategy
Rapid Design Codes
What Engineers Need for Their Design Work
High Fidelity Codes
Design Optimization Techniques Integrated with Rapid Design / High-Fidelity Codes
Making Engineers Productive by Automating Design Tools
Specialized Codes for Particular Applications
Big Payoff  Solving Problems that Others Can’t

13. Application Examples
Microwave Circuit Analysis
Sanity Check - Code to Code Comparison: SENTRI vs. CST Microwave Studio
High Dielectric Coupled-Ring Filter
ε = 38 (both)
Dielectric
Air
Coax
ε = 2.4
Normal H on symmetry plane.
Successfully Benchmarked w/ Independent Software Vendor Tools

14. Application Examples Sanity Check – SENTRI vs. Published Results
Metamaterials
Sanity Check – SENTRI vs. Published Results

15. Application Examples Sanity Check – SENTRI vs. Published Results
Metamaterials
Sanity Check – SENTRI vs. Published Results
SENTRI

16. Printed Circuit Antennas
Application Examples
Printed Circuit Antennas
SENTRI vs. Commercial Codes
Stripline feed.
Radial stub.
Exponential tapered slot, cut into metal.
λ/4 reflector
Radiating slotline mode. x y
Solution domain.
Near field is post-processed, could be used as illumination for other problems.
Return Loss (S11) dB
Frequency, GHz
Legend
(v1)
(v1.5)
Successfully Benchmarked w/ Independent Software Vendor Tools

17. Application Examples
Antenna Patch Array
A large printed array is an antenna-type problem that also benefits.
Gain (left) & field structure (right).

18. In-Situ Antenna Analysis Angle off boresight, degrees.
Application Examples
In-Situ Antenna Analysis
Lofted horn on notional missile.
Isolated
In-situ
ε = 1 (air)
ε = 1.8 (radome)
Metal
Gain, dBi
E-plane
Isolated
In-situ
12’, GHz, 78K / 96K FE/BI unknowns
Gain, dBi
H-plane
Angle off boresight, degrees.

19. Running Large, High Fidelity Models
Analysis Scalability
Running Large, High Fidelity Models
Big Computers Not the Total Solution
O(N3)
O(N log N)
Desired endpoint: asymptotically competitive algorithms, scaled well to next-gen HPC platforms P
O(N log N)/P
Problem Size
Time to Solution
ACA, FMM (FY10)
Open MP + MPI
MPI
Hierarchical-ACA, ML-FMM
O(N1.5)/P
Big Computers + Algorithms that Scale with Problem Size

20. Conclusion
Computational Electromagnetic Applications are Challenging but with High Performance Computers and Advanced Numerical Methods they can be Solved
CREATE-RF Software Development
For Use by DoD Government and US Defense Industry Engineers
Allows for Specific Tailoring for Special Applications
Tech-Transfer Mechanism for Next-Gen of Gov’t Engineers
CREATE-RF Transfer to Military Industry
Complete Analysis Package
Runs on Workstations and High Performance Computers
Programmable System for End User Extensibility