Can PCAAD 6.0 be used to calculate mutual coupling between microstrip antennas?
The short answer to each of these questions is: no. The purpose of PCAAD 6.0 is to provide an easy-to-use, fast, and versatile first-cut solution to a number of common antenna design and analysis problems. PCAAD is also offered as a relatively inexpensive software tool that has a very short learning curve. For these reasons, PCAAD 6.0 is not suited to the intensive sort of numerical analysis that is required for problems of the type listed above. For these problems, much more sophisticated software is needed. Packages such as Ansoft’s Ensemble and HFSS, Zeland’s IE3D, Microwave Office, and similar products are well-suited to working with very general 2D, 2.5D, and 3D geometries. Of course, you should realize that these software products typically range in cost from $25,000 to $50,000, while PCAAD 6.0 lists for $499. So it is not reasonable to expect PCAAD 6.0 to have the same capabilities as these more expensive products.
