Case Study: Altran achieves rapid stealth-antenna design and RCS reduction with COMSOL Multiphysics

Altran - Customer Case Study

Altran, a global engineering and consulting group focused on aerospace and defense, needed to reduce the radar cross section (RCS) of antennas—particularly difficult because antennas must remain operable and thus are strong radar reflectors. To explore thousands of possible frequency selective surface (FSS) geometries without costly physical prototyping, Altran used Comsol Multiphysics (vendor: Comsol) to model and analyze candidate patterns and their electromagnetic behavior.

Using Comsol Multiphysics and its Periodic Boundary Condition feature, Altran simulated single unit cells instead of entire arrays, validated models against literature, and quickly screened many shapes and materials. The approach cut simulation time and memory dramatically (estimated ~100× for simple structures and up to ~1,000× for very large electrical sizes), allowed identification of viable passbands (example resonance near 40 GHz), and eliminated much physical testing—accelerating design iteration and improving efficiency while preserving accuracy.

Altran

Fábio Costa

Altran