FDTD-COMPATIBLE EDGE-ELEMENT, FACE-ELEMENT TIME-DOMAIN METHOD FOR ELECTROMAGNETICS

An edge-element, face-element time domain (EFTD) method for solving Ma xwell's equations in inhomogeneous media is developed. The updating eq uations for the E- and H-fields are derived by integrating Ampere's an d Faraday's laws directly over prescribed surfaces and contours. A dia gonalization technique is introduced to reduce the rectangular version of EFTD to the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. For struc tures that require gridding with both rectangular and conformal cells, the equivalent FDTD algorithm is used in the rectangular-cell region to enhance the overall efficiency while the EFTD algorithm is used in the conformal-fell region to achieve high accuracy for curved boundari es. Good results have been obtained for the resonances and transient r esponses of various test structures. (C) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.