ANALYSIS OF PLANAR STRUCTURES BY AN INTEGRAL APPROACH USING ENTIRE DOMAIN TRIAL FUNCTIONS

In this paper, a method based on an integral formulation with an excit ation term is presented, The particularities of this approach lie in t he utilization of entire domain trial functions and in the characteriz ation of the coupling effect due to the excitation mechanism, The tria l functions are taken as the TE-TM modes of a waveguide whose cross se ction corresponds to the shape of the discontinuity, The trial functio ns are computed and stored in the memory, then the study of complex pl anar structures becomes easy. A complete study is proposed, including the analysis of the coupling mechanism due to the source interaction a nd the characterization of higher order modes influence. This work is followed by two applications: a multiaxial discontinuity (bend discont inuity) in microstrip and in CPW. The computed results have been compa red with data furnished by the literature. A good accuracy has been ob tained.