FULL-WAVE CONVERGENCE ANALYSIS OF MICROSTRIP TRANSMISSION PARAMETERS

Full-wave electromagnetic simulators have enabled microwave designers to simulate complex geometries which sometimes cannot be done by conve ntional computer-aided design (CAD) nodal simulators. However, designe rs should pay close attention to how the numerical implementation of t he full-wave analysis can affect the results of the electromagnetic si mulation. This study uses various modeling parameters to determine the convergence of a GaAs microstrip's simulated transmission line charac teristics. A commercially available program, Sonnet's ''EM,'' was used for the analysis but the results can be generalized for any full-wave analysis. This article explores the limits of Sonnet as well as showi ng that a designer must use a convergence analysis to prove the validi ty of an electromagnetic simulation. (C) 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.