A subregion connection method is developed for the FDTD method to anal
yze compound conducting structures. The transmission and reflection ch
aracteristics of waveguide components and the radiation of a waveguide
aperture antenna are taken as numerical examples to show the practica
l applications of this method. The method has the advantages of reduci
ng the computational domain, saving running time and setting up the FD
TD grid flexibility. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.