Full-wave solutions to the propagation characteristics of buried microstrip lines by VFEM and ABCs

The propagation factors of buried microstrip lines are considered. The associated eigenvalue problems are solved by the edge-based vectorial finite element method (VFEM). To improve the higher-order VFEM solutions, the problem infinite domain is truncated by second-order absorbing boundary conditions (ABCs). This reduces the number of unknowns and, consequently, the numerical effort. Owing to the many advantages of both the edge-based VFEM and the second-order ABCs, this full-wave method is implemented by a general computer program for solving unbounded domain problems involving complex geometries and inhomogeneous media. The examples presented show the validity of this technique. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.