The main goal of the paper is to present a new generalized mode-matching (GMM approach to both mode bases and S-matrices calculation of complicated waveguide circuits. Development ofthe GMMprocedures makes it possible to realize totally automatic algorithm for a wide set of configurations avoiding a specialized analytical treatment of each new boundary-value problem. Moreover, the background for linking up the interface tools of a circuit geometry specifcation and editing is provided by the GA4M approach together with the special algorithms for recognizing the object configurations and for data preparation. The class of objects that can be calculated by the suggested approach includes any WG circuits with metal boundaries specified in the Cartesian coordinate system or with the smooth boundaries lhat may be replaced by a staircase surface. The corresponding electromagnetic solvers are closer to the software based on the mesh metho& in generality, in the same time saving the high accuracy and computation speed typical for highly specialized mode-matching procedures.
IntroductionThe widest set of geometries, practically without any restriction on the form of surfaces, can be considered, for example, by the finite-difference time domain method (FDTD), finite element method (FEM), transmission line matrix method, etc. By using them one can avoid an individual analytical consideration of the boundary problem under investigation that requires not only additional time but a corresponding professional culture as well. At present, there are a lot of commercial problem-oriented codes, so called "electromagnetic solvers", that consist of two main parts: 1) a preprocessor necessary, in particular, to generate a required space grid taking into account the peculiarities of the object surface, and 2) "the solver itself' that realizes certain numerical algorithm. However, these solvers can be used by practical engineers for the first-step estimations rather than for a multi-parametrical optimization and final exact design. The matter is that the calculation efficiency rapidly falls down if the growth of the volume considered grows up, because of the necessity to take into account tens (or hundreds) of thousands of unknowns (see, for example, a short description of various methods in [ 1,2]).From the point of view of accuracy and speed of calculations, much more robust algorithms can be built on the mode-matching procedure based on the field expansions in the appropriate Fourier-series that automatically take into account an essential part of the boundary conditions. Suitable and simple-in-use expansions exist only for a canonical set of geometries (rectangular, circular, coaxial, etc). If all parts of contours of the cross section can be placed into some simple coordinate system, then corresponding expansions can be, in their turn, obtained by mode-matching technique. The fields of eigenmodes will be described in this case in a piecewise fashion. All together these geometry represent a very wide class of configurations though th...