Analysis of stripline and waveguide discontinuities as a 2D-problem using finite difference-time domain method

A class of two dimensional (2D) problems is considered. This class is usually analyzed as three dimensional (3D) problems. The finite difference-time domain (FDTD) method is used to analyze the problem of transverse magnetic (TM) polarization. The number of unknowns is reduced from six unknowns in the 3D case to only three unknowns in the 2D case. Reducing the number of unknowns reduced the CPU time and reduces the storage requirements. Several examples are presented for stripline, microstrip circuits, and waveguide structures to show the simplicity versatility of the technique for analyzing practical problems as 2D-problems. The solution is verified by comparing our results with published results.