Fast hybrid electromagnetic/statistical approach for design and optimization of RF systems and packages

The successful use of the Design of Experiments (DOE) and Response Surface Modeling (RSM) approaches in an optimization study for a multilayer interdigitated passband filter is presented. The medium of interest is Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) and the frequency band is in the 60 GHz range. The two figures of merit chosen are the resonating frequency f/sub o/ and the quality factor Q with the optimization goals of f/sub o/ = 60 GHz and maximum Q. The electromagnetic performance of the filter is determined with a Method of Moments commercial simulator. The results of these simulations are incorporated into DOE and RSM techniques, statistical models are developed for the two output variables, and then applied to optimize the filter. The effectiveness of the method is compared to that of the Genetic Algorithm (GA) optimization.