Investigation of conductor loss in RF MEMS by a combined 2D/3D MoL approach

A new algorithm based on the method of lines (MoL) has been developed, combining the advantages of the existing two and three-dimensional algorithms. Critical sections with high loss are e.g. parts of an RF MEMS switch with underpass or the thin lossy membrane. Here a very dense discretization is needed in order to achieve a precise estimation of the insertion loss in the 3D algorithms. The relevant propagation constants obtained in the 3D approach are updated by the more accurate results of a 2D approach, which can compute propagation constants of a homogeneous section much faster, as only a one-dimensional discretization is required. With a coarse discretization plus update the same accuracy is obtained as with a dense discretization. The computation time is reduced by a factor often.