Predictive microwave device design by coupled electro-thermal simulation based on a fully physical thermal model

Coupled electro-thermal simulations are performed to demonstrate predictive design of microwave devices. These simulations are based on an original, fully physical, thermal impedance matrix approach, capable of describing 'nearly exactly' time-dependent heat flow in complex 3-dimensional systems, whilst requiring no model reduction for electro-thermal CAD. This thermal model is validated by thermal imaging of passive grid arrays representative of spatial power combining architectures. Electro-thermal transient, single-tone, two-tone and multi-tone harmonic balance simulations are presented for a MESFET amplifier, by implementing the thermal impedance matrix approach in microwave circuit simulator, Transim (NCSU).