A new subtractive shape synthesis method for microstrip circuit design

Existing pixelation-based shape synthesis methods are such that the geometrical resolution requirements result in an extremely large number of adjustable variables, even when a considerably smaller number is sufficient to significantly broaden the design space (compared to conventional design approaches), and achieve some required performance subject to design constraints. A new subtractive shape synthesis method is proposed that works directly on the conductor geometry and thus yields a layout completely composed of precisely the conductor material actually intended, without additional processing needed. The way it separates the requisite geometrical resolution from the number of optimization variables needed to shape the circuit layout permits a very fine geometrical resolution with, nevertheless, the number of optimization variables reduced by a very large factor. This makes feasible the use of non-gradient optimizers well-suited to complicated objective functions formed from multiple objectives. The implementation of the method is described, and several example outcomes discussed.