Application of the FD-TD method to the analysis of circuits described by the two-dimensional vector wave equation

A class of microwave circuits described by a two-dimensional vector wave equation is defined. It is proposed to refer to them as vector two-dimensional or 2-DV circuits to distinguish them from circuits described by a two-dimensional scalar wave equation (typically referred to as 2-D circuits). It is shown that the 2-DV class contains some planar circuits filled with anisotropic media, two-dimensional waveguide discontinuities, and circular waveguide discontinuities. Calculation of dispersion characteristics of inhomogeneously filled hollow waveguides is an eigenvalue problem belonging to the 2-DV class. Application to the finite-difference-time-domain (FDTD) method to the analysis of 2-DV circuits is described. Examples show the efficiency of the method for several types of circuit.>