A Finite Element Method for Waveguide

Modes Using Transverse Electric and

Magnetic Fields

Zihuan Zhang

Master of Engineering

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

McGill University, Montreal
December 2016

A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for

the degree of master of engineering

©Copyright by Zihuan Zhang

 Abstract

A new formulation is developed for the analysis of waveguide problems. Maxwell’s

equations for the modes are reduced to coupled equations for the transverse components
of both the electric and magnetic field. A finite element method using edge elements is
derived to solve the equations. Both homogeneous and inhomogeneous waveguides are
analysed with the method. Reliable solutions without spurious modes are obtained.
 ABRÉGÉ

Une nouvelle formulation est développée pour l’analyse de problèmes de guides d’ondes.
Les équations de Maxwell pour les modes sont réduites à des équations couplées pour les
composantes transversales du champ électrique et magnétique. Une méthode des éléments
finis utilisant des éléments de bord est dérivée pour résoudre les équations. Les guides
d’ondes homogènes et non homogènes sont analysés avec la méthode. Des solutions fiables
sans modes parasites sont obtenues.
 Acknowledgements

First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Professor J.P.Webb

for his technical guidance in research and accomplishing the thesis. I would also like to
thank the people in the computational electromagnetic group for their help.
Finally I thank my family members for their understanding and support.
Contents

1 Introduction 4
1.1 Waveguide Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 State of the Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3 Thesis Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.4 Thesis Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

2 Formulation 10
2.1 Maxwell’s Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2 Formulation in Terms of Transverse Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3 Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

3 Finite Elements 14
3.1 Edge Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.2 The Weighted Residual Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.3 Discretization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

4 Results 19
4.1 Empty Waveguide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.2 Dielectric Waveguide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

1
5 Conclusion 25
5.1 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
5.2 Future Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

2
List of Figures

1.1 Waveguide model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.2 Rectangle waveguide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3.1 Triangular edge element model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

4.1 Waveguide model discretized into different numbers of elements . . . . . 20

4.2 Dispersion curves of T E10 mode in empty waveguide . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.3 Dispersion curves of modes of empty waveguide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.4 Half-filled rectangular waveguide model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.5 Dispersion curves obtained by treating the plane of symmetry as an magnetic
wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.6 Dispersion curves obtained by treating the plane of symmetry as an electric
wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

3
Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1 Waveguide Modes

Waveguides have various applications at microwave, millimeter-wave and optical frequencies

[1]. For the effective use of waveguides, it is essential to accurately analyze the propagation
characteristics of their guided modes.

Figure 1.1: Waveguide model (figure taken from [2]).

As illustrated in Fig. 1.1, the waveguide model is analysed in Cartesian coordinates.

The waveguide extends to infinity along the z-axis and the cross section is placed in the x,y
plane. The area inside the waveguide can be filled with homogeneous or inhomogeneous

4
material. Waveguide modes are time-harmonic solutions to Maxwell’s equations, of the
form
E(x, y, z) = E(x, y)e−jβz (1.1)

H(x, y, z) = H(x, y)e−jβz (1.2)

where β is the phase constant.

The wavenumber in free space is defined as

√
k0 = ω ϵ 0 µ 0 (1.3)

where ω is the angular frequency. In some methods for finding modes k0 is specified and
β remains to be solved as an eigenvalue, others specify β and solve for k0 . In practical
applications, the operating frequency is usually fixed, so k0 is specified.
The equations to be solved can be obtained from Maxwell’s equations with boundary
conditions. The final system of equations can be rearranged into a nonlinear eigenvalue
equation [A(λ)]{ϕ} = {0} or a linear eigenvalue equation [A]{ϕ} − λ[B]{ϕ} = {0},
which is much easier to solve. By solving the equation system, multiple solutions can be
obtained. These are approximations to some of the waveguide modes.

Figure 1.2: Rectangle waveguide

In homogeneous waveguides, there exist two sets of distinct modes, the transverse
electric modes (TE) and the transverse magnetic modes (TM). For homogeneous rectangular

5
or circular waveguides, the partial differential equations can be solved analytically. For
example, each cutoff wavenumber of the rectangular waveguide shown in Fig. 1.2 is
√
mπ 2 nπ
kc = ( ) + ( )2 m, n = 0, 1, 2, 3 · · · (1.4)
a b
The phase constant can be obtained from the dispersion relation
√
β = k02 − kc2 (1.5)

However, for waveguides with complicated shapes or filled with inhomogeneous material,
it is usually impossible to find an analytical solution. Thus, different numerical methods
such as the boundary element method [3, 4, 5], the finite difference method [6, 7, 8] and
the method of moments are proposed. The finite element method [9, 10, 11] is probably
the most widely applied. With the application of triangular elements and high-order
polynomial functions, the finite element method can fit any polygonal shape and achieve
higher accuracy [12].

1.2 State of the Art

The first application of the finite element method in waveguides appeared as early as
the 1960s [13]. The method has been formulated in different ways. The one using axial
field components is known as the Ez − Hz formulation [14, 15, 16]. Despite its simple
equations, it suffers from two disadvantages. The first one is its inability to handle
anisotropic materials [2]. The second difficulty is the occurrence of spurious solutions.
Studies [17, 18] have suggested that spurious modes are numerical solutions that do not
satisfy the divergence condition (∇ · µH = 0 and ∇ · ϵE = ∇ · J /jω), and so are
nonphysical.
Spurious solutions are a serious obstacle in applying the finite element method to
inhomogeneous waveguides [11], and so there have been many proposed approaches to

6
solve this problem [18, 19, 20, 21]. The electromagnetic problem can instead be formulated
in terms of three Cartesian components of the field (either magnetic field Hx , Hy , Hz or
electric field Ex , Ey , Ez ). Rahman and Davies added a penalty term for this formulation
[18]. Although the penalty term does not actually eliminate spurious modes, it pushes
them out of the range of computation. But this method requires an appropriate selection
of the penalty parameter. An alternative method is to use just the transverse-components
(Ex , Ey or Hx , Hy ), imposing the divergence condition to eliminate the z-component [2,
20, 21].
These formulations are all node-based. At material interfaces, where the normal
components of E or H may be discontinuous, assigning a single value at each node
imposes the correct tangential continuity but does not allow the normal component to
be discontinuous [22]. Worse still, if the computational space contains conducting or
material corners and tips, some of the field components may become singular [23] and
node-based elements are very bad at representing this. Although great efforts were made
to overcome the difficulties on dielectric interfaces [24, 25, 26, 27] and with singular fields
[28], real progress came with the introduction of a new type of finite element.
What brought a revolution to finite element analysis was the invention of vector
finite elements which use vector basis functions and assign degrees of freedom to edges
instead of nodes. Nedelec [29] showed us how to construct edge elements in tetrahedra
and rectangular bricks. Form then on, more sophisticated elements were developed such
as the hexahedral edge elements [30] and covariant projection elements [31] in which
curved edges exist. Compared with nodal elements, edge elements have several advantages
[2]. First, they make it easier to treat the discontinuity of permittivity or permeability
since edge elements impose only tangential continuity, allowing the normal component
of the field to be discontinuous. Second, spurious modes with non-zero eigenvalues are

7
eliminated. Finally, they do a better job than nodal elements at representing the field
near singularities such as sharp corners. The only drawback of edge elements is that the
number of unknowns increases, which means the solution process consumes more time
and memory. Since in waveguides, both discontinuous interfaces and sharp corners exist,
edge elements are used in the best available methods to find waveguide modes [32, 33, 34].

1.3 Thesis Objective

In this thesis, a new formulation of the waveguide problem is investigated. The partial
differential equations solved are two coupled equations involving the transverse electric
and magnetic fields. Compared with previous vector formulations which use only the
electric field or the magnetic field, the new method is more balanced. In order to avoid
problems such as spurious solutions, edge elements are selected to represent the fields.
The idea of using this formulation as the basis for a finite element method to find
waveguide modes was first suggested by R.L.Ferrari in 2009, in a private communication
with J.P.Webb.

1.4 Thesis Outline

This thesis contains five chapters which are listed below:

Chapter 2

The two partial differential equations are derived from Maxwell equations. Boundary
conditions on different kinds of interfaces are given.

8
Chapter 3

Based on those new equations, the finite element method formulation is developed using
the weighted residual method. The formulation is discretized using triangular edge
elements. It is reduced to a generalized eigenvalue problem.

Chapter 4

Both homogeneous and inhomogeneous waveguides are used as test cases for the new
method. Computed dispersion curves are presented and discussed.

Chapter 5

Contributions and limitations of thesis are stated. Future works are also mentioned.

9
Chapter 2

Formulation

2.1 Maxwell’s Equations

For time harmonic fields at angular frequency ω, the phasor electric and magnetic fields
in a medium with permeability µ and permittivity ϵ, and no sources, satisfy:

∇ × E = −jωµH (2.1)

∇ × H = jωϵE (2.2)

Since relative permittivity and relative permeability is more frequently used to describe
microwave materials, the symbol H is redefined as η0 H where η0 is the intrinsic impedance
of free space.
With this redefinition, and using the relation ω = √ k0 , the equations become:
ϵ0 µ0

∇ × E = −jk0 µr H (2.3)

∇ × H = jk0 ϵr E (2.4)

k0 is the wave number in vacuum.

10
2.2 Formulation in Terms of Transverse Components

As pointed out in chapter 1, formulations in terms of transverse components are of great

significance and provide a better application of edge elements. Equations (2.3) and (2.4)
can be written explicitly in terms of the transverse and axial components. The operator
∇ can be decomposed as follows

∂
∇ = ∇ t + ez (2.5)
∂z

where ez is the unit vector in the z direction. For waveguide modes, E and H are
governed by (1.1) and (1.2). Then the left side of equation (2.3) can be decomposed in
normal and transverse components as follows

∇ × E = (∇t − jβez ) × (Et + Ez ez ) (2.6)

or
∇ × E = ∇t × Et + ∇t Ez × ez − jβez × Et (2.7)

The z-component can be rearranged as follows

∇t × Et = ez ∇t · (Et × ez ) (2.8)

By substituting (2.7) and (2.8) into equation (2.3), two equations can be obtained
respectively in the transverse and z directions :

∇t Ez × ez − jβez × Et = −jk0 µr Ht (2.9)

∇t · (Et × ez ) = −jk0 µr Hz (2.10)

Transforming equation (2.4) in the same way we obtain:

∇t Hz × ez − jβez × Ht = jk0 ϵr Et (2.11)

11
 ∇t · (Ht × ez ) = jk0 ϵr Ez (2.12)

Substituting (2.12) into (2.9) to eliminate Ez gives

1
∇t [ ∇t · (Ht × ez )] × ez − jβez × Et = −jk0 µr Ht (2.13)
jk0 ϵr

Equation (2.13) can be reduced by taking the cross product with unit vector ez

1
jβEt = [−∇t ∇t · +jk0 µr ](Ht × ez ) (2.14)
jk0 ϵr

which can be rearranged as

1 1
βEt = [∇t ∇t · +k0 2 µr ](Ht × ez ) (2.15)
k0 ϵr

Identically, another partial differential equation can be obtained by substituting (2.10)

into (2.11) or simply using the duality principle in electromagnetics.

1 1
βHt = − [∇t ∇t · +k0 2 ϵr ](Et × ez ) (2.16)
k0 µr

(2.15) and (2.16) are two coupled equations describing the electromagnetic field of a
waveguide mode in terms of transverse components. Similar equations are given in [35].

2.3 Boundary Conditions

The boundary conditions often encountered in electromagnetics are concerned with perfect
electric conducting (PEC) and perfect magnetic conducting (PMC) surfaces. On a PEC
surface, the conditions are
Ez = 0 (2.17)

(Et )tan = 0 (2.18)

The surface of conductors at microwave frequencies is usually treated as PEC.

12
 For a PMC surface
Hz = 0 (2.19)

(Ht )tan = 0 (2.20)

A PMC surface can be applied to some structures on planes of symmetry to reduce the
calculation space.

13
Chapter 3

Finite Elements

3.1 Edge Elements

As mentioned before, first-order triangular edge elements are used to represent both Et
and Ht . The element is illustrated in Fig. 3.1.

Figure 3.1: Triangular edge element model (figure taken from [2])

The vector basis functions for triangular edge elements are given by Tanner and
Peterson [36] as
w12 = Le1 ∇Le2 − Le2 ∇Le1 (3.1)

w23 = Le2 ∇Le3 − Le3 ∇Le2 (3.2)

14
 w31 = Le3 ∇Le1 − Le1 ∇Le3 (3.3)

where Le1 , Le2 and Le3 are the area coordinates [2] in the element. It is not difficult to prove
that each basis function has constant tangential component along the corresponding edge
and zero tangential component on the other edges. Besides, they also have the properties
of zero divergence.
The basis functions used in this thesis are multiplied by the length of the corresponding
edges so that they are dimensionless, e.g.

N1 = w12 l1e (3.4)

Then the electric and magnetic field are approximated as

∑
3
Ete = Nie Eie (3.5)
i=1

∑
3
Hte = Nie Hie (3.6)
i=1

where Eie and Hie are the tangential field values along edge i.

3.2 The Weighted Residual Method

Let we and wh be independent weight functions. We constrain Et and we to vanish

tangentially on PEC boundaries, and Ht and wh to vanish tangentially on PMC boundaries.
Like Et and Ht , we and wh are tangentially continuous anywhere.
Equation (2.15) is multiplied by wh × ez on both sides to give

1 1
βEt · (wh × ez ) = (wh × ez ) · ∇t ∇t · (Ht × ez )
k0 ϵr
(3.7)
1
+ k02 µr (wh × ez ) · (Ht × ez )
k0

15
Using the identity

u · ∇t ∇t · v = ∇t · (u∇t · v) − (∇t · u)(∇t · v) (3.8)

equation (3.7) can be expanded as

1
βEt × wh · ez = − ∇t · (wh × ez )∇t · (Ht × ez ) + k0 µr wh · Ht
k0 ϵ r
(3.9)
1
+ ∇t · [wh × ez ∇t · (Ht × ez )]
k0 ϵ r
Using the equation
∇t · (u × ez ) = ez · ∇t × u (3.10)

and integrating (3.9) over all elements yields

M ∫∫
∑ ∑
M ∫∫
1 1
β Et × wh · ez dS = − ( ∇ × wh · ∇t × Ht − k02 µr wh · Ht ) dS
e=1 Se e=1
k0 S e ϵr

∑M ∫∫
1 1
+ ∇ · [wh × ez ∇ · (Ht × ez )] dS
k
e=1 0 S e ϵr

(3.11)

where M is the total number of elements. In the integration process, applying the
divergence theorem
∫∫ I
∇t u = u · en dl (3.12)
S C

to the last term in (3.11) yields

∑M ∫∫ ∑M I
1 1 1 1
∇t · [wh × ez ∇t · (Ht × ez )] = (ez · ∇t × Ht )(wh · ez × en ) dl
k
e=1 0 S e ϵr k
e=1 0 C
e ϵr

(3.13)
The direction of vector wh · ez × en is along the boundary of each element. On the
inner boundaries between elements, wh are tangentially continuous. So the continuity of
ez · ∇t × Ht is the natural boundary condition, which actually is the continuity of Ez as a
result of equation (2.12). Similarly, on PEC boundary where wh is not constrained, the

16
natural boundary condition is Ez = 0. And on a PMC boundary where wh is constrained
tangentially to zero, then the boundary term vanishes. So dropping the last term from
(3.11) gives the right natural boundary conditions on PEC boundaries and internally,
and has no effect on PMC boundaries.
Thus, the path integral term in (3.11) is dropped and the equation becomes
∑M ∫∫ ∑M ∫∫
1 1
β Et × wh · ez dS = − ( ∇ × wh · ∇t × Ht − k02 µr wh · Ht ) dS
e=1 Se e=1
k0 S e ϵr

(3.14)

Likewise, equation (2.16) can be transformed in the same way to get another coupled
finite element equation
∑M ∫∫ ∑M ∫∫
1 1
β Ht × we · ez dS = ( ∇ × we · ∇t × Et − k02 ϵr we · Et ) dS
e=1 Se k
e=1 0 S e µr

(3.15)

3.3 Discretization

Since k0 is usually specified in the design process, the propagation constant β remains to
be solved from the system of equations (3.14) and (3.15). Equation (3.14) is expanded
by substituting equation (3.5) and (3.6) as follows
∑M ∫∫ ∑
3 ∑M ∫∫ ∑3
1 1
β Nj Ej × wh · ez dS =
e e
− ( ∇t × wh · ∇t × Nje Hje
e=1
e
S j=1 e=1
k 0 S e ϵ r j=1

∑
3
− k02 µr wh · Nje Hje ) dS
j=1

(3.16)

The basis functions Ni are also used to represent the weight functions wh and we , e.g.
∑3
wh = Nje wje . Equation (3.16) can be written in matrix form
j=1

β{whe }T [X e ] {E e } = {whe }T [P e ] {H e } (3.17)

17
where
∫∫
Xije = Nje × Nie · ez dS (3.18)
Se

∫∫
1 1
Pije =− ( ∇t × Nie · ∇t × Nje − k02 µr Ni ·e Nje ) dS (3.19)
k0 S e ϵr

Equation (3.15) can be treated in the same way, leading to

β{wee }T [X e ]T {H e } = {wee }T [Qe ] {E e } (3.20)

where
∫∫
1 1
Qeij = ( ∇t × Nie · ∇t × Nje − k02 ϵr Nie · Nje ) dS (3.21)
k0 Se µr
Next (3.17) and (3.20) are assembled into global systems and essential boundary
conditions are imposed on PMC and PEC edges. The result is

β [X] {E} = [P ] {H} (3.22)

β [X]T {H} = [Q] {E} (3.23)

where [X], [P ] and [Q] are global matrices. [X] is a real rectangular matrix, and [P ] and
[Q] are both real, square, symmetric matrices. Assume that the numbers of free edges
for Et and Ht are Ne and Nh respectively. Then [X] is a Nh × Ne matrix, [P ] is Nh × Nh
and [Q] is Ne × Ne .
From the system of equations (3.22) and (3.23), an important equation can be obtained

[P ] {H} = β 2 [X] [Q]−1 [X]T {H} (3.24)

Equation (3.24) is a generalized eigenvalue problem and the eigenvalue β 2 can be obtained
by the function eig() in MATLAB [37]. Among all the results for β 2 , the positive values
correspond to modes above cut-off frequency, which can propagate in the waveguides.

18
Chapter 4

Results

The waveguide models are discretized into elements using the PDE toolbox in MATLAB.
All results are obtained with MATLAB 2015a [37], running on a 2.40GHz 4-core i7-5500
CPU.

4.1 Empty Waveguide

Fig. 4.1 shows the finite element meshes in a rectangular waveguide with width a and
height b = a/2.

19
Figure 4.1: Waveguide model discretized into (a) 14 elements (b) 44 elements and (c) 152
elements

First the dispersion curve of the lowest mode T E10 is displayed in Fig. 4.2. The
analytical solution of phase constant β can be calculated from equations (1.4) and (1.5). It
is obvious that the finite element solutions with more elements are closer to the analytical
solution.

20
Figure 4.2: Dispersion curves of T E10 mode in empty waveguide using 14, 44 and 152
elements

Dispersion curves of other modes are shown in Fig. 4.3 when discretizing the waveguides
into 152 elements. The finite element solutions are in good agreement with the analytical
results.

21
 Figure 4.3: Dispersion curves of modes of empty waveguide

4.2 Dielectric Waveguide

To investigate the performance of the method with an inhomogeneous waveguide, another

model is built based on the previous empty waveguide model showing in Fig. 4.4. It has
the same geometry, but is half-filled with dielectric material. The symmetry is exploited
to reduce computation domain. The solution domain (half problem) is discretized into
166 elements.

22
Figure 4.4: Half-filled rectangular waveguide model with b=a/2, d=b/2, ϵr = 4, and
µr = 1

The dispersion curves obtained by treating the plane of symmetry as a magnetic wall
(PMC) are displayed in Fig. 4.5, and the dispersion curves obtained by treating the
plane of symmetry as an electric wall (PEC) are displayed in Fig. 4.6. The finite element
solutions obtained by the proposed method are in good correspondence with the analytic
solution in [2].

23
Figure 4.5: Dispersion curves obtained by treating the plane of symmetry as an magnetic
wall

Figure 4.6: Dispersion curves obtained by treating the plane of symmetry as an electric
wall

24
Chapter 5

Conclusion

5.1 Summary

Based on Maxwell’s equations, two coupled partial differential equations are derived to
describe the modes of waveguides. The equations contain only transverse components
Et and Ht . Using the weighted residual method, the equations lead to a generalized
eigenvalue equation. The waveguide modes and phase constant can be obtained by solving
the eigenvalue equation.
In this thesis, first-order triangular edge elements are used. Rectangular waveguides
with homogeneous and inhomogeneous media are selected to test the formulation. Since
the finite element solutions agree with analytical solutions, the correctness and reliability
of the new method are confirmed. The success of the new method depends strongly on the
use of edge elements which guarantee the continuity across interfaces and avoid spurious
solutions.

25
5.2 Future Work

Comparisons between the new method and the best available finite element methods
should be made. The performance can evaluated in terms of accuracy, cost of time and
memory.
In addition to the homogeneous and inhomogeneous rectangular waveguides, there are
some more complicated waveguide models that have not been tested with the new method
in this thesis. For example, anisotropic waveguides, lossy waveguides and waveguides
with more challenging geometries could be investigated. Another topic that needs to be
researched further is high-order edge elements. The first-order edge elements in the thesis
can be extended to high-order edge elements to achieve higher accuracy.

26
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