COMPUTER ALGEBRA APPLIED TO RADIATION FROM MICROSTRIP DISCONTINUITIES

The use of microstrip lines for microwave applications is limited by a number of factors. These factors include line attenuation due to metallic loss, dielectric loss, and loss due to radiation from discontinuities and transitions. The latter loss constitutes one of the major limiting features at higher frequencies. Therefore the ability to understand radiation loss, predict it, and possibly control it is quite essential. This paper explains how a computer algebra (MACSYMA) was used to derive a closed-form expression for predicting the amount of radiation emanating from microstrip bends with arbitrary angle. The derivation of this expression is sufficiently messy and laborious that manual derivation would have been very difficult or almost impossible. © 1990, Academic Press Limited. All rights reserved.