Full-wave nonlinear analysis of nonradiative dielectric guide circuits including lumped elements

This paper describes the full-wave numerical analysis of complex nonradiative dielectric (NRD) guide structures including linear or nonlinear lumped elements. The numerical results described in this paper, validated through experimentation, show that the method is suitable for NRD guide and similar circuits. Nonlinear analysis of a single-ended NRD guide mixer is carried out, and the results are experimentally verified. Nonlinear harmonic-balance analysis of a novel leaky-wave balanced mixer circuit with very good tolerance of manufacturing inaccuracies in NRD guide configuration in Ka-band is then carried out. Due to curved segments, and orders of magnitude difference in the dimensions of different parts, the analysis of this component requires certain simplifying assumptions. How these can be implemented without sacrificing much accuracy is described. Until now, the design of NRD guide components, especially those using nonlinear effects, has been mostly trial-and-error-based. Here we demonstrate that a more systematic approach is possible