Finite Periodic MoL Approach for the Fast Simulation of Tunable MEMS Phase Shifters

The efficient analysis of circuits containing a high number of movable elements as distributed MEMS phase shifters requires sophisticated approaches. In this contribution an enhanced algorithm based on the method of lines (MoL) is introduced for the analysis of such finite periodic circuits. The algorithm employs so-called Floquet modes as eigensolutions to represent the fields of the structure. The exploitation of the propagation properties in a periodic structure makes the calculation time completely independent of the number of periods. Even for only 2 periods results are calculated faster than with the conventional approach and with the same accuracy. A distributed MEMS phase shifter with up to 45 bridges is investigated