Simulation of linearly tapered slot antennas using an adaptive multi-resolution FE/BI approach

Hierarchical mixed-order tangential vector finite elements (TVFEs) for tetrahedral elements attractive for accurate and efficient finite element based simulation of complicated electromagnetic problems. They provide versatility in the geometric modeling of physical structures, guarantee solutions free of spurious modes and allow a local increase of resolution by combination of mixed-order TVFEs of different orders within a computational domain. In this paper, hierarchical mixed-order TVFEs of order 0.5 and 1.5 for a tetrahedra are used in conjunction with a simple adaptive refinement strategy to analyze the impedance characteristics of a linearly tapered slot antenna using the hybrid finite element/boundary integral method.