Width Confinement in 3D Dielectric Waveguides and Comparison to 2D
Analytical Models
Abstract
Two-dimensional (2D) analytical models are only approximations for 3D
structures where one cross-sectional dimension is much larger than the
other. This paper uses the finite-difference time-domain method (FDTD)
to perform numerical experiments on fully 3D dielectric waveguide
structures to compute the wave-impedance and the propagation-constant
for finite-width dielectric waveguides. These data are used to determine
the width required to achieve good correlation against 2D analytical
models. Results show that width ≥ 10x height is the limit for good
approximation.