Microwave Applications of TLM Modeling Techniques

(Invited Article)
Christos Christopoulos and C. J. Smartt
Numerical Modelling Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of
Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. E-mail: EEZCC@UK.AC.NOlT.VAX
Receiued April 3, 1995; revised August 17, 1995.

ABSTRACT
This article describes the essential features of the transmission-line modeling (TLM)
technique and its application to the simulation of the behavior of microwave circuits.
Emphasis is placed on presenting the general modeling approach and developments to the
model to deal with practical microwave problems. Computational techniques and require-
ments are discussed with reference to dispersion, coarseness errors, and infinite boundaries.
0 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

1. INTRODUCTION simulation in two directions. First, old established

The availability in recent years of powerful work-
stations at a reasonable cost has given a new
impetus to simulation as an aid to the analysis
and design of complex engineering systems.
Computer-aided engineering is the term used to
describe the range of tools associated with prob-
lem capture, numerical simulation, optimization,
and visualization resident in a computer which,
ideally, offer complete design, evaluation, and
prototyping capabilities. The topics of structural
and thermal analysis and computational fluid dy-
namics were the first to receive attention from
modelers and have well-developed CAD tools. In
contrast, simulation in electromagnetics is rela-
tively new.
Electromagnetic waves propagate over large
distances in a short time and interact with materi-
als in complex ways. The vectorial nature of EM
fields and the scope for nonlinear and anisotropic
behavior of materials add further complications
and make EM simulation a particularly demand-
ing branch of engineering. Many fruitful ideas for
EM modeling remained dormant for a number of
years due to lack of adequate computational re-
sources. The availability of fast processors with
large memory made possible developments in EM
methods can now be applied to larger problems.
Second, new ways of constructing models were
developed more in keeping with the environment
of modern digital computers. In the future paral-
lel computer architectures are expected to make
an impact on simulation for engineering design
and hence new ways of modeling as well as
improvements to existing models may be forth-
coming.
In all the excitement brought about by the
enhanced capabilities of CAD, it must be borne
in mind that more engineers are now expected to
use simulation software on a day-to-day basis.
Many have only a rudimentary grasp of electro-
magnetic principles and little or no knowledge of
numerical simulation. Those who develop soft-
ware for EM simulation are, therefore, required
to produce powerful, versatile, and general tools,
which are computationally efficient and can be
used easily and correctly by general applications
engineers. This is a very demanding requirement
and both those who use and develop simulation
tools need to understand each other’s problems.
User-friendly should not mean that the user is
insulated from the need to understand the basic
physics embodied in the model, on the contrary, a

International Journal of Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Computer-Aided Engineering, Vol. 6, No. 1, 26-35 (1996)
0 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. CCC l050-1827/96/010026-10

26
 Microwave Applications in TLM Modeling 27

good model should enhance physical understand-

ing and thus promote its correct and creative use.
In this article, the transmission-line modeling (or
matrix) (TLM) technique is described and it is
shown that it has many desirable features, making
it an ideal tool for simulation.

2. MODELING PRINCIPLES OF TLM

Ideas for using circuit equivalents to model EM

wave propagation were described in refs. 1 and 2.
However, the modern development of TLM
started with the work of Johns and Beurle in the
early 1970s [3]. Initially, two-dimensional prob-
lems were tackled 141, but the success of the
method lead quickly to the introduction of full
three-dimensional solvers [5].In TLM, a block of
space, normally but not necessarily of cuboid
shape, is modeled by a collection of capacitors,
inductors, and resistors. Each represents electric
and magnetic storage and dissipation, respec-
tively. These components are arranged in such a
way that voltages and currents are exact copies of
electric and magnetic fields in that part of space.
The lumped L and C components representing
the properties of each block render space dis-
crete. The next step is to replace L and C by
suitable transmission lines with transit time At
thus making time also discrete.
Discretization in space and in time is an essen-
tial part of simulation by computer and it is
inherent to the TLM model. It is easy to establish
a correspondence between voltages and currents
either through physical intuition or in more for-
mal ways [5, 71. The basic structure showing the
interconnection of lines at a node, the so-called
symmetrical condensed node (SCN) used exten-
sively for three-dimensional simulation, is shown
in Figure 1 [5].There are six lines and hence two
ports in each coordinate direction. Thus, any wave
polarization can be accounted for. It is clear from
Figure 1 that a mapping between field compo-
nents E and B and voltages and current V and I
can be established. As an illustration, the electric
field Ex component at the center of the node may
be obtained from the voltages at ports 1,2,9, and
12. Alternatively, field components may be ob-
tained at the boundary between nodes. Introduc-
ing an excitation into the mesh, such as Ex,
involves the injection of voltage pulse at the ap-
propriate nodes (1, 2, 9, and 12 for exciting Ex).
Figure 1. Schematic of an SCN TLM node.
A typical simulation using TLM consists of the
following steps:
1. Populate the problem space by SCN nodes
like the one shown in Figure 1. The size of
each node (A/)3 must be such that A / <
Amin, where Amin is the smallest wave-
length of interest. Conducting features and
different dielectric materials must be repre-
sented in the three-dimensional mesh of
nodes by selecting the appropriate values
for reflection coefficients and for L and C.
2. Introduce appropriate excitation into the
mesh by injecting voltage pulses into se-
lected lines in the mesh.
3. At each time step compute the scattered
voltage pulses from all nodes in the mesh.
I/' = [SlV
The scattering matrix [S] is particularly sim-
ple and its derivation is explained in detail
in ref. 7.
4. Use the values of scattered voltages to eval-
uate the desired field values.
5. Based on the topology of the mesh, and by
using the value of the scattered pulses, de-
termine a new set of pulses incident on all
nodes in the mesh. To illustrate this, it can
be seen that the incident voltage on port
11 on node ( X , Y ,Z ) at time step k 1, +
k + *V[,(X,Y,Z ) is simply equal to the pulse
+
reflected into port 3 of node ( X AX, Y , Z )
28 Christupoulus and Smartt
at the previous time step k , kV&X + AX,
Y ,Z ) .
6. Repeat step (3) and continue.
The essential steps in the TLM simulation are
scattering (step 3) and connection (step 4). The
simulation starts at t = 0 and proceeds for as
long as desired. Output is in the time domain.
Using Fourier transform techniques complete in-
formation on all frequencies up to those corre-
sponding to wavelength hmin may be obtained
from a single simulation in the time domain.
TLM is thus a time domain, differential equation
method.
Certain features of TLM are evident. First, as
a time domain differential method, it offers great
flexibility and versatility in modeling complex
problems with nonuniform materials. Second,
since it proceeds by seeking an exact solution to
a physical network it is unconditionally stable.
Third, since computation at each node involves
only the immediate neighbors it results in a sim-
ple and inherently parallel algorithm. Fourth, at
the center of each boundary of a TLM node both
electric and magnetic field components may be
determined, thus facilitating the imposition of
boundary conditions. Finally, since it models fields
by analogy to circuits, it is accessible to the engi-
neer who is unfamiliar with more complex mathe-
matical solution techniques. This allows for a
better feel for the method and for an interpreta-
tion of errors and approximations based on an
engineering standpoint. A more complete de-
scription of TLM in three dimensions may be
found in ref. 7.
3. ADVANCED TECHNIQUES IN TLM
The basic modeling capabilities described in the
previous section have to be enhanced to allow for
more accurate and efficient modeling of practical
problems such as those encountered in the simu-
lation of microwave circuits. Of particular impor-
tance in microwave simulation are the nature and
magnitude of errors due to dispersion, coarseness
of the mesh relative to fine features, and reflec-
tions from numerical boundaries. The TLM mesh
may be made finer and larger to minimize errors,
but this is rarely a practical proposition in a CAD
environment where answers are required within a
reasonable time span and preferably in psycholog-
ical real-time. If field-based CAD software like
those based on TLM, finite differences, or finite
elements are to be used interactively in a design
environment then substantial improvements in
speed must be achieved and perhaps a degree
of hybridization with other semianalytical tech-
niques may be necessary to achieve acceptable
performance in interactive design environments.
This is an important issue which is receiving the
attention of modelers. In the remainder of this
section some of the improvements to the basic
TLM technique, which offer better accuracy and
higher efficiency, are described.
The basic SCN node shown in Figure 1 is
suitable for modeling uniform media with a regu-
lar mesh. To model inhomogeneous media and/or
employ an irregular (graded) mesh, stubs are
added to this node to increase capacitance ( E )
and/or inductance ( p) in what is described as a
stub-loaded SCN. In general, three capacitive and
three inductive stubs are required. The stub-
loaded SCN may be modified to eliminate either
the inductive [8] or the capacitive [9] stub. In the
resulting hybrid node (HSCN) there are three
different link line impedance values. In a further
development of this node all stubs are removed
and medium properties are accounted for by the
different link-line impedance. This is referred to
as the symmetrical supercondensed node (SSCN)
[lo]. The range of propagation errors differs for
each type of node. Some nodes exhibit the same
dispersion irrespective of wave polarization. Simi-
larly, some exhibit unilateral propagation proper-
ties (i.e., propagation velocity always smaller or
larger than the theoretical value for all propaga-
tion angles and/or material properties). A de-
tailed study of these features may be found else-
where in [ll-131 together with an assessment of
the storage and run-time requirement for each
type of node. The SSCN appears to offer the best
compromise with a propagation error of less than
2% over a wide range of problem parameters. As
a general rule, dispersion increases with permit-
tivity and permeability. It is recommended that,
for accuracy, ten discretization intervals be used
at the shortest wavelength of interest.
A problem requiring particular attention is that
of errors due to coarseness of description of
geometrical features. For problem features which
are not parallel to coordinate planes a staircase
approximation is normally used. However, this
may be avoided by using a TLM node with un-
equal arms as described in ref. 14. The descrip-
tion of fine wires in a TLM mesh, where the wire
diameter is smaller than the space discretization
length requires special wire-nodes as described in
ref. 15. Alternatively, the cross-section of the wire
may be described by short-circuiting nodes form-
 Microwave Applications in TLM Modeling 29

ing the outline of the wire. This is only possible planes 3 mm apart. The line is excited and the
when the wire cross-sectional dimensions are first three resonances are obtained from simula-
larger than the space discretization length. Under tions using various node types and space dis-
practical conditions, and to economize on com- cretization lengths. All simulations were run on
puter resources, it is found necessary to use only an 80-MHz, 16 Mflop workstation. The relevant
one short-circuited node to describe the wire data are shown in Table I. The first four rows
cross-section. This inevitably introduces reso- refer to a uniform mesh with space discretization
nance or velocity errors (a few percentage points) length A/'= 0.3 mm, 0.15 mm, 0.075 mm, and
which results in predicted frequencies lower than 0.0375 mm, respectively. Symmetry was used
expected. Similar errors occur near edges of con- around a plane running through the middle and
ducting features and may be dealt with in a along the length of the line. For the fine mesh
similar manner as above. These shifts in fre- this resulted in a mesh of 44 X 48 X 40 nodes.
quency may be significant in the simulation of No resonance corrections were used in any
some microwave circuits where they are compar- of these simulations. The run time is shown in the
able to the bandwidth. There are various ap- last column of the table. In an attempt to de-
proaches to the solution of these problems crease run-time without loss of accuracy, simula-
[16-181. One possibility is to use a finer mesh tions were repeated for two different gradings.
near sharp or fine objects. This may be done by For mesh grad 1 the following node spacings were
using a graded mesh or a mesh which is locally used (number of nodes X node spacing-mm) in
refined around a particular feature. These latter each coordinate direction:
schemes are described as multigrid or multiple-
grid meshes. They involve interfaces between fine X-1 X 0.15,8 X 0.0375,4 X 0.075,
and coarse mesh regions and hence require a 7 X 0.15,7 X 0.3
form of spacial and time averaging for orderly
y-2 X 0.15,2 X 0.075,8 X 0.0375,
exchange of pulses across this interface. The de-
velopment of these schemes has proved difficult 2 X0.075,6 X 0.15,6 X 0.3
in time domain differential formulations [19]. The Z-20 X 0.15
multiple-grid mesh [20] offers a good compro-
mise between accuracy and efficiency and has similarly, for mesh grad 2:
been used successfully to simulate a number of
problems. X-1 X 0.15,s X 0.0375,s X 0.15,7 X 0.3
An alternative approach is to introduce local
y-3 X 0.15,8 X 0.0375,3 X 0.15,s X 0.3
modifications to the mesh which aim at dealing
with the root cause of the velocity errors. These 2-20 X 0.15
hinge on the excessive delay around corner nodes
and hence improvements may be made by reduc- An example of the electric field distribution at
ing these delays. One technique is to artificially 18.4 GHz showing the meshing employed for the
increase the propagation velocity on a single layer regular fine and for the grad 2 mesh are shown in
of nodes around the corner or fine feature. A Figure 2a and b, respectively. It is clear from the
comprehensive survey of several such techniques data shown in Table I that considerable savings in
may be found in ref. 18. computational demands can be made by exploit-
A frequency domain version of TLM (FD- ing grading and multigrid techniques. In the latter
TLM) has also been developed to deal with prob-
lems which are more amenable to this type of TABLE I. Comparison of Different
treatment. These include narrowband investiga- Meshing Techniques
tions, or situations where the presence of long
diffusion time constants would result in exces- fi fi f3
sively long computation in the time domain. FD- Mesh (GHz) (GHz) (GHz) Run-time
TLM has been applied successfully to a number Coarse 17.39 33.68 49.46 4s
of microwave problems [18, 191. Medium 18.12 34.75 50.95 2 min 8 s
To show the computational requirement for Fine 18.37 35.33 51.60 33 rnin 48 s
various TLM schemes some simple examples are Very fine 18.52 35.57 51.91 11 h 10 min 31 s
presented from the microwave field. Grad 1 18.54 35.63 52.09 24 min 38 s
A microstrip line (w = 0.6 mm, h = 0.6 mm, Grad 2 18.52 35.60 52.06 15 min 50 s
m/grid 18.49 35.57 51.97 4 min
= 9.6) is connected between two short-circuit
30 Christopoulos and Smartt

(a>
. . .

. . . . . . . . .

~ ~~

Figure 2. Electric field profile using uniform mesh (a) and in a graded mesh (b). Half the
microstrip width is shown.

case, a fine mesh ( A 6 = 0.0375 mm) concentrated
near the edge of the microstrip reduces computa-
tion time to an acceptable level without signifi-
cant loss in accuracy. Multiple grids and also
hybrid solution techniques (e.g., field and semian-
alytical) should reduce computation time to levels
appropriate to an interactive CAD environment
without resorting to formula-based solutions
which have inherent and difficult-to-quantify
errors.
Strip-line discontinuities may be dealt with a
similar way and the S-parameters can be ex-
tracted from the time domain data. The calcula-
tion of S-parameters of a microwave structure
may be achieved in several ways, these methods
generally follow a similar procedure to an experi-
mental measurement. One port is excited (port 1
say) with all the other ports matched. The re-
sponse at the output ports is measured and hence
S,, for ports n # 1 are determined. The mea-
sured response at the input port is the sum of the
excitation and a reflection from the device due to
the S,, term of the scattering matrix. The S,,
term may be extracted by measuring the VSWR
in the input port. This procedure is repeated for
all the ports to determine the full scattering
matrix.
In an experimental situation the excitation is
at a single frequency and the S-parameters are
determined at this one frequency. Although an
analogous numerical experiment may be carried
out using the TLM method with a sinusoidal
excitation, the method is capable of providing
information over a range of frequencies via a
single simulation by using a wideband excitation
and a Fourier transform of the time domain data.
The calculation of S-parameters will be de-
scribed here with particular reference to a mi-
crostrip junction where the microstrip is assumed
to propagate only a single mode, however, the
principles of the calculation are general. The
S-parameter calculation of the junction proceeds
in four stages:
1. The problem is meshed ensuring that there
are adequate lengths of microstrip line at
each of the ports such that any nonpropa-
gating waves may be assumed to decay to a
negligible level before reaching the points
where the TLM output data is taken. The
microstrip lines must also be matched at the
edges of the problem space.
2. A wideband excitation is applied at the in-
put port and time domain measurements of
Microwave Applications in TLM Modeling 31
line voltage and current are recorded at two
points, separated by a distance 2 6 either
side of a reference point z = 0, on the input
port and each output port, where 2/ is less
than half the shortest wavelength of inter-
est. The microstrip line voltage and current
are calculated from the electromagnetic field
data by:
V = -JE-dl
I =
$Hod1
3. The time domain output is Fourier trans-
formed to give voltage and current data at
each frequency of interest at the pairs of
outputs on each port.
4. At each port, the amplitude and phase of
the waves entering and leaving each port is
calculated at each frequency as follows.
Each port is assumed to propagate a single
mode and evanescent modes are assumed to
be negligible at the output points, the volt-
age and current at the output points dis-
tance I either side of a reference point
z = 0 may be written as the sum of incident
and reflected waves at the junction Vi,Zi
and V', I', respectively, as:
where z is the propagation direction, Z , is
the characteristic impedance of the mi-
crostrip, p is the microstrip propagation
constant, and the subscripts 1 and 2 refer to
the TLM output points. The four equations
may be solved to give the amplitude and
phase of the waves incident on and reflected
from the junction as well as the microstrip
characteristic impedance Z , and propaga-
tion constant, p. This information enables
the S-parameters to be determined as:
32 Christopoulos and Smartt

Utilizing the now known propagation con-

stant, p, the S-parameters may be referred
to the position of the junction, as well as the
reference point. 0.75

As an example, the S,,-parameter of the junc-

0.50-
tion of two strips of width w , = 0.6 mm and
w, = 1.2 mm, height 0.6 mm, and with substrate
of sr = 9.6 is shown in Figure 3. 0.25.-
Similarly, the S,, coefficient looking into an
open-ended microstrip (w = 0.6 mm, h = 0.6 mm,
cr = 9.6) is shown in Figure 4. This result is 0.00 ;, 1
0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0
obtained using a uniform mesh A/'= 0.06 mm. Frequency (GHz)
The numerical boundary beyond the open end of
the microstrip should be such that no significant Figure 4. Parameter S, for an open-ended mi-
reflections originate from it. The simplest bound- crostrip.
ary condition in TLM for open-ended problem is
the matched condition, whereby lines are termi-
nated at the boundary by the medium characteris-
tic impedance. Better absorbing boundary condi-
tions have been implemented in TLM [20] and
there is further scope for improvement in con-
figurations found in microwave problems by ex-
ploiting the modal structure of the field. The
magnitude of the electric field for the problem
has been obtained from a simulation using a
graded mesh. The results are shown in Figure 5.
The microstrip extends from z = 0 to z = .o
7.5 mm and the wave is launched at z = 0. The
matched (numerical) boundary is placed at z =
21.6 mm. The electric field Ey is shown in Figure
5a and Ex (parallel to the width of the microstrip)
is shown in Figure 5b. The standing wave pattern
set-up by the discontinuity at the open end is 9
clearly seen as is the small amount of reflections
from the numerical boundary. It is evident that a
surface wave mode is established along the sub-
strate, which extends beyond the open end of the

0.25-

+.
o.oo-*.- 0 . , , , , , , i *_I Y (m) z (nun)
0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0
20.0 Figure 5. Main electric field component Ey (a) and
Frequency (GHz)
component Ex (b) around an open-ended microstrip
Figure 3. Parameter S,, of a microstrip discontinuity. line.
 Microwave Applications in TLM Modeling 33

microstrip, and propagates efficiently to impinge 4. CONCLUSIONS

on the absorbing boundary. Hence, placing the
boundary further away offers only a modest re- Large computations can be performed in reason-
duction to numerical reflections. able time using modern workstations. Using tech-
As a final demonstration of the application of niques such as TLM which offer a complete self-
the TLM method to microwave frequency de- consistent model to electromagnetic propagation,
vices, a microstrip-fed rectangular patch antenna results in detailed and accurate predictions of
is analyzed. Figure 6 shows the structure of the field distributions, S-parameters, etc. Discontinu-
antenna where the dimensions are a = 4.02 cm, ities, junctions, and microwave components may
b = 4.02 cm, 1 = 1.7765 cm, t = 0.159 cm, and be characterized in this way and more accurate
the dielectric permitivity is q = 2.55. The TLM circuit models may be obtained by equating S-
model includes a short section of the feed line. parameters obtained from simulation and directly
The model is excited at the end of the feed line from equivalent circuits. Such circuits can then be
and voltages and currents are recorded at two connected together and to other circuit models to
points on the microstrip. The antenna is treated deal with more complex problems. Access to a
as a one-port device; the method described above supercomputer offers scope for obtaining directly
field solutions for more complex practical con-
is used to determine S,, and with knowledge of
figurations. It must be borne in mind that dealing
the characteristic impedance of the feed, the
impedance of the antenna is determined as shown
in Figure 7.
+
The agreement with the experimental results
of ref. 24 is very good, although the resonant
frequency predicted by the TLM method is slightly
lower than the experimental value of 2275 MHz.
This is attributed to the velocity errors referred to
earlier and may be corrected as described in ref.
17. The far field of the antenna was found from a
second calculation during which transverse elec-
tric and magnetic fields ( E x , E y , H,, and Hy in
this case) at this frequency were calculated on a
plane lying above the patch. The far field was
then calculated in two steps: first, the surface
\+
t
2250MHz
equivalent theorem was used to determine equiv- 2350MHr

alent electric and magnetic sources over the plane

above the antenna; and second, the far field due
to these equivalent sources was then calculated as
shown in Figure 8a and b. Figure 7. Input impedance of the patch antenna.

Figure 6. Microstrip fed rectangular patch antenna.

34 Christopoulos and Srnartt
Figure 8. Far field intensity of the patch antenna, x-z
plane (a) and y-z plane (b).
with more than about a million nodes requires
superior computational resources not presently
available at the desk of the average engineer.
Advanced modeling will surely require techniques
of hybridization to combine in an optimum way
the best features of different solution techniques.
Developing these models and making full use
future parallel computer architectures and ad-
vanced visualization techniques will be the chal-
lenge for modelers in the future.
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BIOGRAPHIES
Christos Christopoulos was born in
Patras, Greece, on September 17, 1946.
He received the Diploma in Electrical
and Mechanical Engineering from the
National Technical University of Athens
in 1969 and the M.Sc. and D.Phil from
the University of Sussex in 1970 and 1974,
respectively. In 1974 he joined the Arc
Research Project of the University of
Liverpool and spent two years working on vacuum arcs and
breakdown while on attachment to the UKAEA Culham Lab-
oratories. In 1976, he joined the University of Durham as a
senior demonstrator in electrical engineering science. In Oc-
tober 1978 he joined the Department of Electrical and Elec-
tronic Engineering, University of Nottingham, where he is
now a professor of electrical engineering. His research inter-
ests are in electrical discharges and plasmas, electromagnetic
Microwaue Applications in TLM Modeling 35
Transmission-Line Matrix Method-a New Con-
cept,” IEEE Trans., Vol. M1T-40, 1992, pp.
2207-2218.
23. J. A. Morente, J. A. Porti, and M. Khallad, “Ab-
sorbing Boundary Conditions for the TLM Meth-
od,” IEEE Trans., Vol. MTT-40, 1992, pp. 2095-
2099.
24. D. M. Pozar, “Input Impedance and Mutual Cou-
pling of Rectangular Microstrip Antennas,” IEEE
Trans., Vol. AF’,1982, pp. 1191-1196.
compatibility, electromagnetics, and protection and simulation
of power networks.
C. J. Smartt was born in Essex in
September 1968. He received the MEng
degree in electrical and electronic engi-
neering from the University of Notting-
ham in 1991. From 1991 until 1994 he
worked toward the Ph.D. degree also at
the University of Nottingham, on the
analysis of optical waveguides, and is now
working in the Numerical Modelling Lab-
oratory at the same institution, where his research interests
include the application of the TLM method to electromag-
netic problems including dispersive and nonlinear media.