Analysis Of The Propagation Properties Of Multilayer Metal-Plated Guided Wave Structures

Multilayer metal-plating could improve the transmission characteristics and corrosion resistance. In addition, the cost of general guided wave structures can be significantly cut. The effect of multilayer metal-plating on the propagation properties of general guided wave structures, one of key factors which have to be taken into account in engineering practice, must be effectively modeled and analyzed. However, the effective skin depth and the equivalent surface impedance of multilayer metal-plating are the direct reflection of the boundary condition of multilayer metal-coated guided wave structures. These parameters are the key foundation for the analysis of multilayer metal-plated guided wave structures.The compact 4-component 2-D finite-difference frequency-domain algorithm (2-D CFDFD) is one of the effective methods to calculate the propagation properties of ideal guided wave structures. By introducing the surface impedance boundary condition, the algorithm can be fully applied to the calculation of guided wave structures with lossy boundary including multilayer metal-plating boundary. Using this algorithm, a sparse coefficient matrix which is used to calculate the field component on each node can be obtained. By solving the eigen value of the coefficient matrix, the propagation constant can be easily obtained for a given frequency.In this dissertation, the effective skin depth and the equivalent surface impedance of multilayer metal-plating are firstly investigated. Then 2-D CFDFD algorithm with the surface impedance boundary condition is used to calculate the propagation constant of guided wave structures with lossy boundary including multilayer metal-plating boundary. Finally, the numerical results are obtained.