Mathematical Techniques and Computer Aided Design (CAD)

Abstract

The methods taught and used until the mid-sixties for analysis of microwave networks were based primarily on hand calculations; at that time, emphasis was on techniques for reducing mathematical expressions to easily visualized forms. Such an approach might be termed the analytic method — the process of developing the understanding of the mathematics that pertain to a particular microwave circuit model. Once a model is visualized, such a procedure makes it nearly always possible to perceive what variable changes in the circuit or the diodes are needed for optimization with respect to some desired design performance characteristic. The result is synthesis, wherein approaches are envisioned which are known to have the desired properties before they are tried in the specific situation. There is no question that the analytic understanding which leads to synthesis should be sought whenever practical. In the past, lacking an analytic model for the microwave circuit, a designer was committed to a tedious cut-and-try, empiric approach.