Design and analysis of planar photonic band gap devices

The need for a highly efficient numerical simulation platform for designing photonic band gap (PBG) structures is outlined in the context of various functional device topologies. In this paper we therefore introduce the Method of Auxiliary Sources (MAS) as a semi-analytical, frequency-domain method for computational optics, which has already proven its accuracy and efficiency in various other fields of electrodynamics. The proposed software package provides an easy-to-handle approach to full-wave analysis of two-dimensional (2D) PBG circuits, PBG-based antennas as well as to dense-integrated optics components that contain optical waveguides, scatterers, resonators and other functional elements. Experimental verifications of the numerical results have been conducted along large-scale prototypes in the microwave frequency range for several device topologies.