Electromagnetic macromodels and Maxwellian circuits

Discrete approximations and numerical solution of Maxwell's curl equations provide a foundation for the development of a variety of macro-models of electromagnetic passive devices, components, and sub-systems. In their majority, such macro-modeling is aimed at containing the cost of numerical computation by offering compact, computationally efficient models as alternatives to the computationally more expensive, detailed models of structures of multi-scale complexity. Preserving key physical attributes of the electromagnetic structure, as Maxwellian circuits attempt to do, is a highly desirable property of the macromodel, albeit not always possible. The aggressive pursuit of on-chip RF and mixed-signal functionality integration prompts us to consider electromagnetic macro-modeling from a different angle. More specifically, this paper entertains the possibility of using electromagnetic macro-models for the seamless insertion of spatially-accurate (distributed) models of integrated passives and their interactions in the nonlinear, high-frequency circuit simulators used for computer-aided analysis and design of on-chip RF and mixed-signal functional blocks.