Mutiphysics study of RF/microwave planar devices: Effect of the input signal power

In this paper, the effects of the input signal power on microwave planar devices are studied in detail. In this context, a complete multiphysics study is performed, involving the electro-thermo-mechanical coupling in microwave components. For this study, a multiphysics simulator is used. As shown, for moderate input powers, the device transfer function can be altered, mainly in terms of an increase of losses and a frequency shift. Additionally, hot spots are to be appeared, whose location is related to the electromagnetic field distribution of the passive device under test. Guidelines are also provided to estimate the average power handling capability (APHC) of planar components. As an example, the multiphysics analysis of a microstrip coupled-line filter centered at 42 GHz is tackled taken into account different thermal and mechanical boundary conditions.