A Hybrid FEM/MoM Method for 3-D Electromagnetic Scattering in Layered Medium

Accurate and efficient prediction of electromagnetic scattering from inhomogeneous objects in layered medium is one of the most challenging issues in engineering applications. This paper presents the first 3-D higher order hybrid finite-element method (FEM) and method of moments (MoM) for the accurate modeling of inhomogeneous dielectric objects in multilayered medium. The main challenges of this paper include: 1) the integration of these algorithms for layered medium and 2) the higher order computational approach involved in layered medium for high efficiency. In the proposed method, the MoM with the layered medium dyadic Green's function is used as the exact radiation boundary condition in an inhomogeneous background, and the FEM is applied to model the inhomogeneous objects. Furthermore, the higher order maximally orthogonal basis functions with curl-conforming and divergence-conforming properties are used in the FEM and MoM, respectively to improve the modeling capability of this algorithm. For 3-D inhomogeneous objects scattering in multilayered medium, this new method requires a much more tightly truncated simulation domain than the traditional FEM, and provides much higher flexibility than the pure surface integral equation method. Finally, some numerical results are provided to validate the accuracy, efficiency, and flexibility of this method.