Self-consistent field method in the theory of anisotropic stripline dielectric waveguides

An efficient method is proposed for calculating the mode characteristics of inhomogeneous anisotropic stripline dielectric waveguides. The method involves the reduction of the problem to the solution of a set of two second-order differential equations, each of which is similar to the wave equation for the TM modes of planar isotropic waveguides. The optimal parameters of the equations are obtained on the basis of a variational principle, and it is noted that there is an analogy between the proposed method and the Hartree-Fock self-consistent field approximation.