An internally combined volume-surface integral equation for 3D plasma scatterers

Plasmas drive many different technologies ranging from fluorescent/luminescent lighting to microelectronic device etching and medicine. To accelerate the pace of innovation and development in plasma science and engineering, fast and accurate electromagnetic simulators are called for. Unfortunately, the application of standard differential equation and volume integral equation (VIE) techniques to the analysis of fields inside highly-heterogeneous plasmas containing regions of negative permittivity often results in ill-conditioned system of equations that converge very slowly when solved iteratively.