On the coupling of microwave radiation to wire structures

The general aspects of the excitation of wire structures under microwave illumination are presented and discussed. Numerical, analytical and experimental results are provided. A simple procedure is presented for bounding the response of certain canonical configurations. Results are obtained for a terminated single wire over a ground plane and for a two-wire transmission line under plane wave illumination. The variation of the induced current with the dimensions and frequency is considered. It is shown that the TEM (transverse electromagnetic) mode current is a suitable approximation for the wire current with line separations up to and exceeding a wavelength