Evaluation of Generative Modeling Techniques for Frequency Responses

During microwave design, it is of practical interest to obtain insight in the statistical variability of a device’s frequency response with respect to several sources of variation. Unfortunately, the frequency response acquisition can be particularly time-consuming or expensive. This makes uncertainty quantification unfeasible when dealing with complex networks. Generative modeling techniques that are based on machine learning can reduce the computation load by learning the underlying stochastic process from few instances of the device response and generating new ones by executing an inexpensive sampling strategy. This way, an arbitrary number of frequency responses can be obtained that are drawn from a probability distribution that resembles the original one. The use of Gaussian Process Latent Variable Models (GP-LVM) and Variational Autoencoders (VAE) as modeling algorithms will be evaluated in a generative framework. The framework includes a Vector Fitting (VF) pre-processing step which guarantees stability and reciprocity of S-matrices by converting them into a suitable rational model. Both GP-LVM and VAE are tested on the S-parameter responses of two linear multi-port network examples.