The problem of modeling and designing a structure including a planar element(s) (e.g., antenna, RF circuit, etc.) arranged in association with a non-planar element(s) (e.g., non-planar packaging, a non-planar scattering element, a complex meta material, a periodic array element, etc.), in a computationally efficient and rigorous manner is solved by (1) modeling each of the planar elements using both conventional space-spectral analysis and complex space-spectral analysis to obtain an electro-magnetic (EM) signature matrix for each planar element, (2) determining (e.g., using a brute force modeling based on Maxwell's equations, by measuring experimentally, or by reading one from a stored library) an EM signature matrix (e.g., reflection and scattering matrices) compatible with those of the planar elements, for each of the non-planar elements, and (3) combining the EM signatures of the elements using matrix analysis to obtain a complete EM signature the structure.