The development of three dimensional (3-D) waveguide structures for chip scale planar lightwave circuits (PLCs) is hampered by the lack of effective 3-D wide-angle (WA) beam propagation methods (BPMs). We present a simple 3-D wide-angle beam propagation method (WA-BPM) using Hoekstra's scheme along with a new 3-D wave equation splitting method. The applicability, accuracy and effectiveness of our method are demonstrated by applying it to simulations of wide-angle beam propagation and comparing them with analytical solutions. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.