A new finite element formulation for the solution of 3D RF scattering and radiation problems is presented here. This formulation is based on the solution of a set of decoupled Helmholtz equations for the Cartesian components of the field vectors. This results in a robust, computer efficient method which eliminates previous difficulties associated with ''curl-curl'' type partial differential equations. Although presented here in the frequency domain, the method is easily extendable to the time domain.