  We develop a waveform model to describe the inspiral, merger and ringdown of
binary systems with comparable and intermediate mass-ratios. This model
incorporates first-order conservative self-force corrections to the energy and
angular momentum, which are valid in the strong-field regime [1]. We model the
radiative part of the self-force by deriving second-order radiative corrections
to the energy flux. These corrections are obtained by minimizing the phase
discrepancy between our self-force model and the effective one body model [2,
3] for a variety of mass-ratios. We show that our model performs substantially
better than post-Newtonian approximants currently used to model neutron
star-black hole mergers from early inspiral to the innermost stable circular
orbit. In order to match the late inspiral evolution onto the plunge regime, we
extend the 'transition phase' developed by Ori and Thorne [4] by including
finite mass-ratio corrections and modelling the orbital phase evolution using
an implicit rotating source [5]. We explicitly show that the implicit rotating
source approach provides a natural transition from late-time radiation to
ringdown that is equivalent to ringdown waveform modelling based on a sum of
quasinormal modes.
