Full-wave analysis of an infinitely long magnetic surface wavetransducer

A rigorous analysis of an infinitely long microstrip line embedded in a multilayer structure which includes a ferrite layer is presented. In certain frequency ranges, such a line launches magnetic surface waves in the ferrite layer and thus becomes a surface wave transducer. The analysis is a self-consistent, full-wave solution which rigorously includes the effect of radiating magnetic waves. By expanding the transducer currents in terms of both even and odd functions, it is shown that the principal current is not symmetrically distributed across the transducer width. The propagation constant of the transducer mode is complex and shows a large, imaginary part (attenuation) tied to the excitation of magnetostatic surface waves. In addition, the propagation constant remains complex even for frequencies above the magnetostatic surface wave bandwidth because the excitation of magnetic surface waves has complex propagation constants. Insertion loss measurements of a multilayer microstrip transducer are in reasonable agreement with the calculated attenuation     

Propagation characteristics of superconducting microstrip lines

The modified spectral-domain approach is applied to study the propagation characteristics of high temperature superconducting microstrip lines whose signal strip and ground plane are of arbitrary thickness. In this study, numerical results for effective dielectric constant, attenuation constant, and strip current distribution are presented to discuss the effects due to frequency, temperature, strip thickness, and substrate loss tangent. In particular, the conductor and dielectric attenuation constants of superconducting microstrip line are depicted separately to discuss the mechanism of the line losses. A comparison with published theoretical and experimental results is also included to check the accuracy of the new approach's results     

Dual-frequency microstrip antenna with dual circular polarisation

A single-feed dual-frequency microstrip patch antenna that can produce dual circular polarisations (CP) is presented. The microstrip antenna has an annular-ring patch and is excited by an L-shaped microstrip line through the coupling of a ring slot in the ground plane. The occurrence of the dual CP is because the magnetic currents circulating along the ring slot at two specific frequencies have opposite flowing directions. Both simulated and measured results are provided to validate the CP performance of the proposed antenna     

Effects of finite ground plane on the radiation characteristics ofa circular patch antenna

An analytical technique to determine the effects of finite ground plane on the radiation characteristics of a microstrip antenna is presented. The induced currents on the ground plane and on the upper surface of the patch are determined from the discontinuity of the near field produced by the equivalent magnetic current source on the physical aperture of the patch. The radiated fields contributed by the induced current on the ground plane and the equivalent sources on the physical aperture yield the radiation pattern of the antenna. Radiation patterns of the circular patch with finite ground plane size are computed and compared with the experimental data, and the agreement is found to be good. The radiation pattern, directive gain and input impedance are found to vary widely with the ground plane size     

Internal inductance and conductor loss associated with the groundplane of a microstrip line

In previous work, a closed-form expression for the current density on the ground plane of a microstrip line was presented. In this paper, we show how this formula for the current density is used to derive an expression for the internal inductance associated with the ground plane. Results are presented for different geometries that illustrate when the internal inductance of the ground becomes comparable to the external inductance of the microstrip line. We also illustrate that the integrals needed for the internal inductance calculation can be used to develop an expression for the conductor loss associated with the ground plane     

Analysis of a thin slot discontinuity in the reference plane of amicrostrip structure

This paper presents a perturbational approach based upon the spectral domain technique for the analysis of the discontinuity effects introduced by a thin slot in the ground plane of a microstrip line. The discontinuity problem is formulated in terms of the unknown slot field by using the notion of equivalent half-space problems, using a new rigorous procedure for deriving the TE-TM decomposition of the fields and equivalent transmission line models. The perturbation current on the infinite microstrip is computed once the electric field in the slot has been derived, and an equivalent circuit for the discontinuity is obtained from this perturbation current for the low-frequency regime. Computed results are presented and compared to the measured data     

Net and partial inductance of a microstrip ground plane

A knowledge of the net inductance of the ground plane can aid in the analysis and investigation of printed circuit board emissions. In this paper, we present a method, based on the concept of partial inductance, to determine the net inductance of the ground plane associated with a microstrip line. This method is based on a previously derived expression for the current density on the ground plane. We show calculations for the net, self-partial, and mutual-partial inductance of the ground plane for various trace geometries of practical interest. We also illustrate how the classical transmission line inductance of a microstrip line can be obtained from the concept of partial inductance. Comparisons to different experimental results are also given     

The current distribution and AC resistance of a microstripstructure

The AC resistance of the strip in a microstrip structure is compared with that of an isolated strip for better understanding of the conductor loss mechanism. An analysis is presented of the AC resistance in a microstrip structure for any metallization thickness by deriving the current distribution over the strip cross section. The analysis uses the separation of variables technique and the Green's function method. It shows that the skin current of the strip is concentrated toward the ground plane in a microstrip structure. In the extreme case, the AC resistance of the strip can be twice as high as the AC resistance of the same isolated strip. The imperfect ground plane also adds to the total conductor loss of a microstrip line. For a wide strip over a lossy ground plane at high frequency, the ground plane surface current distribution is concentrated directly under the strip, and the ground plane AC resistance can be as large as the strip AC resistance. Therefore, the total AC resistance at the microstrip line can be four times as high as that of an isolated strip conductor     

Surface integral formulation for calculating conductor anddielectric losses of various transmission structures

The power-loss method, along with a surface integral formulation, has been used to compute the attenuation constant in microstrip and coplanar structures. This method can be used for the analysis of both open and closed structures. Using the surface equivalence principle, the waveguide walls are replaced by equivalent electric surface currents and dielectric surfaces are replaced by equivalent electric and magnetic surface currents. Enforcing the appropriate boundary condition, and E-field integral equation (EFIE) is developed for these currents. Method of moments with pulse expansion and point matching testing procedure is used to transform the integral equation into a matrix one. The relationship between the propagation constant and frequency is found from the minimum eigenvalue of the moment matrix. The eigenvector pertaining to the minimum eigenvalue gives the unknown electric and magnetic surface currents     

Generalized Partial-Element Equivalent-Circuit Analysis for Planar Circuits With Slotted Ground

A generalized partial-element equivalent-circuit (PEEC) method is proposed for modeling a planar circuit with a thin narrow slot on the ground. The approach is based on the coupled mixed potential integral equations for a problem with mixed electric and magnetic currents. The coupled integral equations are converted into a lumped-element circuit network using Kirchhoff's voltage law and Kirchhoff's current law of the circuit theory. The full-wave Green's functions for a grounded dielectric substrate problem are used. The interactions between electric current on a microstrip line and magnetic current on a slot are taken into account by introducing two kinds of controlled sources. This generalized PEEC model will be very useful in signal-integrity analysis for multilayered circuits. To validate the generalized model, three numerical examples consisting of microstrip lines and slots on the ground are presented. The results obtained by the proposed generalized PEEC model are compared with those obtained by commercial electromagnetic simulation software and published experimental results. Good agreement is obtained.      

Propagation and coupling characteristics of microstrip lines withlaminated ground plane

In this paper, we analyze the effect of laminated ground plane on the propagation and coupling characteristics of microstrip lines. Each lamina is modeled as an anisotropic layer, and transition matrix is used to relate the tangential field components in different laminae. An integral equation is formulated in the spectral domain, and the Galerkin's method is applied to solve the integral equation for the phase and the attenuation constants of several microstrip line structures. The effects of substrate dielectric are also studied. The attenuation constant variation thus obtained will be useful in circuit board design and in studying signal transmission in lamina environment     

Analysis and design of a leaky-wave EMC dipole array

An analysis of an electromagnetically coupled (EMC) dipole array is presented, in which a microstrip line is coupled to an infinite periodic linear array of microstrip dipoles, arranged perpendicular to the line. The spectral-domain immittance method is used to obtain the periodic Green's function for the two-layered structure, and the method of moments with a Galerkin testing procedure is then used to enforce the electric field integral equation (EFIE) on the line and the dipole within a unit cell of the structure to obtain the determinantal equation for the unknown leaky-wave propagation constant. One of the interesting features of this analysis is the path of integration in the complex plane used to compute the moment method reactions, which must be partly on the improper sheet for the m=-1 space harmonic when it radiates in the forward direction. Measured radiation patterns for a 10-element EMC dipole array are presented and compared with the corresponding theoretical ones     

Propagation Characteristics of a Microstrip Line Printed on a General Anisotropic Substrate

An analysis is presented for determining the propagation modes in a microstrip line printed on a substrate having both electric- and magnetic-type general anisotropies. An integral equation is derived for the unknown current distribution on the microstrip line. The kernel of this equation is a complicated 2x2 matrix function of the substrate anisotropy and of the substrate thickness. In order to determine the dispersion relations for the propagating waves, this integral equation is reduced into a finite system of linear equations by employing Galerkin's technique. Numerical results are given for several cases, and the effect of rotating the anisotropy axis in anisotropic substrates is investigated. The proposed method can be employed to compute the propagation characteristics of microstrip lines printed on anisotropic substrates.     

Excitation of an Infinite Microstrip Line With a Vertical Coaxial Feed

An efficient method is presented for the analysis of a vertical coaxial probe excitation of an infinite microstrip line. The novel feature of the method is that it uses a semianalytical Green's function that is derived for current sources in the presence of the infinite microstrip line. Hence, in a method of moments approach, unknown currents need only be placed on the conducting probe feed and not on the infinite strip surface. The method also utilizes an attachment mode at the contact point between the probe and line so that the correct Kirchhoff condition is automatically satisfied. Once the surface current density on the probe is known, the surface current density on the strip conductor can be readily obtained using the Green's function of the background grounded substrate. The method is valid even at high frequency, where simple transmission line theory fails to account for effects such as the continuous-spectrum current that is excited on the line. After validating the method with various commercial software simulation packages, results are presented to study the fundamental behavior of the input impedance, probe current, and current launched on the microstrip line, and to examine the high-frequency behavior of these currents.      

Scattering from a cavity-backed slit in a ground plane-TM case

Two-dimensional transverse-magnetic wave scattering from a cavity-backed slit in a ground plane is analyzed by the Harrington-Mautz generalized network formulation (1976). The admittance matrix of the cavity of arbitrary shape and medium is obtained by the finite-element method. The computed admittance matrix, added to the radiation admittance matrix of the equivalent magnetic current on a ground plane, is used to find a solution for the equivalent magnetic current on the slit. Numerical results for coated staggered cavities are included. Accurate results for the magnetic surface currents and radiation patterns have been obtained     

Response of a planar microstrip line excited by an externalelectromagnetic field

The voltages and currents induced by external electromagnetic fields on a planar microstrip line have been studied with the use of a distributed-source transmission-line model. The frequency response of the microstrip line has been analyzed by simulating the illuminating field with a plane wave arbitrarily incident on the line. The influence of the microstrip geometrical and electrical characteristics on the voltages and currents induced on the line has been examined, and indications for reducing the circuit susceptibility have been obtained. The model adopted can be used for studying the response of the line to any type of external field arbitrarily varying in space time. Numerical results show that for lines loaded with the characteristic impedance at both terminals, voltage amplitudes on the order of some millivolts and currents of some hundreds of microamperes can be induced at f=3 GHz by an incident plane wave with an electric-field intensity of 1 V/m and for various angles of incidence. The voltages and currents induced on a microstrip circuit can be reduced by using substrates of sufficiently high permittivity     

Subterranean power lines in high-density integrated Josephsoncircuits

We found from simulations that wide power lines are required to make bias currents of Josephson gates uniform. Magnetic noise due to large power current decreases the critical current of the adjacent gate. To enhance circuit integration and to stabilize circuit operation, we proposed a power line laid under the ground plane. The gates can be located above the power line inserting the ground plane. The new power line can make whole chip areas active for gates however wide the line is. We confirmed that the ground plane shields the gates from magnetic noise. We fabricated some test circuits using the new power lines and confirmed their operations     

Design of 10 dB 90° branch line coupler using microstrip linewith defected ground structure

The authors present a 10 dB 90° branch line coupler operating at 1.8 GHz and having a defected ground structure (DGS), a type of periodic structure realised by etching on the ground plane under the microstrip line. Owing to the additional effective inductance of the DGS, the characteristic impedance of the microstrip line is increased for the same width of conductor. A microstrip line of 150 Ω of characteristic impedance with 1 mm conductor width is realised by adding the DGS, while 1 mm corresponds to 82 Ω of conventional microstrip line on the RT/Duroid 5880 substrate with 2.2 dielectric constant and 31 mils of thickness. It is shown that a 90° branch-line 10 dB coupler can be fabricated using the 150 Ω line with DGS. Its measured performances are in good agreement with the predicted results     

Slot excitation of the dielectric disk radiator

Dielectric disk radiators which are excited by a narrow slot in the ground plane of a microstrip line are investigated. The resonance frequencies of the dielectric disk for the HEM₁₁ mode are computed numerically in the complex frequency plane. From the later results, the actual resonance frequency and the Q-factor are obtained. The dielectric disk is made of a high dielectric constant ceramic material with ϵ_r=22. The radiation patterns and reflection coefficients are measured and presented for several slot lengths and dielectric disk dimensions. The radiation patterns are also computed assuming a magnetic current element, which models the slot and excites the HEM₁₁ mode. Good agreement is obtained between the computed and measured results. The results presented here also demonstrate the viability of this type of antenna, which has high dielectric constants an efficient radiator provided the proper mode is excited