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     

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     

Double-Sided Parallel-Strip Line With an Inserted Conductor Plane and Its Applications

In this paper, a novel multilayer structure using the double-sided parallel-strip line with an inserted conductor plane is investigated. A conductor plane is inserted into the middle of the substrate of the double-sided parallel-strip line in the proposed structure, which can function as virtual ground to isolate the nonidentical circuits on the top and bottom layers effectively. On the other hand, the conductor plane can be negligible for the identical circuits. Based on the new structure, a dual-band stub can be realized using the isolation characteristic of the conductor plane, where the stub can be treated as a combination of two back-to-back microstrip stubs operating at different frequencies. The common ground of the two microstrip stubs is provided by the inserted conductor plane. For demonstrating this idea, a bandpass filter with two transmission zeros is optimized, fabricated, and tested. The simulated and measured results are presented and show good agreement. The size of this filter is reduced approximately by half, as compared with that of the similar type of microstrip filters.     

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     

A 4.1 unequal Wilkinson power divider

This letter presents the design and measured performances of a microstrip 4:1 unequal Wilkinson power divider. The divider is designed using the conventional Wilkinson topology with the defected ground structure (DGS). The DGS on the ground plane provides an additional effective inductive component to the microstrip line. This enables the microstrip line to be realized with very high impedance of over 150 Ω. By employing the DGS to the unequal Wilkinson topology, 4:1 power dividing ratio can be obtained easily without any problem in realization, while it has been impractical to fabricate a 4:1 divider using the conventional microstrip line because of very thin conductor width and extremely low aspect ratio (W/H). As an example, a 4:1 divider has been designed and measured at 1.5 GHz in order to show the validity of the proposed DGS and unequal divider. The measured performances of the 4:1 unequal power divider well agree with the exactly same dividing ratio as that expected     

Characterization of buried microstrip lines for constructinghigh-density microwave integrated circuits

This paper describes the characterization of a guided wave structure, buried microstrip line (BMSL), which is considered to be promising for constructing high-density microwave and millimeter-wave integrated circuits because of its high isolation characteristics. The BMSL includes a dielectric medium surrounded by ground conductor walls and a strip conductor on the top of the dielectric. The BMSL structure is characterized by the two methods, the rectangular boundary division (RBD) method and the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The RBD method is employed to obtain basic parameters of the BMSL such as characteristic impedances and coupling coefficients over a wide range of line sizes taking advantages of its high calculation efficiency. On the other hand, the FDTD method has been used for more detailed characterization such as the frequency performances of stub matching circuits. The FDTD method is also used to confirm the validity of the quasi-TEM wave approximation which the RBD is based on. The analysis results reveal that the BMSL structure possesses much lower coupling coefficients than a conventional microstrip line does, from -15 dB to -100 dB depending on their burial depths     

Measurement of minority-carrier lifetime in silicon at microwave frequencies using microstrip techniques

A method is described for measuring minority-carrier lifetime in semiconductor samples of any thicknes and dimensions (e.g. silicon is used in device fabrication). The semiconductor sample is used as the dielectric of a microstrip line sandwitched between a ground plane of electroplated gold (or other metal) and electroplateted strip conductor delineated using standard photoresist masking techniques.     

Novel Microstrip Photonic Bandgap Cell Structures

In general, a planar microstrip photonic bandgap (PBG) structure os a periodic array of holes etched in the ground plane of a microstrip line. To use a circuit with a PBG, the PBG structure cannot be fixed on a metal base and needs to be shielded. In this paper, two kinds of novel microstrip PBG unit cells with special patterns etched in the strip line, which can be used as the conventional microstrip circuits, are proposed and analyzed in detail. The results show that the transmission line theory is valid for the theoretic analysis of PBG circuits.     

Closed-form expressions for the current distributions on openmicrostrip lines

The authors systematically clarify the characteristics of current distributions for various cases of substrate relative permittivity, shape ratio, and normalized frequency. These characteristics are clarified, and closed-form expressions are proposed. An open microstrip line with isotropic dielectric substrate is numerically analyzed by the spectral-domain method to clarify current distributions on a strip conductor. The current distributions obtained are illustrated in figures for typical cases. A full view of current distributions on a strip conductor in any microstrip line is provided by showing those close-form expressions. These expressions for the current distribution have been compared with the theoretical results, and good agreement has been obtained     

一种新型具有双陷波特性的超宽带天线设计

本文提出了一种新型紧凑的具有双陷波特性的印刷超宽带天线。天线采用微带传输线馈电,并通过圆形与矩形 的混合结构辐射单元和带有矩形开槽结构的地板来实现天线的超宽带特性,工作带宽覆盖UWB 频率范围。通过地板上 两个对称的J 形开槽和微带馈线两侧对称添加的线型结构单元来实现双陷波特性,两个陷波频段刚好覆盖了3.5GHz 的 WIMAX 频段标准和5.2/5.8GHz 的WLAN 频段标准。同时,该天线在工作频带范围内具有良好的辐射特性,符合超宽带 通信的使用标准。     

Characteristic Impedance and Effective Permittivity of Modified Microstrip Line for High Power Transmission

In a quasi-TEM approximation, the calculation of the characteristic impedance and effective permittivity of a modified microstrip line with the upper strip conductor edges turned up from the substrateis presented. Both these theoretically derived quantities are compared with experimental values. To further facilitate the analysis and synthesis of the modified microstrip line, closed-form approximations to the characteristic impedance and effective permittivity have been found containing elementary functions only. The modified microstrip can be used in the construction of lines capable of transmitting high power on substrates having high loss factor and low thermal conductivity, for example, on low-cost plastics.     

Rigorous dispersive analysis of skin effects on a printed microstrip line containing finite conductor losses

Theoretical full-wave analyses of skin effects on a microstrip line plated with 1 mil (1/1000 inch) thick gold conductor are presented. The time-harmonic complex longitudinal and transverse current distributions inside and on the surface of the metal strip are reported for a microstrip operating at 100 GHz. The case study shows that the current distributions obtained by the new full-wave approach agree well with those predicted by the well-known plane analysis of skin effects.<>     

A general analysis of propagation along multiple-layersuperconducting stripline and microstrip transmission lines

A rigorous spectral-domain formulation for a superconducting stripline or microstrip transmission line with a multiple-layer dielectric substrate is presented. The formulation models the strip conductor as a surface current with an equivalent surface impedance, where the surface impedance is approximated in closed form when the strip is either much thinner or much thicker than a penetration depth. In either case the surface impedance is related to the complex conductivity of the material, which is calculated from a two-fluid model. Results are presented to show the slow-wave propagation and attenuation along both microstrip and stripline packages in a realistic multiple-layer configuration, which accounts for the field penetration into the superconducting ground planes     

Double-layer microstrip structures—lumped capacitances and open-circuit end correction

The analysis is reported of the lumped capacitance and open-circuit end effects of finite-length strip conductors in double-layer microstrip structures. Two specific configurations, namely double-layer microstrip and microstrip-with-overlay configurations, are considered. The analytical approach uses the variational technique in the Fourier transform domain in conjunction with the transverse transmission line technique. It is identified that the only parameter needed to analyse the lumped capacitances and open-circuit end effects of these microstrip structures is the admittance at the charge plane. This parameter can easily be determined from the two-wire transmission line equivalent circuit. Extensive numerical data are generated for the lumped capacitances and open-circuit end effects of the finite-length strip conductor in double-layer microstrip and microstrip-with-overlay configurations. The data presented should be useful in designing lumped elements and filters in these configurations.     

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.      

Attenuation distortion of transient signals in microstrip

Attenuation distortion, and combinations of dispersion and attenuation distortions, of transient signals in microstrip lines are investigated. Conduction losses are considered for the general case where the strip conductor resistivity is different from that of the ground plane. Dielectric losses are examined for commonly used isotropic substrates. Attenuation and dispersion distortions of short pulses are shown to vary as microstrip and pulse parameters are changed     

Tunable Impedance Transformer Using a Transmission Line With Variable Characteristic Impedance

This paper proposes a new structure for a tunable impedance transformer. The proposed transformer consists of a quarter-wavelength transmission line with variable characteristic impedance. The operating principle of the variable characteristic impedance is based on the use of parallel combinations of multiple transmission lines and by controlling the line connection with RF switches. Multiple switches are inserted at the in/out terminals of each transmission line. Since a parallel microstrip transmission line has a unique structure that involves a partially removed ground plane under the conductor line, it is possible to realize a high characteristic impedance line with a wide linewidth.     

Wire and strip conductors over a dielectric-coated conducting ordielectric half-space

The complex wavenumber and characteristic impedance are determined for a wire or flat strip over a dielectric-coated half-space that can be a conductor or a dielectric with large permittivity. Elevated microstrip is an example of the configuration. The properties of the wire as an antenna or transmission lines are determined from those of the insulated antenna with a two-layer eccentric insulation. The theory is extended to the strip conductor with the help of a comparison of the tubular and strip conductors over a perfectly conducting half-space     

Dynamic analysis of a microstrip line over a perforated groundplane

A full wave analysis is presented to compute the characteristic impedance and propagation constant of a microstrip line over a perforated ground plane. The perforations in the ground plane are modeled by equivalent magnetic currents. The method of moments is applied to solve the coupled integral equations for the unknown electric current on the microstrip line and the unknown magnetic currents in the apertures. The fields are formulated using the space domain Sommerfeld type Green's functions. The matrix pencil technique is used to obtain the amplitude and the propagation constant of the fundamental modes for both current and the voltage on the microstrip line. Typical numerical results are given     

Planar Transmission Line Medium With Negative Refractive Index Based on Complementary Omega-Like Structure

A new planar left-handed transmission line medium based on complementary omega-like structure (COLS) is proposed. A microstrip implementation of the structure is demonstrated. By etching COLS in the ground plane just below the strip, a band over which the refractive index is negative has been found. Numerical simulation of the scattering (S) parameters for the proposed structure is presented. Simulated dispersion characteristic is also shown. The structure under study has been fabricated and very good agreement has been found between measured and simulated frequency responses.