Planar transmission lines

Syllabus
Microstrip lines- Characteristic impedance-Losses in microstrip lines Q-factor
of microstrip line. Parallel strip lines- distributed parameters- characteristic
impedance- losses Coplanar strip line- shielded strip line- tapered strip line
microstrip resonator, CAT cable




Reference: Microwave devices and Circuits by Samuel Y.Liao
Introduction
Types of Transmission lines
Planar Transmission lines
Advantages of Planar Transmission lines
RF/Microwave Spectrum
Planar Transmission lines are realized at Microwave Frequencies
Microwave Integrated Circuits- Salient Features
Substrates for MICs
Planar Transmission lines are realized on a substrate
Microstrip line
Microstrip Line- Field Distribution
Microstrip line- Design Parameters (Z
0
&

W)


0
0
1 1 0.11
0.23
60 2 1
377
2
r r
r r
r
where
Z
A
B
Z
c c
c c
t
c
| | +
= + +
|
+
\ .
=
Losses in Microstrip Line

Microstrip line Q factor
Quality Factor of a microstrip line is very high. It is limited by losses .Q is
related to Conductor attenuation constant and dielectric attenuation
constant as follows:
Microstrip Design
Calculate the width and length of a microstrip line for a 50
characteristic impedance and a 90
0
phase shift at 2.5 GHz.
The substrate thickness is 0.127 cm and relative dielectric
constant is 2.2.

Soln. Width= 0.391 cm, length=2.19cm.
Characteristic impedance Vs
W/d
10
-1
10
0
10
1
10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3
Characteristic line impedance for different dielectric constants
Line width-to-dielectric thickness ratio, w/d
C
h
a
r
a
c
t
e
r
i
s
t
i
c

l
i
n
e

i
m
p
e
d
a
n
c
e

Z
0
,

O
c
r
=1
cr=2
cr=3
cr=4.6
cr=7
cr=10
cr=12
Microstrip Resonator
Consider a microstrip resonator constructed from a
/2 length of a 50 open circuited microstrip line.
The substrate is Teflon (
r
=2.08, tan= 0.0004), with
a thickness of 0.159cm. The conductors are copper.
Compute the length of the line for resonance at 5
GHz and the Quality factor of the resonator.

Soln:
eff
= 1.8, W=0.508 cm, L= 2.24 cm,

c
=0.0724 Np/m,
d
=0.024 Np/m,
Q= 783
Strip Line
Strip line Field Distribution
Strip Line-Design Formulas
(Qualitative)
Losses in Strip line
Coplanar Lines(CPW)
Coplanar lines (Qualitative)
Coplanar line formulas
Advantages of CPW
Processing only on one Surface-MMIC
Less sensitivity to substrate thickness
Transverse dimension can be reduced
Dimensions may be appended
Series and shunt mounting of Lumped elements
Parallel strip line
Common Planar transmission lines
a. Microstrip line b. Stripline
c. Slot line d. Co-planar strip line
e. Conventional coplanar waveguide (cwg) f. Conductor backed cwg
g. Finite width cwg(fwcwg) h. Conductor backed fwcwg
Comparison of Planar transmission
lines
S.No. Characteristic Microstrip Stripline
Coplanar
strips Slot line
1 Attenuation loss Low Low Medium High
2 Impedance(O) 15-110 20-150 25-125 50-300
3 Radiation loss Low-medium Very low Medium High
4 Dispersion Low Low Medium High
5 Connect shunt elements Difficult Difficult Easy Easy
6 Connect series elements Easy Difficult Easy Difficult