Chapter-1 Chapter-I INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE SURVEY This chapter reviews the relevant literature in microwaves, with emphasis laid upon the development of passive components in the microwave integrated circuits (MICs) The mucrostrip transmission lines are extensively used in digital and analog printed circuit boards. The properties of microstnphines like, attenuation, Q-factor, dispersion, gap and step-width discontinuuties etc are also discussed. 1.1 INTRODUCTION ‘The term Microwaves is used to identify electromagnetic waves in the frequency spectrum ranging from approximately 1-30 GHz, corresponding to the wavelength range from 30-1 cm, The main features of microwaves originate from their small size of wavelengths, due to which the phase of a wave varies rapidly with distance. Consequently the circuit design of electronic components and measurement techniques and circuit analysis are radically different from those at lower frequencies ‘These waves present several interesting and unusual features not found in other portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, makes microwaves extremely suitable for useful diverse applications IEEE Microwave Frequency Bands Giz. Frequency rang: HF (High frequency) iB - 0.030 VHF (Very high frequency) 0.030 - 0,300 UHF (Ultra high frequency) 0.300 - 1.000 Lband 1.000 - 2.000 S band 2.000 - 4.000 C band 4.000 - 8000 X band 8000 - 12000 Ku Band 12.000 ~ 18 000 K band 18.000 - 27000 Ka band 27000 - 40.000 millimeter 40000 - 300.000 Sub-millimeter > 300.000Chapter The study and research in microwaves have not only been an interesting and challenging academic endeavor, 1t has led to several useful applications, such as radio astronomy, space navigation, long-distance communications, radar systems, medical equipments, domestic appliences, missile electrome systems and heating and drying of agncultural food products The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) recommended new microwave band designations (1] as shown in Table 1 1 1.2 MICROWAVE TRANSMISSION STRUCTURES The first paper on stripline was published in 1964 by Wheeler [2] Microwave semi- conductor devices came in to use in the seventies After the breakthrough of microwave semi-conductor devices, the theoretical and experimental researches in microstripline circuits have gained tremendous impetus. Now, some sections of RADAR like big microwave systems can be miniaturized and can be fabricated in the form of Microwave Integrated Circuits (MICs). The term “Microwave” is defined as a frequency range approximately from 0 1 to 30 GHz [3]. In microwave range the commonly used lumped components hike resistors, inductors and capacitors for low frequency applications, could no longer be employed. This is so because the dimensions of the lumped ‘components become comparable with or longer than the wavelength o, At microwave frequencies the inductance and capacitance are “distributed” along the transmission structure, It is impossible to locate to one spot as the specific circuit element, instead, every point in the transmission structure is a part of the distributed impedance [4] At low frequencies, voltage and current waves are considered to affect the entire circust at the same instant of time. This permits the parameters of resistance, capacitance and inductance to be lumped into one value within the circust. Methods of analysis based on lumped-parameter assumptions are not adequate to explain circuit operation at higher frequencies, since at microwave frequencies, voltage and current waves do not affect the entire circuit at the same instant of time Ata given instant of time, voltage and current waves have different values at different physical locations within the circuit That 1s to say that the phase of the wave 1s rapidly changing with distance The circuit must be broken into umt sections within which the parameters may be combined or lumped together. The transmission structures for microwave energy in the given frequency range can be characterised in four categories: a) Open wire or (flat-twin) TEM transmission lines b) Co-axtal TEM transmission lines ©) Waveguides with TE and TM modes 2Chapter-1 4d) Stnplines and microstriplines At the low end of the frequency region, two wire lanes are used Open wire lines are simple but tend to radiate thus loose power at higher frequencies. Co-axial lines are non-radiating and commercially available with different code numbers, for various power and frequency ranges These are used extensively but their size can not be reduced very much, Metal waveguides have low loss and can handle greater power than co-axial lines, but they are much larger in size than co-axial lines. The dielectne filled waveguide do have reduced size to a limited extent as per the relation do 4, ah where Ag is the guide wavelength in the dielectric medium, ¢; is the dielectric constant and do is the free space wavelength. The stiplines and particularly the microstriplines have much reduced size but can mostly be used at low powers only. All the transmission structures except microstriplines can be fabricated by using conventional techniques of machining, whereas striplines and microstriplines need to be fabricated using thin/thick film Microwave Integrated Circuit (MIC) Technology. The cross sections of these different structures are shown in Figs.1.1— 1.4. co 8 (a) (b) © Figure. 1.1, (a) Cross section of two open wire lines (b) Cross section of flat-twin lines (©) Cross section of co-axial line ) Figure. 1.2 Cross section of waveguides (@) Rectangular