MICROWAVE CIRCUITS

STRIPLINE & MICROSTRIP

 Why use transmission lines?

 Make longer connections which: Are low-loss: low ohmic or

dielectric losses + minimal radiation
 Have well-known characteristics allowing to avoid degradation
in analog or digital systems due to reflections, ringing, limited
bandwidth, …
 Use the transmission lines as circuit element:
 Reactive matching element to optimize power transfer,
maximize gain of active elements, etc…
 Frequency dependent properties: resonators, filters
 Multiports with interesting power combining properties:
couplers, hybrid-T’s. etc…
Trade offs in the choice of suitable TL
mediums

 Electrical Properties  Mechanical properties

Impedance range Ease of fabrication, tolerance
Line Loss (Q) Stability vs. environment
Frequency range (higher order
modes) Flexibility
Shielding performance Weight, size and cost
(radiation losses, coupling)
Dispersion
Power Capability
Ease of inserting active or
passive component
Balanced versus unbalanced
lines
Conventional transmission lines
Integrated planar transmission lines
 Striplines
 Planar transmission line supporting TEM mode (usual mode of
operation)

Geometry

Electric and magnetic field lines

 TE and TM modes are also possible but are suppressed with

shorting screws between ground and restricting b<λ/4
Striplines
 Stripline Designs
 Forward Stripline Design
 Reverse Stripline Design

Geometry of stripline:

 A thin conducting strip of width W is centered between two

wide conducting ground planes of separation b
 The entire region between the ground planes is filled with a
dielectric.
 Constructed by etching the center conductor on a grounded
substrate of thickness b/2, and then covering with another
grounded substrate of the same thickness.
 Characteristics of Striplines

Other characteristics:
conformal mapping needed,
results
fitted to simple formulas
(see Pozar, p.139)
 Forward Stripline Design
30 b
Characteristic Impedance, Z 0  
 r We  0.441b

where We is the “effective strip width” of the center conductor

and is given by,
 Reverse Stripline Design

One can determine the “inverse” of the previous equation, so that W/b
can be determined once r and the required Z0 are specified:
Example

For example, with r = 3.2 and Z0 = 50 , so for the upper

solution we find that 50 3.2  89.44

Hence,
W 30
  0.441  0.6127
b 50 3.2
Attenuation

 Since the stripline is a TEM type of line, the attenuation due to

dielectric loss is of the same form as that for other TEM lines.
The attenuation due to conductor loss can be found by the
perturbation method or Wheeler’s incremental inductance
rule.

where t is the thickness of the strip.

Example

 Find the width for a 50  copper stripline

conductor with b = 0.32 cm and r = 2.20. If
the dielectric loss tangent is 0.001 and the
operating frequency is 10 GHz, calculate the
attenuation in dB/. Assume a conductor
thickness of t = 0.01 mm.
 Microstrip

 One of the most popular types of planar TL as it

can be fabricated by photolithographic processes
and is easily integrated with other passive &
active components.

 The geometry of a microstrip consists of a

conductor of width W, printed on a thin ,
grounded dielectric substrate of thickness d and
relative permittivity r.
 Microstrip – geometry

Microstrip transmission line. (a) Geometry (b) Electric and Magnetic field lines
Microstrip

 All the fields are not contained in one

homogenous medium as in stripline.
 The microstrip has some of its field lines in the
dielectric region concentrated between the strip
conductor and the ground plane, and some
fraction in the air region above the substrate.
 Hence the exact fields constitute a hybrid TE –
TM wave.
Characteristics of Microstrip lines

 In most cases, the dielectric substrate is

electrically very thin (d << )
 This is similar to a quasi TEM state i.e. the
fields are essentially the same as the static
case.
 At the low frequencies, this mode is almost
exactly TEM.
 Thus, good approximations for the phase
velocity, propagation constant, and the
characteristic impedance can be obtained
from static or quasi-static solutions.
Characteristics of Microstrip lines
 The phase velocity and propagation constant can
be expressed as:
c
vp 
e

     0 0  e  k 0  e
vp

where e is the effective dielectric constant of the

microstrip and satisfies the relation 1   e   r
and is dependant on the substrate thickness, d, and
the conductor width, W.
Formulas for Effective Dielectric
Constant, Characteristic Impedance,
and Attenuation
 The effective dielectric constant of a microstrip line
is given approximately by
 r 1  r 1 1
e  
2 2 1  12d / W

 The characteristic impedance can be calculated as

 60  8d W 
  ln W  4d  for W / d  1
 e  
Z0  
 120
for W / d  1
  e W / d  1.393  0.667 ln(W / d  1.444)
Formulas for Effective Dielectric
Constant, Characteristic Impedance,
and Attenuation
 For a given characteristic impedance Z0 and dielectric
constant r, the W/d ratio can be found as:
 8e A
 2A for W / d  2
W e  2

d 2   r 1  0.61
B  1  ln(2 B  1)  ln( B  1)  0.39   for W / d  2
  2  r   r 


Z0  r  1  r 1  0.11 
where A  
 0.23  
60 2  r 1  r 

377
B
2Z 0  r
Equivalent geometry

 In the equivalent geometry of quasi-TEM microstrip

line, the dielectric slab of thickness d and relative
permittivity r has been replaced with a
homogenous medium of effective relative
permittivity, e.

W e

d
Formulas for Effective Dielectric
Constant, Characteristic Impedance,
and Attenuation
 The attenuation due to dielectric loss can be
determined as
k0 r ( e  1) tan 
d  Np / m
2  e ( r  1)
where tanδ is the loss tangent of the dielectric
 The attenuation due to conductor loss is given by
(approximately)
Rs
c  Np / m
Z 0W
where R s   0 / 2 is the surface resistivit y of the conductor
 Microstrip Monolithic Integrated Circuits

Ground Via hole GaAs Implanted GaAs

plane FET substrate substrate
resistor

Layout of a monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC)

Microstrip discontinuities

 Transmission line discontinuities are sometimes

due to unavoidable mechanical or electrical
transitions form one medium to another e.g. a
junction between two waveguides, or a coax to
microstrip transition.
 Discontinuity effect is unwanted but may be enough
to warrant characterization.
 A transmission line discontinuity may be
represented as an equivalent circuit at some point
on the TL.
Some common microstrip discontinuities

(a) Open ended microstrip (b) Gap in microstrip (c) Change in width
(d) T-junction (e) Coax to microstrip junction
Microstrip discontinuities compensation
 Effect of discontinuities
 additional reactances can cause errors in circuit

design
 converts to other modes

 produces radiation

 The effect of discontinuities is mitigated by making

smoother transition or compensation for
discontinuity
Microstrip discontinuities compensation
Slotline
 Consists of a thin slot in the ground plane on one
side of a dielectric substrate.
 The two conductors lead to a quasi – TEM type of
mode.
 Changing the width of the slot changes the
characteristic impedance of the line.
Coplanar waveguide

 Can be thought of as a slotline with a third

conductor centered in the slot region.
 Due to the additional conductor this line can support
even or odd quasi TEM modes depending on
whether the E-fields in the slot are in the opposite
direction, or the same direction.