Characterization of coplanar waveguides on MCM-D silicon substrate

Finite-difference time-domain method is adopted in this paper to build models and simulate full-space coplanar waveguide and shielded coplanar waveguide. The propagation constant and characteristic impedance of coplanar waveguide in different models are obtained and compared with the results of traditional modeling. Finally, the effects of different modeling on electromagnetic characteristics of coplanar waveguide are presented.

In this paper the Single Layer Reduction (SLR) technique is presented to compute dispersion characteristics of multilayer coplanar waveguide (CPW) with finite conductor thickness. The effective relative permittivity for the multilayer structure is derived from conformal mapping. Then SLR technique is used to convert multilayer CPW structure to an equivalent single layer structure. The dispersion characteristic of equivalent CPW structure is calculated from the closed form expressions.

High performance coplanar waveguides (CPWs) on GaN membrane technology for AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) grown on low-resistivity (LR) Si substrates have been demonstrated in this work. The developed CPW technology shows a remarkable improvement in RF losses when the lossy Si beneath CPW structures is removed, resulting in comparable RF performance to that of CPW realized on high-resistivity (HR) Si and semi-insulating (SI) SiC substrates, with similar AlGaN/GaN top epitaxial layers. Experimental results, first to be reported, demonstrate transmission losses ( $S_{21}$ ) of 0.47 dB and $Q$ -factor of 20.77 for the CPW on GaN membrane technology, compared to $S_{21}$ of 2.95 dB and $Q$ -factor of 4.51 for the CPW on GaN-on-LR Si, at 40 GHz. Furthermore, the influence of substrate parasitics on RF performance of CPW on GaN-based HEMTs grown on various substrates was studied and analyzed by the extraction of transmission line parameters for frequencies up to 40 GHz. These findings offer viable integrated GaN-based HEMTs on LR Si technology suitable for high-power and high-temperature system applications at RF and millimeter-wave frequencies, when used in conjunction with high thermal coefficient materials such as diamond and AIN.

We investigated the propagation losses and the characteristic impedances Z/sub L/ of coplanar waveguides (CPWs) and microstrip lines (MSLs) on a planar lightwave circuit (PLC)-platform formed on a silica/silicon substrate. The loss of the CPWs was 2.7 dB/cm at 10 GHz on the PLC-platform with 30 /spl mu/m thick silica layer. Thus, a cm-order circuit of this CPW is difficult to fabricate in the 10 Gb/s module. This is because the silicon substrate has a large loss tangent (tan /spl delta/). On the other hand, the loss of the MSLs, where a ground plane shielded the high loss silicon substrate, could be improved to 0.9 dB/cm at 10 GHz with 30 /spl mu/m thick polyimide. These lower loss MSLs on a PLC-platform can be applied to module operation at 10 Gb/s. Furthermore they have the advantage that they are suitable for application to array device circuits or circuits in a module where several devices are integrated because unlike CPWs the ground planes are not divided by signal lines or DC bias lines. The structure of CPWs and MSLs on a PLC-platform with a Z/sub L/ of 50 /spl Omega/ was also studied in detail.

This article presents the new nanoplasmonic branchline coupler (BLC) by using an edge coupled coplanar waveguide (CPW) with a finite length suspended backed conductor. The proposed coupler is designed by using the theoretical transmission line (TL) method, which is established based on the basic characteristics of the related CPW structures. For this purpose, the normalized propagation constant, propagation length, and characteristic impedance of the conductor backed coplanar waveguide (CBCPW) structure are studied and analyzed by applying a fullwave analysis using CAD simulation software tool CST microwave studio suite. Mainly, the coupling coefficient of the BLC can be controlled by changing the length of the backed conductor. In this article, the BLC is designed and analyzed by using a finite length backed conductor based on the theoretical TL method at a 3-dB coupling coefficient. This newly designed coupler can operate at two arbitrary optical frequency bands (O-band and L-band). Hence, it allows us to exchange many other couplers with their narrow bandwidths using this branchline coupler for subwavelength nanoscale wireless network applications and photonic integrated circuits (PICs).

This study presents the accurate characterisation and detailed experimental study of the effect of ground-plane width and suppression of higher-order parasitic modes extending the frequency of operation up to 110 GHz for multilayer conductor-backed coplanar waveguide lines, fabricated in cost-effective thick-film multichip module (MCM) technology. The coplanar waveguides (CPWs) and components have been realised on multiple layers of dielectric onto a ceramic substrate using straightforward and cost-effective photoimageable thick-film process, demonstrating a very low loss of <0.2 dB/mm at 80 GHz for a finite ground CPW and extremely low loss of <0.1 dB at 76 GHz for CPW layer transitions, which are better than many reported results for MCM technologies. Further, the effective dielectric constant (ɛeff) and characteristic impedance (Zch) are extracted from two-port S-parameters measured on a single-line and by conversion to ABCD parameters, to investigate the practical effect of ground-plane width on CPWs on a multilayer ceramic substrate and to facilitate realisation of a cost-effective millimetre-wave MCM.

This paper deals with the field of passive microwave components. Coming from the requirements of mobile communication devices, miniaturization of microwave components is needed. The DIOM laboratory is using the RF sputtering to realize magnetic thin films. The use of these magnetic thin films for a circulator design enables to develop a new manufacturing technique compatible with the miniaturization of these devices. These components are devoted to future wireless applications in the 8–12 GHz frequency range. The advantages of these components lie in using YIG thin film and in the fact that accesses to the device are coplanar waveguide (CPW). The CPW structure has a signal line and a ground in the same plane. Therefore, the circulator with a CPW structure will be easily fabricated using low cost lithography. Moreover, connections with other devices will be easier.

Periodic coplanar waveguides (CPWs) with inductive loading are thoroughly studied by resorting to unit-length transmission parameters, i.e., propagation constant and characteristic impedance, of an equivalent dispersive and/or lossy transmission line. The admittance-type method of moments (MoM) is at first formulated to full-wave modeling of a finite-cell periodic CPW with the two feeding lines and then the short-open-calibration procedure is carried out to deembed the two-port ABCD matrix of the core periodic CPW section. Thus, the above two parameters can be extracted from the MoM simulation to exhibit their guided-wave characteristics, i.e., slow-wave and bandstop behaviors. It is demonstrated for the first time that, within the bandstop or bandgap, the propagation constant must become complex with a nonzero attenuation constant, while the characteristic impedance appears purely imaginary. Three periodic CPW circuits with six finite cells are then characterized on a basis of the transmission-line theorem and the derived S-parameters are validated by Momentum simulation and RF measurement.

To validate the finite element method's suitability for array design on ferrite substrates, measurements were carried out for a z biased ferrite coplanar waveguide (CPW). From the measured S-parameters, propagation constants were extracted over the 1-4 GHz band using 2 different biasing variations. Numerical data for the CPW geometry was also generated using a Finite Element-Boundary Integral (FEBI) analysis. The transverse electric field values in the CPW slots were then used to extract the wavelength of the propagating mode. Using this wavelength, the propagation constant was computed and then compared to experimental measurements.

Many techniques exist for characterizing passive lossless devices utilizing a quasistatic approach. If modeled accurately, the quasistatic approaches can provide accurate results. De-embedding techniques for quasi-static solutions are not too complex. However, when radiation effects or higher order modes exist characterizing interconnects or discontinuities become a complex problem. The author presents the matrix pencil approach as a novel and accurate de-embedding procedure. In this method, the S-parameters are computed directly without requiring specific values for the characteristic impedance. This is because in this technique, the results are automatically normalized with respect to the characteristic impedance of the ports at the frequency of interest. Also, the lines need not be terminated in their characteristic impedance, z/sub 0/, to evaluate the S-parameters. This technique is particularly effective for open structures. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the various de-embedding procedures.

A planar circularly-polarized (CP) small antenna is proposed. To obtain a low profile configuration, a co-planar waveguide (CPW) structure is employed. Circular polarization is achieved using a curved stub that generates current distribution in a direction orthogonal to the current distribution from the patch. Using meander lines and a series gap capacitance, a 70% size reduction is achieved compared to a half-wavelength resonant antenna. To the best of the authors' knowledge, the proposed antenna is the smallest CP antenna using CPW technology. The measured 3dB axial ratio bandwidth is 8.3% from 3.83GHz to 4.16GHz, and a 1.6dBic gain and 89% efficiency are achieved.

A novel ultra-wideband (UWB) bandpass filter (BPF) with dual notched bands using the hybrid microstrip and coplanar waveguide (CPW) structure is proposed, to prevent interference problems between the UWB radio system and existing radio systems. A multiple-mode resonator on a CPW is formed to allocate its first three resonant modes around the lower-end, centre and upper-end of the 3.1 to 10.6 GHz UWB passband. Its two sides are fed by two microstrip-to-CPW transitions with enhanced frequency-dispersive coupling degree. The dual narrow notched bands are introduced by embedding a open stub in the CPW line and etching two U-shaped slots on the ground plane to form defected ground structures (DGSs) in each side of the microstrip structure. Then, dual-band rejected filtering properties in the C-band (3.7–4.2 GHz) and WLAN (5.15–5.825 GHz) are achieved. The UWB bandpass filter with notched bands has been carried out by designs and related simulations to demonstrate the notch-band-included and upper-stopband-improved performances.

In this paper, an integral method for evaluating the propagation characteristics of conductor-backed coplanar wave guide structure is presented. In this method, the Helmholtez equation has been converted into integral equation using Green's second identity. The propagation constant is determined by using some basis functions. The obtained results are found to be very accurate when compared with experimental published data available in the literature. The effects of the ground metallizations on the propagation characteristics is analyzed in compared with the conventional coplanar waveguide structure

To simulate or design a reasonably large system, fast and simple models are necessary. To verify the design versus the specifications, more detailed (and costly) calculations can be performed and final adjustments made. In wave propagation problems, circuit analogs provide a powerful, yet simple, means of computing the desired response of the system, such as reflection or transmission coefficients. The reason circuit analog models are good for wave propagation problems, is that they are exact for one-dimensional wave propagation, regardless of whether we consider acoustic or electromagnetic waves. Typically, wave propagation through homogeneous media is modeled as a transmission line with propagation constant β and characteristic impedance Z, whereas obstacles such as thin sheets are modeled as lumped elements. If the sheets are lossless, the circuit models contain only reactive elements such as capacitors and inductors. Modeling complex wave propagation problems with circuit analogs was to a large extent developed in conjunction with the development of radar technology during the Second World War. Many of the results from this very productive era are collected in the Radiation Laboratory Series and related literature, in particular (Collin, 1991; 1992; Marcuvitz, 1951; Schwinger & Saxon, 1968). Further development has been provided by research on frequency selective structures (Munk, 2000; 2003). In recent years, the circuit analogs have even been used in an inverse fashion: by observing that wave propagation through a material with negative refractive index could be modeled as a transmission line with distributed series capacitance and shunt inductance, i.e., the dual of the standard transmission line, the most successful realization of negative refractive index material is actually made by synthesizing this kind of transmission line using lumped elements (Caloz & Itoh, 2004; Eleftheriades et al., 2002). This chapter is organized as follows. In Section 2 we show that propagation of electromagnetic waves in any material, regardless how complicated, boils down to an eigenvalue problem which can be solved analytically for isotropic media, and numerically for arbitrary media. From this eigenvalue problem, the propagation constant and characteristic impedance can be derived, which generates a transmission line model. In Section 3, we show how sheets with or without periodic patterns can be modeled as lumped elements connected by transmission lines representing propagation in the surrounding medium. The lumped elements can be given a firm definition and physical interpretation in the low frequency limit, and in Section 4 we show how these low frequency properties

The design and development of novel microelectromechanical systems’ (MEMS) coplanar waveguide (CPW) transmission lines, using microshield and groove, are presented in the paper to operate between 5–60 GHz. The quasi-static capacitances of CPW are calculated using the conformal mapping technique to express the propagation properties, i.e., the characteristic impedance and effective permittivity. Simulation results have shown a considerable loss reduction to levels that compare favorably with the conventional CPW. These transmission lines can be widely used in the development of phase shifters, filters, and antennas, because of their advantages in loss reduction and improvement in the performance.