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Microstrip Lines
Printed & Planar Transmission Lines
Introduction
At high frequencies (e.g. microwave) the physical dimensions of printed circuit board (PCB) traces become significant relative to the wavelength of the signal. At these frequencies, controlled impedance transmission lines are used to move signals around a printed circuit board. By controlling the characteristics impedance and electrical length, we can easily predict its behavior in a circuit.
RF & Microwave Engineering BETE-Fall 2009 Basit Ali Zeb Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Substrate is usually a dielectric material having low loss like Teflon, Alumina, quartz, Silicon etc. It acts also as a structural substrate.
RF & Microwave Engineering BETE-Fall 2009 Basit Ali Zeb Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Advantages
They provide circuits that are compact, light in weight and easy to fabricate They are broadband in frequency Ease of fabrication makes it suitable for applications like, microwave feeding networks, impedance matching sections, and planar conformal antennas
EM field lines are not contained entirely in the substrate material, a part of it are in the air above the dielectric substrate. So Microstrip lines does not support pure TEM wave rather quasi-TEM mode.
So which should we use in order to maintain the Phase match between the dielectric-air interface. We should take into account the effects of both the medium i.e., substrate and air to calculate the effective dielectric constant of the microstrip line:
d <<
0 = r ,e
d The effective dielectric constant of the microstrip line is dependant on the substrate thickness and the trace width. Since some of the field lines are in the dielectric region and some are in air, the effective dielectric constant satisfies the relation:
1 < r ,e < r
Calculate Z0 !
Given the dimensions of a microstrip line, d and W, the characteristic impedance of the quasi-TEM mode can be found as:
Calculate Width!
Alternatively, for a given characteristic impedance Z0 and dielectric constant r , the dimensions of microstrip line W / d can be found as:
Characteristics Impedance
The characteristic impedance Z0 of the microstrip line depends on the physical size (width & thickness) of the trace on a particular substrate. It is observed that, on the same dielectric substrate, as the line width decreases, Z0 increases and reverse relation holds true.
Microstrip Discontinuity
Discontinuities introduce parasitic reactance that can lead to: Phase and amplitude degradation Input and output mismatch Microstrip Bends Step changes in widths Junction points
RF & Microwave Engineering BETE-Fall 2009
a = 1.8 W
Implementation
A microstrip layout
Design Parameters
Following are some of the parameters that might effect the design: Choice of the substrate material Operating frequency Effective Dielectric Constant Characteristics Impedance & width of the microstrip line trace Losses and power handling capability Miniaturization, shielding case Integration with lumped elements
RF & Microwave Engineering BETE-Fall 2009 Basit Ali Zeb Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Study
Article 3.8 from the text book A Technical article Reviewing the Basics of Microstrip Lines (available in Common folder as pdf
file)