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Lecture No.

Microstrip Lines
Printed & Planar Transmission Lines

RF & Microwave Engineering BETE-Spring 2009

Department of Electrical Engineering Air University

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

What is a Microstrip Line?


It is a special type of printed planar transmission line which is widely used in practical microwave component and integrated circuit design A microstrip line is a printed transmissionline geometry which consists of a single conductor trace (usually gold or copper) on one side of a low-loss dielectric substrate and a single ground plane on the other side of the dielectric substrate.

RF & Microwave Engineering BETE-Fall 2009

Basit Ali Zeb Department of Electrical Engineering, AU

Geometry of Microstrip Line

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

RF & Microwave Engineering BETE-Fall 2009

Basit Ali Zeb Department of Electrical Engineering, AU

Fields in Microstrip Lines

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.

RF & Microwave Engineering BETE-Fall 2009

Basit Ali Zeb Department of Electrical Engineering, AU

Effective Dielectric Constant


Assuming the quasi-TEM mode of propagation, the phase velocity is given as:

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:

RF & Microwave Engineering BETE-Fall 2009

Basit Ali Zeb Department of Electrical Engineering, AU

Effective Dielectric Constant


Equivalent geometry of quasi-TEM microstrip line lies in a homogenous medium. Wavelength:

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

RF & Microwave Engineering BETE-Fall 2009

Basit Ali Zeb Department of Electrical Engineering, AU

Microstrip Lines Parameters

RF & Microwave Engineering BETE-Fall 2009

Basit Ali Zeb Department of Electrical Engineering, AU

Microstrip Line Parameters?


Characteristics Impedance Width of Microstrip line Effective Dielectric Constant Phase Velocity Substrate thickness

RF & Microwave Engineering BETE-Fall 2009

Basit Ali Zeb Department of Electrical Engineering, AU

Calculate Z0 !
Given the dimensions of a microstrip line, d and W, the characteristic impedance of the quasi-TEM mode can be found as:

RF & Microwave Engineering BETE-Fall 2009

Basit Ali Zeb Department of Electrical Engineering, AU

Calculate Width!
Alternatively, for a given characteristic impedance Z0 and dielectric constant r , the dimensions of microstrip line W / d can be found as:

RF & Microwave Engineering BETE-Fall 2009

Basit Ali Zeb Department of Electrical Engineering, AU

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.

RF & Microwave Engineering BETE-Fall 2009

Basit Ali Zeb Department of Electrical Engineering, AU

Substrate Material and Z0


In radio frequency (RF) and microwave (m-wave) circuits, the characteristics impedance of the microstrip lines are carefully controlled to prevent unwanted signal reflections caused by dissimilar impedances.
Remember there is an upper limit of Z0 with Width of trace
RF & Microwave Engineering BETE-Fall 2009 Basit Ali Zeb Department of Electrical Engineering, AU

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

Basit Ali Zeb Department of Electrical Engineering, AU

Losses in Microstrip Lines


Conductor loss in the metallic strip and the ground plane Conduction and dielectric loss in dielectric substrate Radiation loss ( dependant on Frequency) Surface Wave loss

RF & Microwave Engineering BETE-Fall 2009

Basit Ali Zeb Department of Electrical Engineering, AU

Implementation
A microstrip layout

Microstrip feeding network A GPS antenna feeding network

RF & Microwave Engineering BETE-Fall 2009

Basit Ali Zeb Department of Electrical Engineering, AU

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)

RF & Microwave Engineering BETE-Fall 2009

Basit Ali Zeb Department of Electrical Engineering, AU

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