ELECTROMAGNETISM 310

PRACTICAL 2
2009

PURPOSE

The purpose of the practical is to get familiar with the concept of relative dielectric
constant and loss tangent. This will be done by implementing microstrip circuits on an
EM software package namely Sonnet Lite.

REFERENCE

Read Chapter 2 in Ulaby, Fundamentals of Applied Electromagnetics.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

To accurately design microstrip circuits one needs reliable data on the dielectric
substrate. A material frequently used is FR4 substrate, with the values for dielectric
constant εr and loss tangent tanδ generally taken to be 4.4 and 0.001 respectively.
Results have shown that these values are not always accurate. Two test circuits can be
built and measured to determine the exact values. The top view of the two structures
are shown in Figure 1 and 2.

Port 1 Port 2
Poort 1 Poort 2
Figure 1: Transmission line with quarter wavelength open circuit.

l
Port 1 Port 2
Poort 1 Poort 2
Figure 2: Half wavelength transmission line (to establish loss tangent).

These circuits were implemented using FR4, and their measured scattering parameters
are given in Appendix A.

S21 is known as the transmission coefficient, describing how much of the incoming
wave at Port 1 is transmitted to Port 2 of the 2-port network. The graphs given in
Appendix A are shown on a logarithmic scale. To convert between linear and
logarithmic S-parameters one would use the following relation:
 S log = 20 log S lin [dB]

This then implies that when S21 becomes –30.5dB, only 0.03 (or 3%) of the incoming
wave is transmitted to the output port 2. Consider Figure 1 and Figure A1. The basic
working of the circuit shown in Figure 1 is as follows (Also compare Figure 3).

Poort
Port 11 Poort 2
Port 2

Opebaan
Open circuit
l

Figure 3: Schematic view of open circuit stub circuit as given in Figure 1.

The parallel stub is in effect an open circuit. At the frequency where l = λg/4 the open
circuit is transformed into a short circuit at the junction with the transmission line.
The short circuit in your transmission line at this frequency results in a mismatch, thus
prohibiting most of the incoming wave to transmit to Port 2. The wavelength is
dependent on the relative dielectric constant with the following relation:

λo
λg =
ε eff

with the effective dielectric constant (εeff) for microstrip line defined by the following
relation with the relative dielectric constant (εr), line width (W) and substrate height
(h).

εr +1 εr −1 1
ε eff = +
2 2 h
1 + 12
W

This implies that if the εr assumed is incorrect, λg will be calculated incorrectly. The
circuit originally built was designed to resonate (S21 at a minimum value) at 1.8GHz
with εr assumed to be 4.4. It can be seen from Figure 1 that the resonant frequency
increased to a value of 1.846GHz. The aim for the first part of this practical will be to
alter the value of the relative dielectric constant in Sonnet Lite so that the resonant
frequency will be close to 1.846GHz.

The circuit shown in Figure 2 with corresponding measurement given in Figure A2 is

a 50Ω transmission line. The S21 curve shows a value of –0.38dB at the center
frequency 1.8GHz. This parameter for a transmission line should ideally be zero and
any other value implies losses in the medium or substrate. These losses are taken into
account with the loss tangent (tanδ) parameter that can be included in the simulation
with Sonnet Lite. The second aim of the practical will be to establish the loss tangent
of the material by once again altering this parameter in Sonnet Lite until the curves
obtained in Sonnet are the same as the measured results given in Appendix A.

Complete circuit dimensions are given in Appendix A. The first aim is to learn Sonnet
Lite and to build and simulate the basic circuit of Figure 1 and 2. Once the simulation
is satisfactory, you can start testing various values for the relative dielectric constant
(εr) and loss tangent (tanδ) until a value for these parameters are found that predicts
what the values for the FR4 used in the experimental set-up are.

REPORT

The following results must be handed in at the end of the practical:

I. Computation of relative dielectric constant
Graph of S21 vs. frequency
Value of relative dielectric constant
II. Computation of loss tangent
Graph of S21 vs. frequency
Value of loss tangent
APPENDIX A

a) Resonant circuit

Circuit dimensions (mm) Measured data

22.5

21 21.3

Figure A1: Resonant circuit dimensions and measured results.

b) Transmission line

Circuit dimensions (mm) Measured data

45.3
3

Figure A2: Transmission line dimensions and measured results.

APPENDIX B

SONNET LITE QUICK START TUTORIAL

Steps to creating a simulation

• Start Sonnet Lite

• Click on Edit Project, followed by New Geometry
• Now a large XGEOM window should open
• Click on Circuit on the menu bar and select the Units submenu.
• Check if length unit is in millimetres and frequency unit is in GHz.
• Click OK
• Click on Circuit on the menu bar and select the Box submenu
• Select Cell Size of x = 0.1 mm and y = 0.1 mm
• Select Box Size of x = 45.3 mm and y = 60 mm
• Select Top Metal as free space
• Select Bottom Metal as lossless
• Next select the Dielectric Layers menu in the Circuit menu
• Rename the top material to air and assign a thickness of 20 mm
• Rename the bottom material to FR4 and edit "Erel" (εr) and "Loss tan"
(tanδ) to specified values and assign a thickness of 1.6 mm
• Click on the Tools menu bar, select Add Metalization and click on
Rectangle.
• Specify width and height of the object.
• Add 2 ports to the schematic by using the toolbar to the left.
• Click on Analysis on the menu bar and select Setup.
• Under Setup select an adaptive sweep profile and specify a start
frequency of
• 1.6 GHz and stop frequency of 2 GHz.
• Save your *.son file onto the hard drive
• Click on Project in the menu bar and select Analyze in the submenu
bar.
• After simulation click on the View Response button to the view results.
• To display a different S parameter than currently shown, right-click on
the S parameter name (e.g., S11) shown in the left interaction bar, and
then select
• Edit Curve Group. In the new window, add/remove S parameters as
required.