MICROSTRIP LINES

REFERENCE: SAMUEL LIAO

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 • All high power microwave devices utilized
conventional lines - W/G, coaxial lines

• With the introduction of monolithic microwave

integrated circuits(MMIC) – Microstrip lines and
Coplanar strip lines – used extensively
• Strip lines are used at frequencies from 100MHz
to 100GHz

• Microstrip line is an asymmetrical strip line ( top

ground plate is not present )

• To interconnect high speed logic circuits in

computers
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Strip lines and Microstrip lines :

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STRIP LINE

TEM Mode in strip line

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Micro Strip Line :

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• Mode of propagation is quasi TEM mode
• also called as open strip lines
• Radiation loss is the main problem
• They can be fabricated using automated
techniques
• They provide uniform signal paths

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Advantages of Microstriplines:
• Fabrication costs are less compared to strip line, coaxial
or waveguide circuits

• Both packaged and unpackaged semiconductor chips

can be attached to the microstrip element (since microstrip
line is planar in nature)

• easy access to the top surface , easy to mount passive or

active discrete devices

Disadvantages:
• due to the openness – high radiation losses/ interference due
to nearby conductors
• due to air dielectric interface discontinuity in E & H fields is
generated
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Characteristic Impedance of a microstrip line :
• Is a function of strip line width, strip line thickness, distance
between the line and the ground plane and dielectric constant
of the board material

• The equation for Characteristic Impedance for wire over

ground txn is given by :

Effective dielectric constant

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Put d and effective dielectric constant in eq.1

Ch. Imp. for narrow microstrip line:

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Characteristic Impedance for a wide microstrip line is:

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Losses in Microstrip line:

• Dielectric loss in the substrate

• Ohmic skin loss in the strip conductor and the ground
plane
• Radiation Losses

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Dielectric and Ohmic
attenuation constant

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Dielectric Losses :

Dielectric attenuation constant

Dielectric loss tangent ,

where is the conductivity of the surface

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 Welch’s equation

where

If the loss tangent is independent of frequency, the dielectric attn is also

independent of frequency.

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Ohmic Losses
• Microstrip conductor contributes major part of ohmic loss
(non perfect conductors)
• Attenuation constant for a wide microstrip line is

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Radiation Losses
Depends on the substrates thickness, dielectric constant
and its geometry

• The ratio of total radiated power to total dissipated power for

an open circuited microstrip line is

The radiation factor decreases with increasing substrate

dielectric constant 16
Quality Factor Q of Microstrip lines:

• Microwave ICs require very high quality resonant circuits

• The quality factor Q for microstrip lines is very high but it is limited
by the losses of the substrate

We have

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Parallel and Coplanar Strip lines

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 Distributed parameters

• Parallel strip line is similar to two conductor transmission line

• Supports quasi TEM mode

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Characteristic Impedance

Attenuation Losses

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Attenuation constants for conductor and dielectric losses

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