Properties of Microstripline

SMG-8306 Transmission Lines & Waveguides
Properties of Microstripline
Prabhat Man Sainju, Rohit Ahuja
[email protected]
[email protected]
Radio Frequency Electronics, Tampere University of Technology
Abstract—Microstripline is a planar waveguide fabricated in referred. Assumptions made for the analytical solution are:
the integrated circuits and can be realized in the printed circuit  Sidewalls at the sides of substrate are conducting.
boards. With their miniaturized formation, these waveguides  Dielectric substrate is electrically thin (h<<λ)
are used in the modern day high frequency communication
systems. They are highly cost effective compared to their larger
 Also the waves realized in microstrip lines are not
counterparts such as rectangular waveguides. Different perfect TEM but quasi TEM waves.
microwave components such as antennas, couplers, filters,
dividers can be formed via microstrip lines. With the dimensions of the basic Microstripline structure
given, we can define the characteristic impedance of the line
Index Terms—Microstrip lines, COMSOL, Simulation as:
I. INTRODUCTION
M ICROSTRIPLINES are the planar waveguides that can

be realized in smaller scale enough to fit in the
integrated circuits and can also be fabricated with printed
electronics[1]. The geometry of the Microstripline is simple Where the effective dielectric constant of the microstrip line
and easily conceivable. Microstrip is just a thin conductor is given by:
laid on the dielectric surface or the substrate.
Effective Dielectric Constant here has been used to

calculate the characteristic impedance and has not been
included in the result table.
The characteristic impedance of the stripline can be

expressed in terms of its inductance and capacitance as in
Figure 1: Microstrip Structure [1] Eq. 3. The equation relates characteristic impedance with the
capacitance in the medium and in the air.
The nature of propagation of waves through the waveguide
depends upon the substrate height, width of the microstrip
line and the dielectric constant of the substrate. The
thickness of the microstrip itself is considered to be nominal.
COMSOL Multiphysics 3.5a® has been used here to A coupled coplanar Microstripline includes two identical
describe the cross section of the structure in 2-D. striplines within the substrate. S is the new parameter which
denotes the separation between the two coplanar striplines. If
II THEORY the equal potentials are supplied for both of the strips, then it
We can approximate the following parameters of the is called an even mode and odd mode when the potential is
microstrip lines: opposite. In this report, only the even mode has been
 Characteristic Impedance focused. The characteristic impedance is given by [3]
 Effective Dielectric Constant of the substrate
For the analysis, the structure specified in Figure 1 will be
1
B. Stripline with different dimensions

Where In this section, we deal with the same Microstripline but with
different dimensions (variations in Width to Height ratio).
The relative permittivity of the test stripline has been set to
3.25.
And TABLE II
CHARACTERISTIC IMPEDANCE FOR DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS
W C Ca
h cm Er Zc,s Ω Zc,a Ω
cm pF/m pF/m
III RESULTS & OBSERVATIONS 0.2 0.5 3.25 98.5 30.3 61.05 62.163
0.1 0.5 3.25 86.4 26.6 69.624 70.791

A. Stripline for different substrate materials
In this case we have used the different substrate materials 0.07 0.5 3.25 66.6 20.5 90.335 90.88
over the same geometry for basic stripline configuration. The
electric energy density of the configuration has been shown As the Width of the stripline is decreased, the surface area
in figure 2. The Table I shows the different values of associated with the capacitance of the system decreases. This
characteristic impedances for different substrate materials. effect is also seen in the Ca values for the air medium. Since
W is the width of the metallic strip and h represents the the capacitance is decreased, the characteristic impedance
height of the strip from the ground plane of the substrate increases. This can be verified with the analytical solution
(refer Figure 1). From the COMSOL, we get the Capacitance Zc,a in TABLE II which has been derived from the equation
of the stripline for the particular substrate (C in the TABLE 1. The results match with the simulation outputs.
I) and for the air medium (Ca in the TABLE I). The substrate
materials have been varied depending upon its relative
permittivity. C. Comparison with Coupled stripline with Coplanar
The characteristic impedance can be calculated from these Strip
simulated values (Zc,s in the TABLE I) as per the equation 2. The coupled stripline with coplanar strip includes two
This value has been compared to the analytical solution (Zc,a identical metallic strips placed inside the substrate. The
in the TABLE I) as obtained from Equation 1. strips are aligned in the same plane separated by a distance.
Figure 2: Electric Potential of basic stripline Figure 3: Electric Potential of Coupled Coplanar Stripline
TABLE I TABLE III
CHARACTERISTIC IMPEDANCE FOR DIFFERENT SUBSTRATES
CHARACTERISTIC IMPEDANCE FOR COPLANAR STRIP
C Ca
W cm h cm Er Zc,s Ω Zc,a Ω C L
pF/m pF/m W cm h cm S cm Zc,s Ω Zc,a Ω
pF/m μH/m
0.2 0.5 3.25 98.5 30.3 61.05 62.163
0.1 0.5 0.1 118.5 0.778 81.35 81.72
0.2 0.5 4.5 136 30.3 51.884 52.828
0.175 0.5 0.1 151.8 0.655 65.69 65.1
0.2 0.5 12.1 367 30.3 31.640 32.216
0.175 0.5 0.2 163 0.724 66.68 66.714
As the relative permittivity of the substrate is increased, the

The tabular result above now includes the separation
capacitance of the stripline increases. On the other hand, the
between the strips as a new parameter. Capacitance and
characteristic impedance of the stripline decreases.
inductance of the stripline was generated from the COMSOL
2
and the characteristic impedance Zc,s is the result of equation

3. The analytical solution was obtained from the equation 4.
As the separation of the stripline was increased, the
capacitance as well as inductance increased. Hence, in reality
the characteristic impedance has also increased.
IV. CONCLUSION
Microstriplines are basically used as the antenna feeds,
dividers and couplers and hence it becomes pretty much
necessary to match its impedance with the connecting port.
COMSOL was used to simulate the Microstripline with the
various field patterns to obtain its parameters such as
capacitance and inductance. The results were compared to
the set of analytical formulas provided in the standard text
materials. It was observed that the simulated results were
close to the analytical solution. However, steps involved in
COMSOL for the simulation have not been included in the
report.
The impedance equation 3 with the capacitance in the air
medium was not applicable for different coupled
Microstripline configurations. Hence, the COMSOL
simulation was divided into electrostatics and magnetostatics
simulation. Electrostatic simulation resulted in the
capacitance of the line and magnetostatics simulation
resulted in the inductance.
Hence, it was found that the analytical calculations can be
useful for the prediction of properties of the Microstripline.
Similarly, COMSOL was observed to be a very useful tool
for the simulation of Microstripline behavior.
REFERENCE
[1] Microwave Engineering, D. Pozar, 3rd edition
[2] COMSOL Tutorials -ACDC_Module/Tutorial_Models/microstrip
[3] Foundations for Microwave Engineering (2nd Edition), Collin, Robert
E.

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SMG-8306 Transmission Lines & Waveguides

M ICROSTRIPLINES are the planar waveguides that can

Effective Dielectric Constant here has been used to

The characteristic impedance of the stripline can be

B. Stripline with different dimensions

0.1 0.5 3.25 86.4 26.6 69.624 70.791

As the relative permittivity of the substrate is increased, the

and the characteristic impedance Zc,s is the result of equation

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