STRIPLINES

A stripline is a planar type transmission line which is well suited for

microwave integrated circuitry and photolithographic fabrication.

It is usually constructed by etching the center conductor of width w , on

a substrate of thickness b and then covering with another grounded
2
substrate of the same thickness.

With the voltage applied between the center strip and the pair of
ground planes, current flows down the center strip and returns by
means of the two ground planes.

Although the structure is open at the sides, it is basically a non-

radiating TL. The fields are found to decrease quite rapidly away from
the center conductor. In practice, however, any unbalance in the line
causes energy to be radiated out the sides. To prevent this, the ground
planes are shorted to each other with screws.

The number and spacing of the shorting screws are adjusted to prevent
higher-mode propagation in the frequency range of interest.

Since stipline has two conductors and a homogeneous dielectric, it can

support a TEM wave and this is the usual mode of operation.
Higher order TM and TE modes can also be supported. In practice,
these, are avoided with shorting screws and by restricting the ground
plane spacing to less than .
4

Advantage:

Since a two-conductor line has no low frequency cut-off, it can be

utilized over a very broad frequency range, from f=0 up to the cutoff of
the 1st TE mode.

DISATVANTAGE

It is more difficult to connect electrically two conductors that a single

one; hollow WGs are more easily joined to each other than coaxial
lines, which require high precision and hence expensive, connectors.

DISADVANTAGE

In a two conductor line, the fields tend to concentrate next to the

conductors, mainly near the one having a smaller cross-section. This
limits the power handling capability of the line. The break-down field is
reached for a lower power level that in hollow WGs of the same cross-
section. The heating-up of the center conductor also limits the power
handling. In hollow WGs, on the other hand, the fields spread more
evenly, resulting in larger power-handling capabilities than the in two-
conductor lines, for similar sizes.
 FIELDS PATTERN FOR THE TEM MODE

PROPAGATION CONSTANT, CHARACTERISTIC IMPEDANCE,

ATTENUATION

For the TEM mode; we showed before that:

1 c
vp , c 3 X 108 (m / sec)
r r

r r
(rad / m)
vp c

L 1
Z0
C v pC
In order to find Z 0 , we must know C (capacitance per unit length,
farad/m). There are various ways to evaluate C . Some of them are:

i) Conformal mapping techniques,

ii) Mode matching techniques,
iii) Finite difference and finite element solutions.

The resulting solutions involve complicated functions; hence for

practical computations simple formulas were developed. Below, we
give two approximations:

1) HOWES APPROXIMATE FORMULAS (in David Pozar)

30 b
Z0
r we 0.441b
Where we is the effective width of the center conductor, which
is given as:

w
0 for 0.35
we w b
2
b b w
0.35
w
0.35 for

b b

These formulas assume a zero thickness ( t 0 ). Their accuracy is 1% of

the exact results. We see that as w increases, Z 0 decreases.

When designing stripline circuits, we usually need w , given Z 0 , b and r .

We can use the formulas below for this purpose:
 w
x for r Z 0 120

b 0.85 0.6 x
for r Z 0 120

30
Where x 0.441
r Z0

The attenuation due to conductor losses can be found by a proper

perturbation technique. An appropriate result for the attenuation
constant is:
2.7 X 103 Rs r Z 0
30 b t A for r Z 0 120 ( Neper / m)

c
0.16 Rs B for r Z 0 120 ( Neper / m)
Z 0b

Where,

Rs : Conductor surface resistance.

2w 1 b t 2b t
A 1 ln
b t b t t

b 0.414t 1 4 w
B 1 ln
0.5w 0.7t 2 t
0.5
w
2) COLLINS APPROXIMATION FORMULAS

0
for w b
w
8 r ln 2
Z0 2b
0 8b
ln for w 0.2b
2 r w
If we denote the attenuation constant due to the center
conductor as c1 and the attenuation constant due to the ground
planes as c2 , then we have the following approximate formulas:

4b w
ln
Rs r Te 2b
c1 for w b
b0 w
ln 2
2b
Rs r w
c2 for w b
w
40b 2 ln 2
2b

4
2 Rs r ln
c1 e
T
for w 0.2b
8b
0 w ln
w
Rs r
c for w 0.2b
2
8b
0b ln
w

4wt
Where Te e Rs
2
,
2

Example: A stripline has ground-plane spacing b 1cm and uses a

centered copper conducting strip of width w 1cm and thickness
t 0.002 cm . r 2.2 . Evaluate a) Z 0 , b) c at f=10GHz.

Solution:

a) i) Howe:
w
1 0.35, we w
b
30 b 30 1
Z0
r we 0.441b 2.2 1 0.441
Z 0 44.09

ii) Collin
 w
1
b
0 120
Z0
w
8 r ln 2 8 2.2 ln 2
2b 2
Z 0 44.7

b) i) Howe
r Z0 2.2 44.09 65.396 120
2.7 X 103 Rs r Z 0
c A
30 b t
1
f 2
Rs 0.026

2.7 X 103 X 0.026 X 2.2 X 44.09
c A
30 1 0.002 102
2w 1 b t 2b t
A 1 ln 5.21
bt b t t
c 0.072 X 101 X 5.21 0.375 X 101 Np / m

ii) Collin

w b , So
 4b w
ln
Rs r Te 2b
c1
b0 w
ln 2
2b
4 X 102
ln
c1
0.26 2.2 Te 2
120 X 102
ln 2
2
4wt
12

Te exp 0.0104 cm
2
c 3.03 X 104 ( Np / cm)
1

Rs r w
c 7.096 X 105 ( Np / cm)
2
2 w
40b ln 2
2b
c c 0.3034 0.07096 X 103 0.374 X 103 ( Np / cm)
1 2