15/03/2019 Planar transmission line - Wikipedia

Stripline variants: A, standard,[26] B, suspended,[27] C, bilateral

suspended,[28] D, two conductor[29]

The idea of two conductor stripline is to compensate for air gaps between the two substrates. Small air gaps are inevitable because
of manufacturing tolerances and the thickness of the conductor. These gaps can promote radiation away from the line between the
ground planes. Printing identical conductors on both boards ensures the fields are equal in both substrates and the electric field in
the gaps due to the two lines cancels out. Usually, one line is made slightly undersize to prevent small misalignments effectively
widening the line, and consequently reducing the characteristic impedance.[20]

The bilateral suspended stripline has more of the field in the air and almost none in the substrate leading to higher Q, compared to
standard suspended stripline. The disadvantage of doing this is that the two lines have to be bonded together at intervals less than
a quarter wavelength apart. The bilateral structure can also be used to couple two independent lines across their broad side. This
gives much stronger coupling than side-by-side coupling and allows coupled-line filter and directional coupler circuits to be
realised that are not possible in standard stripline.[30]

Microstrip
Microstrip consists of a strip conductor on the top surface of a dielectric layer and a
ground plane on the bottom surface of the dielectric. The electromagnetic wave travels
partly in the dielectric and partly in the air above the conductor resulting in quasi-TEM
transmission. Despite the drawbacks of the quasi-TEM mode, microstrip is often
Microstrip
favoured for its easy compatibility with printed circuits. In any case, these effects are
not so severe in a miniaturised circuit.[31]

Another drawback of microstrip is that it is more limited than other types in the range of characteristic impedances that it can
achieve. Some circuit designs require characteristic impedances of 150 Ω or more. Microstrip is not usually capable of going that
high so either those circuits are not available to the designer or a transition to another type has to be provided for the component
requiring the high impedance.[15]

The tendency of microstrip to radiate is generally a disadvantage of the type, but when it comes
to creating antennae it is a positive advantage. It is very easy to make a patch antenna in
microstrip, and a variant of the patch, the planar inverted-F antenna, is the most widely used
antenna in mobile devices.[32]

Microstrip variants

Microstrip inverted-F
antenna

Microstrip variants: A, standard,[26] B, suspended,[33] C, inverted,[33] D, in box,[29] E, trapped

inverted[34]

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