Lab 6

Design and Test of Microstrip Circuits

Objective:
The objective of this lab is to become familiar with microstrip design and testing
concepts. You will use what you have learned about the design of transmission line and
microstrip circuits to design a small printed circuit board with 50 ohm traces and
matching networks.

Equipment:
Smith Chart Software
Orcad PSpice
Express PCB Software
Soldering Iron
Network Analyzer

Background Material:
In addition to the lecture material, there are many other references that you can
use to gain a better understanding of the concepts presented in this lab. Please review the
following references before writing up your final lab report. Also, the material in these
references is testable.
Lines and Fields in Electronic Technology, W. Stanley, Chapter 5 and Chapter 7.
Java applet to calculate lumped element matching networks
http://www.ee.oulu.fi/~timor/javaa/matcher2.html
Link to Smith Chart software for the PC. This is a self-extracting archive.
http://etidweb.tamu.edu/porter/entc355/smith_v191.exe
Tutorial on stub impedance matching
http://www.odyseus.nildram.co.uk/RFMicrowave_Theory_Files/SmithChartPart2.
pdf
Tutorial on lumped element matching networks
http://www.odyseus.nildram.co.uk/RFMicrowave_Theory_Files/SmithChartPart3.
pdf
Link to Express PCB website and software http://www.expresspcb.com
Link to microstrip design software
http://etidweb.tamu.edu/porter/entc355/setup302.exe













Pre-Laboratory Exercise (due at the beginning of class):

Design a 1 GHz quarter-wave transformer to match a 50 microstrip line to a 200 load.
Start by doing hand-calculations and then simulate your circuits in APPCAD. Vary the
width in the simulator until R
o
is as close as possible to the desired value. Create one
table for the 50 microstrip line and one for the quarter-wave transformer, where hand-
calculated values can be compared with values obtained from the simulator for the
following parameters:
eff
,
eff
, width and R
o
. Use electrical data for the ExpressPCB
miniboard (remember to use integers for widths and lengths in mils). Attach a separate
sheet of paper with your hand-calculations.




Procedure:

This is a two week lab. Your goal is design a small printed circuit board with microstrip
circuits, fabricate and populate the board, and then test it using a network analyzer. To
get started you need to read and understand the following design statement:

For this project, you will build a printed circuit board with four separate circuits on it
(remember that the bottom of the board should remain all copper):

1. A single 50 ohm microstrip trace terminated in a 50 ohm surface mount resistor.
The other end of the line should go to the edge of the board.
2. A short 50 ohm microstrip line connected through a quarter wave matching
network to a 150 ohm load.
3. An amplifier with RF Choke, bias resistor and LC output filter connected with 50
ohm microstrip traces.
4. A 150 ohm load matched to a 50 ohm microstrip line using a single stub tuning
network.

Assume that all of your circuits will be operating at 1 GHz.



Part 1
Each lab team should partner with the team that sits directly across from them (other side
of the bench) to form groups of four. Your first step is to design the networks necessary
to build the circuits discussed above. All calculations should be done by hand. Keep in
mind as you do your design that you will be using ExpressPCB to fabricate your circuits.
Any technical information you need about their printed circuit boards is available on their
website. You should then use the tools provided in the links at the beginning of this
document to verify your design. Please provide evidence of the hand calculation and the
verification in your final report.

Part 2
You will then layout your circuits using the software provided by Express PCB. The link
to this software is provided above. Once your layout is finished, you will submit your
design to ExpressPCB and have your circuits fabricated. If you use the MiniBoard
service, you will receive three copies of your board and it will cost approximately $60.00.

Part 3
Once you receive your printed circuit boards, you will use the soldering stations in 009 to
populate your boards. You will be provided 50 ohm (actually 51) and 150 ohm resistors.
You will place everything on the boards with the exception of the connectors. These will
be added later.

Part 4
During the second week of lab, you will test your microstrip circuits. To do this, you will
work with Dr. Porter to schedule a time to add connectors to your board and use the
network analyzer to make measurements of your circuits. These measurements should
include:
Reflection measurements for circuits 1,2 and 4 from above.
Frequency and amplitude characterization for circuit 3 from above.




Post-lab Questions:

1. Each team will turn in a final report with the following sections:
a. Summary of Project
b. Theory (Discussion of Microstrip, matching networks, transmission
lines,)
c. Design and Calculations (show the PCB layout, all calculations, all Smith
Charts, all verifications)
d. Testing This is a discussion of your testing methods and a presentation
of your results.
e. Explanation of Results and Errors This is a detailed discussion of your
results and explanations as to whether the circuits you designed worked as
expected. If they did not, explain why. Quantify and explain your errors.

2. Design a lumped element matching network to match a 120 ohm load to a 50 ohm
transmission line. While you are not going to fabricate this, you need to present
your design in the report discussed above and show verification that it will work.