IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. MTT-16, NO.

4, APRIL 1968 251

Variational Method for the Analysis of

Microstrip Lines

EIKICHI YAMASHITA, MEMBER, IEEE, AND RAJ MITTRA, MEMBER, IEEE

Abstract—This paper reports a method for computing the line capaci- length, and the surface potential on the dielectric sheet of the
tance of a microstrip line based on the application of Fonrier transform microstrip line. The above results are compared where pos-
and variational techniques. The characteristic impedance, guide wave-
sible with the available experimental data and other theo-
length, and the surface potential distribution in the microstrip line are
retical results.
obtained for a range of structnre parameters and the dielectric constant.
The resnlts calculated from the expressions developed in the paper are
compared with the theoretical results presently available in the literature II. OUTLINE OF THEORETICAL PROCEDURE

and good agreement is found. Comparison with available experimental The static potential distribution r#J(x, Y) in the microstrip
resolts is also made where feasible. Possible applications and limitations
line structure satisfies Poisson’s equation
of the method are discussed.

v’(l)(z, y) = – ~ P(%!/) (1)

I. INTRODUCTION e
ITH THE RAPID development of the transistors and the boundary conditions on the surface of the dielectric
and other semiconductor devices in the microwave
material as well as the conductor. Here p(x, y) is the charge
\v frequency regions, the microstrip line structure is
distribution on the surface of the conducting strip.
finding increasing use in the microwave integrated circuit.
The line capacitance can be evaluated by inserting the
This has been evidenced by a number of recent publications solution of (1) in the variational expression[l”l
on the subject, e.g., Hyltin, [l] Vincent, [z] Guckel and Bren-
nan, [3] Webster, [41 and Sobol. [51
(2)
Although the basic properties of the microstrip line have
been well known for some time, [61there still appears to be a where
need for rigorous theoretical formulas which are useful over
Q= (3)
a wide range of design parameters. Among the number of P(X, y)dz
s 8
researchers who have studied the problem, Dukes[ 71 re-
ported an experimental method using an electrolytic tank for and the integral in (2) and (3) are to be taken on all the sur-
studying the microstrip line. WU[81 proposed a set of dual faces over which the charge P(X, y) is distributed.
integral equations for the two current components on the The characteristic impedance of a TEM transmission line
strip and presented an iterative solution to the integral equa- in free space is well known and is given by
tions. Wheeler[g] studied the microstrip line based on con-
formal mapping and Guckel and Brennan[31 applied a wide zo=& (4)
strip approximation to analyze a microstrip line structure
placed on a dielectric and a conducting layer.
where COis the line capacitance of the stl ucture and c is the
In this paper an attempt is made to develop an analytical
velocity of light.
method which is general and useful for calculating the line
Let the structure be modified by inserting a uniform dielec-
capacitance for a rather wide range of geometrical and di-
tric sheet along the line as shown in Fig. 1. The line capaci-
electric parameters of the microstrip line. Furthermore, the
tance of this new structure C is larger than CO. The new
technique developed here has the potential for application to
guide wavelength A is smaller than the free space wavelength
a wider class of geometries, such as a multilayered dielectric
xO. Hence, the characteristic impedance of the new line is
insert in the stripline. The analytical approach in the present
obtained by modifying (4) as follows:
paper is based on the Fourier transform and variational
techniques. The knowledge of the line capacitance is em- 2=9+20
ployed to calculate the characteristic impedance, guide wave- () c“
(5)

Manuscript received May 5, 1967; revised August 18, 1967. The Similarly, the new guide wavelength is given by
work reported here was supported by U. S. Army Research Grant
DA-G-646.
(6)
E. Yamashita was with the Antenna Laboratory, University of
Illinois, Urbana. He is now with the University of Electro-Communica-
tions, Tokyo, Japan.
Thus, all of the basic properties of the stripline, whether di-
R. Mittra is with the Antenna Laboratory, University of Illinois,
Urbana, Ill. electric loaded or unloaded, are derivable from the knowl-

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 252 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, APRIL 1968

Y Y
t <w I
t-w
+7
L-w L
t=o

—x

—x

CONDUCTOR
CONDUCTOR
Fig. 1. Microstrip structure,
Fig. 2. Modified version of microstrip structure.

edge of the line capacitance for the basic two-element struc-

In the region O<y< b, the general solution of (9) is a linear
ture. In Section 111, we shall concentrate on solving for the
combination of exp (—py) and exp (By), whereas for y 2 b,
preceding quantity and subsequently use it to find Z, h, etc.,
the solution is of the form exp (–] f?]y) alone. Upon writing
for the dielectric loaded striplines,
these solutions appropriate for various regions and apply-
ing the boundary conditions (10), results in a set of inhomo-
III. INFINITELY THIN STRIP
geneous simultaneous equations for the coefficients of the
Although our main interest is to study the characteristics potential function in the various regions. These equations
of the line whose geometry is shown in Fig. 1, the slightly are readily solvable since they are simple and algebraic in
more general type of configuration shown in Fig. 2 shall be nature.
considered. The results for the former can be readily ob- Finally, the Fourier transform of the potential distribu-
tained by letting b-% in the expressions developed for the tion at y = h for the base b-% is given by
geometry in Fig. 2.
Initially, assume that the strip is infinitely thin. The modi- m (11)
fication necessary for handling the finite thickness will be 4(p’h)= co\ P\[l+e*coth(l Bl h)] “
discussed later.
Since the strip is infinitely thin, the variational expression (2)
For the infinitely thin strip case, the charge distribution
is rewritten as
assumes the form
11 W12
p(x, y) = f(z)ti(y – b) (7) .— f(z)c+(z, h)dx (12)
~ Q’ s -./,
where ~(y— b) is Dirac’s delta function. Because of the sym-
where w is the strip width.
metry of the problem,~(x) is an even function of x.
It is also possible to transform this expression into a vari-
Now define the Fourier transform @(f?,y) of o(x, y) via the
integral ational form in the Fourier-transformed coordinate by
using Parseval’s theorem of the Fouriel transform theory. [Ill

cJ(/3, y) = J’ m
@(z, y)ej%ir. (8)
This circumvents the step of inverting the Fourier
of 4((3, y), In terms of @@, h), the expression
transform
for C reads
—m

s %WW,
h)@
Note that @(–@, y)= @(@,y) which follows from the sym- 1 1
metry property @(x, y)= O( – x, y).
Then transforming (1) according to (8) gives
~– _—
27rQ2 _m
(13)

Combining (11) and (13) and using the symmetry of ~(p) and

(–(3’+$)
6(B), we obtain
4(6, !/)=0 y#b, h. (9)
1
. lm m)]’
The boundary and continuity conditions in the Fourier c TEOQ2 s o [1 + e“ ccth (~h)]~h ‘@h) (14)
transformed domain read
which is an integral along the real axis of P and is the desired
4(B, o) = o (lOa) final form for calculating the line capacitance.
(lOb) There still remains the task of finding j(fl) before C can be
$(/3, m) = o
calculated. However, since (14) is variational one may use
4(B, h + 0 = 4(B, h – O) (1OC) an approximate trial function for~(x) and incur only a sec-

;diP,
h+o)=c*:W%h-0) (lOd)
ond-order error in (14). Since the variational expression (14)
is stationary for a given set of trial functions, the one that
maximizes the value of C clearly gives the closest value to the
4(8, b + 0) = 4(P, b – O) (lOe) exact result for the capacitance. Three trial functions, viz.,
~(x)= constant, ~(x)= I xl, and ~(x)= x’ were tested. It was
(lOf)
found that the line capacitance was maximum for the as-
sumed charge distribution function~(x) = I xl and the results
where C* is the relative dielectric constant. for the two were also close to this maximum value. This

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 YAMASI-IITA AND MITTRA: VARIATIONAL METHOD FOR ANALYSIS OF MICROSTRIP LINES 2s3

<*= 265 ~*=,o

— THIS THEORY

II t=” /1 A A A A EXPERIMENT
(d= 2 65)
[7]

200 —

(.(2)

100 —

1 1,00 I I
162 10-’ I 10

W/h

Fig. 3. Line capacitance versus strip width and strip height.

o

162 16’ I 10

Fig. 5. Theoretical and experimental characteristic

— THIS THEORY impedance for various dielectric constants.
250 –
‘—— MODIFIEO
CON FORMAL
MAPPING [91
‘“~l

r:
t=z
200 -

<“=420
z I 50 - C* = 11.7
A
(n) x. 05 ●*=,,o
<“=117

<* .,~
100 –

<“=510

50 -

o~
10-2 10-‘ 10
W/h
0 ! 1 ! I I , ,,1 ! , I I ,,1 I , ! ,,

10-2 10-’ I 10 Fig. 6. Guide wavelength versus strip width and strip heighf
W/h,

Fig. 4. Calculated results for characteristic impedance Substituting (16) in (14), the resulting integral maybe readily
and comparison with other theory.
evaluated with the aid of a digital computer. Numerical
results for the line capacitance for various parameters are
choice of a trial function is also supported by the current dis- shown in Fig. 3. The characteristic impedance now may be
tribution in plane parallel transmission lines. 1121Accord- calculated using (5). Fig. 4 shows the calculated results for
ingly, we choose the trial function 6*= 1 and E*= 11.7 along with those based on the modified
conformal mapping technique. [91 Comparison shows that

f(x) =
[( ~
Ii -++- ) (15)
the results derived in the present paper agree well with
Wheeler[gl for both the narrow and the wide strip dimens-
ions.
(otherwise.)
The calculated result for the characteristic impedance is
From (15), one has by Fourier transforming shown in Fig. 5 for a range of dielectric constants. Experi-
mental data for Teflon Fiberglas (6* = 2.65) [71and Fiberglas
2
!2!
() ~ ()]
G-6 (,* = 4.2)c”l are also displayed. Fig. 6 shows the guide
pw
~ Si. sin —
m 2 4
(16)
wavelength for various parameters.

Q= flw -@w,”
1 The computation time is less than 3.5 seconds (Go TIME) on the
IBM 7094 computer.

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 254 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, APR~ 196$

1
c’= 11,7
I/h =000 — roils THEORY

002 100 . . . ... EXPERIMENT [!]

1/h=OOO
004 \
006
008
0,10

200 —

(:)
Z.
(L-1) 50

100 —

o~
16= d 10

o~162 d Fig. 8.
W/h

10 Theoretical and experimental results for the effect of strip

thickness on characteristic impedance with C*= 11.7.
W/h

Fig. 7. Effect of strip thickness on characteristic

I h
impedance with 6*= 1.00.

IV. STRIP OF FINITE THICKNESS

The calculations presented were based on the assumption

that the thickness of the strip t is negligible compared to the
width w. It becomes necessary to modify the formulas in the
event that the strip has a reasonable thickness. The modifi-
cation required is described in the following.
One observes that the potential function $(B, y) in the
region above y= h has an exponential behavior exp (— I p Iy). 0 10 20
Hence, the potential at y = h+ t satisfies
X /h

4(8, h + O= e-lfi[’d(il, h). (17) Fig. 9. Potential distribution on surface of dielectric sheet.

Considering the two layers of charge at y = h and y = ii+ t,

one obtains a modified formula for the line capacitance expression (18) is believed to be a good approximation of
which reads the thick strip case.
The effect of strip thickness on the characteristic im-
pedance of a dielectric loaded line is shown in Fig. 8 for
E*= I I .7. The present theory is compared with the experi-
mental data of Hyltin[ll for a silicon slab with t/h= 0.01
Using (18), the characteristic impedance is calculated for the (t= 0.1 mil and h= 10 roils). The experimental valuest’1 are
case C*= 1 and plotted in Fig. 7. Since adequate results were slightly lower than the ones calculated by this theory.
not available from other sources for the thick strip case, it The potential distribution on the surface of the dielectric
was felt appropriate to make an approximate comparison sheet is evaluated by computing the Fourier transform[lll
with the impedance of a circular wire above a ground plane.
The impedance of the circular wire is also plotted in Fig. 7.
+(Z,h) = ~ _@
~(@,lz)e-~RZ/3. (19)
If the cross-sectional area of the strip and the circular wire s .
are equivalent, the two characteristic impedances should ap-
proximately agree with each other. It is seen that for An example for the case w/h= 0.1 is shown in Fig. 9. The
w/h = 0.1, the wave impedance of a circular wire line is knowledge of the potential distribution is useful for esti-
222 ohms and the wave impedance of the stripline with the mating the coupling of the strip to adjacent elements in a
same area (w/h = 0.1, t/h= 0.786) is 220 ohms. Hence, the multielement circuit.

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 YAMASHITA AND MITTRA : VARIATIONAL METHOD FOR ANALYSIS OF MICROSTRIP LINES 255

V. POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS AND LIMITATIONS

OF THE THEORETICAL PROCEDURE

In addition to the problem studied, a variety of transmis-

sion systems comprising different arrangements of conduct-
ing strips, a ground plane, and dielectric layers could be ana-
lyzed by the present method. One of these configurations is
CONDUCTOR
illustrated in Fig. 10.2 It is obvious that with an increase of
the number of boundary and continuity conditions the poten- Fig. 10. Typical stripline structure analyz-
able by extension of this theory.
tial distribution function would take more and more compli-
cated forms. However, the calculations would still be alge-
braic and straightforward. The resulting formulas are ex-
pressible in closed forms which are convenient for calcula- 20
tion on a digital computer.
Another application of the method would be the calcula-
tion of the dc resistance per unit length between a conduct-
ing strip and a ground plane filled with resistive media. The
case of a single resistive medium was discussed by Smythe. [131
Obviously, this procedure can be extended to the case of
multiple resistive media by knowing the line capacitance for
multiple dielectric media.
Suppose one has a system of conductors with two resistive
media as shown in Fig. 11. Let resistivity of each medium be
specified by RI and Rz. As a first step, one calculates the line
capacitance C of a microstrip line in Fig. 1, taking the dielec-
tric constant C*= RJR1. The total dc resistance R per unit 0
length can then be obtained by using
10z 10’ I 10

W/h
(20)
Fig. 11. Direct current resistance per unit length R between conduct-
ing strip and ground plane with two semiconductor media; R1 and
To illustrate this type of calculation, numerical results R, are medium resistivities.
were obtained for Rz = 20R1 and Rz = RI, respectively. These
are plotted in Fig. 11.
There are some theoretical limitations which should be VI. CONCLUSION

considered before applying this method. In this paper, the microstrip structure was analyzed by the

1) The dielectric material should be of low loss. Quantita- application of the variational method and the Fourier trans-

tively, this condition is stated by form technique. The expression for the line capacitance was
delived in a closed form which provides an upper bound of
weRd >> ~ the solution. Numerical calculations were carried out with
the aid of a digital computer. The characteristic impedance
where Rd is the resistivity of the dielectric material.
and guide wavelength were calculated from the line capaci-
2) The present method assumes a TEM mode and ne-
tance. The theoretical results were compared with the experi-
glects the radiation effects. These assumptions are im-
mental data and with other theoretical results published in
posing a condition
the literature demonstrating the accuracy of the calculations.
kO >> h. It was also observed that the range of applicability of the
present theory is quite broad in terms of the geometrical and
3) The strip is assumed to be thin. Therefore, t<<h and medium parameters. Possible applications of the analytical
t< ~~,must be satisfied.
technique to other problems were discussed.
4) Because of the variational form of the solution, the ex-
pression for the line capacitance gives an upper bound.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
In other words, a trial function which gives a larger
value of the line capacitance gives a more accurate The authors wish to thank their colleagues at the Antenna
value. Laboratory of the University of Illinois for many helpful
discussions. They are also indebted to T, M. Hyltin of
Texas Instruments Incorporated, for providing experimental
‘ Detailed calculations and experiments of this structure are to be
published. data in connection with his paper.

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 256 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, APRIL 1968

REFERENCES microwave wiring,” IRE Trans. Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol.
MTT-3, pp. 31-56, March 1955.
[T] J. M. C. Dukes, “An investigation into some fundamental proper-
P] T. M. Hyltin, “Microstrip transmission on semiconductor dielec-
ties of strip transmission lines with the aid of an electrolytic tank;’
trics,” IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. MTT-13,
Proc. IEE (London), vol. 103B, pp. 319-333, May 1956.
pp. 777-781, November 1965. [81 T. T. WU, “Theory of the rnicrostrip,” J. AppL ~h~s., VO1. 28,
[z] B. T. Vincent, Jr., “Ceramic microstrip for microwave hybrid pp. 299-302, March 1957.
integrated circuitry,” presented at the Internat’1 Microwave Symp., [91 H. A. wheeler, “Transmission-line properties of parallel strips
Palo Alto, Calif., May 1966, Session V-2. separated by a dielectric sheet,” IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory and
[?] H. Guckel and P. A. Brennan, “Picosecond pulse response of Techniques, vol. MTT-13, pp. 172-185, March 1965.
interconnections in a common substrate monolithic system,” presented [IO] R. E. Collin, Field Theory of Guided Waues. New York:
at the Internat’1 Solid State Circuits Conf,, Philadelphia, Pa., February McGraw-Hill, 1960, p. 162.
1967, Session XI. [H] A. Papotdis, The Fourier Integral and Its Applications. New
[4] R, R. Webster,
“Integrated microwave oscillators, amplifiers, York: McGraw-Hill, 1962.
switches and converters,” presented at the Internat’1 Solid State Cir- W] I. Palocz, “The integral equation approach to currents and fields
cuits Conf., Philadelphia, Pa., February 1967, Session IV. in plane parallel transmission lines,” IBM Rept. RC 1220, June 1964.
[s] H. Sobol, “Extending IC technology to microwave equipments,” (This literature was suggested by a reviewer.)
Electronics, vol. 40, pp. 112-124, March 1967. 11$1W. R. Smythe, Static and Dynamic Electricity. New York:
[b] M. Arditi, “Characteristics and applications of microstrip for McGraw-Hill, 1950, p. 234.

Corremondence
IL

The Theoretical Design of Broadband

3-Port Waveguide Circulators
Abstract—An extension of earlier field
analysis has made possible the prediction,
purely by theory, of broadband 3-port H-plane
circulator designs. Using a configuration con-
sisting of concentric rings of ferrite and dielec-
tric material surrounding a conducting post in
the center of the junction, circulators with iso-
lation bandwidths up to 42 percent have been
predicted. In practice, bandwidths np to 30 per-
Conducting Dielectric
cent have been obtained in X band and band- Fig. 1. Ferrite v in material
widths of about 20 percent in C and Q band.
/
INTRODUCTION Section
two real equations have to be satisfied for cir-
AA
The design, by purely theoretical means, of culation at a given frequency, we would have I 1
a broadband waveguide 3-port circulator has no more than the necessary two physical pa-
been briefly reported. [’1 The purpose of this
correspondence is to give some details of the
rameters. One would expect to be able to
achieve circulation at any (reasonable) fre- Static
I
magk.tic field
theory which is an extension of the earlier quency with any (reasonable) ferrite material
field analysis,[il together with recent experi- by suitable choice of ferrite-post diameter Fig. 2. Three.port circulator ferrite configuration.
mental details of the resulting circulators. and applied magnetic field. However, one
Broadband waveguide circulators have would also expect the result to be a narrow-
previously been designed on an empirical band circulator as was found in the 3 and 5 than a second to compute circulator per-
basis. However, h has been found possible to percent bandwidths originally computed. [’1 formance at any particular frequency. It is
eliminate much laborious and time-consum- In order to achieve broadband circulation, therefore now feasible to use linear program-
ing measurement by the combination of field more degrees of freedom must be available. ming on the computer to optimize (and so
analysis with the digital computer. The earlier field analysis has therefore been design) broadband circulators. A computer
The original field analysis[’1wasconcerned extended to the structure of Figs. 1 and 2 program has been written that chooses the
with the full-height ferrite post mounted cen- where, instead of a ferrite post, we have a values of the five parameters (conductor, fer-
trally in the waveguide junction. For this conducting post surrounded by a ferrite tube rite and dielectric diameters, applied mag-
geometry, the applied magnetic field and the which in turn is surrounded by a dielectric netic field, and permittivity) to give the great-
ferrite post diameter are the only physical pa- tube. (This arrangement had earlier proved est percentage frequency bandwidth over
rameters that can be varied continuously. successful in high-power circulators .)[al As which the reflection coefficient remains less
Hence, in designing a 3-port circulator where dielectric materials are available over a wide than 0.1, and hence the isolation is greater
range of permittivity in fine steps, this ex- than 20 dB.
Manuscript received October 31, 1966; revised tended structure has three additional degrees In this analysis only two significant ap-
August 4, 1967.The work describedhere was carried proximations are made. First, although the
out at Mullard ResesrchLabs., Redhill, Surrey,Eng- of freedom.
land. With the above field analysis, it takes less original field analysis was exact, the same ap-

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