Basic Study on RF Characteristics of Thin-Film Transmission Line Employing ML/CPW Composite Structure on Silicon Substrate and Its Application to a Highly Miniaturized Impedance Transformer

Abstract

A thin-film transmission line (TFTL) employing a microstrip line/coplanar waveguide (ML/CPW) was fabricated on a silicon substrate for application to a miniaturized on-chip RF component, and the RF characteristics of the device with the proposed structure were investigated. The TFTL employing a ML/CPW composite structure exhibited a shorter wavelength than that of a conventional coplanar waveguide and that of a thin-film microstrip line. When the TFTL with the proposed structure was fabricated to have a length of <TEX>${\lambda}/8$</TEX>, it showed a loss of less than 1.12 dB at up to 30 GHz. The improvement in the periodic capacitance of the TFTL caused for the propagation constant, <TEX>${\beta}$</TEX>, and the effective permittivity, <TEX>${\varepsilon}_{eff}$</TEX>, to have values higher than those of a device with only a conventional coplanar waveguide and a thin film microstrip line. The TFTL with the proposed structure showed a <TEX>${\beta}$</TEX> of 0.53~2.96 rad/mm and an <TEX>${\varepsilon}_{eff}$</TEX> of 22.3~25.3 when operating from 5 to 30 GHz. A highly miniaturized impedance transformer was fabricated on a silicon substrate using the proposed TFTL for application to a low-impedance transformation for broadband. The size of the impedance transformer was 0.01 mm2, which is only 1.04% of the size of a transformer fabricated using a conventional coplanar waveguide on a silicon substrate. The impedance transformer showed excellent RF performance for broadband.