Design and characterization of coplanar waveguides and filters on thin dielectric membranes at D-band frequencies

Abstract

Several types of grounded coplanar waveguides on thin dielectric membranes which have shown promising performance at lower frequencies (Dib et al, 1991) have been designed and characterized for D-band frequencies. Waveguides with different characteristic impedances have been fabricated and their S-parameters and propagation constants as well as their attenuation have been experimentally determined. Simulated and measured data are shown in this paper. Furthermore, low pass filters for D-band frequencies have been investigated. The classical five section approach (Robertson et al, 1996) has been optimized for a corner frequency of 120 GHz. Simulated and measured insertion and return loss are in close agreement. The investigated structures were measured using a test fixture which provides a transition from coplanar waveguide to conventional rectangular waveguide.