Development of a slow-wave artificial dielectric substrate-based microstrip line in X band

Abstract

This paper presents a slow-wave artificial dielectric substrate for planar microstrip device miniaturization. The proposed substrate supports the improvement of the permittivity of a given substrate, and in turn offers guided wavelength reduction, leading to obtaining size reduction using low cost printed circuit board (PCB) process. In this structure, two rows of metal vias are located on either side of a microstrip line (ML), which are connected to the ground plane of the substrate. In addition, a row of metal mushroom-shaped vias is placed and connected at the center of the line, which is inserted inside the dielectric media. This would lessen the effective distance between the microstrip line and the ground, and so, the capacitance per unit length is increased leading to obtaining a slow-wave substrate. The proposed structure is numerically investigated using full wave software for specified parameters and the microstrip line characteristics are compared with those of the conventional line. A prototype of the introduced line is implemented and its measured propagation features, including phase constant and effective permittivity, are reported. Results show a perfect agreement with those of simulation, which confirms that a 50.6% longitudinal size reduction is feasible.