Experiment 8
Electromagnetic simulation and Characterization of Microstrip
Transmission line and Stripline using Ansys HFSS
Aim:
(i) To design, simulate and study the characteristics of a 50 ohm microstrip transmission line, operating at 2.4 GHz
and printed on an FR4 epoxy substrate material (dielectric constant = 4.4) using HFSS.
(ii) To design, simulate and study the characteristics of a 50 ohm stripline, operating at 10 GHz and printed on a
Rogers RT duroid substrate material (dielectric constant = 2.2) using HFSS.
Microstrip vs. Stripline Transmission Line :
Figure: Microstrip line Figure: Stripline
Microstrip Transmission Line:
Figure 1: A microstrip transmission line displaying quasi-TEM mode of propagation. The green lines represent the E-field
and purple lines the H-field.
Microstrip Transmission
Line Characteristic
Impedance:
Microstrip transmission line:
(i) To design, simulate and study the characteristics of a 50 ohm microstrip transmission line, operating at 2.4 GHz and
printed on an FR4 epoxy substrate material (dielectric constant = 4.4) using HFSS. Let the substrate thickness be 1.6 mm.
Steps:
(a) Use microstrip line calculator to determine the width required for the transmission line for the given
characteristic impedance, substrate thickness and dielectric constant.
(b) Simulate the design using HFSS and plot the results for S parameters and the field propagation in the stripline.
Characteristic W (mm) H(mm) eff /4(mm)
Impedance, Zo For radiation
box
50 3.02823 1.6 3.327467 17.1314
Important Note:
Wave Port sizing in HFSS:
Wave ports must be large enough to capture the transmission line’s field structure
▪ For open transmission line structures the Wave Port must surround the structure.
▪ Make sure the transmission line fields are not interacting with the port’s boundary condition.
▪ Wave ports too small can lead to incorrect characteristic impedances and add additional reflection to the results.
Port Field display in HFSS:
Project Manager –> Port Field Display Mode 1
It can be observed that, as the mode of propagation is a Quasi-TEM mode in microstripline, there is fringing of
field lines.
Stripline:
The geometry is shown, it consists of a thin conducting strip of width W centered between two wide conducting
ground planes of separation b, and the entire region between the ground planes is filled with a dielectric.
In practice, stripline is usually constructed by etching the centre conductor on a grounded substrate of thickness b/2,
and then covering with another grounded substrate of the same thickness.
Notice that all fields exist within the dielectric substrate.
Figure: A stripline displaying TEM mode of propagation.
The green lines represent the E-field and purple lines the H-
field.
Stripline:
The phase velocity of a TEM mode is given by
and thus the propagation constant of stripline is
The formula for characteristic impedance is
Figure: A stripline geometry
where We is the effective width of the center conductor given by
These formulas assume a strip with zero
thickness and are quoted as being
accurate to about 1% of the exact results.
Stripline:
When designing stripline circuits one usually needs to find the strip width, given
the characteristic impedance (and height b and relative permittivity), which
requires the inverse of the formula shown in the previous slide. Such formulas
have been derived as
Figure: A stripline geometry
Stripline design:
(ii) To design, simulate and study the characteristics of a 50 ohm stripline, operating at 10 GHz and printed on a
Rogers RT duroid substrate material (dielectric constant = 2.2) using HFSS. Let the substrate thickness be 3.2 mm.
Steps:
(a) Compute (r)* Zo = (2.2) * 50 = 74.16 < 120 . Therefore W/b = x
(b) For the given substrate thickness (b=3.2mm), the characteristic impedance and dielectric constant, determine the
width of the conductor strip.
W=b*x
x = 0.8298
W = 3.2 mm * 0.8298 = 2.655 mm
(c) Simulate the design using HFSS and plot the results for S parameters and the field propagation in the stripline.
