Optoelectronic measurements of picosecond electrical pulse propagation in coplanar waveguide transmission lines

Observations are presented concerning the effects of coplanar waveguide transmission lines on the propagation of picosecond electrical pulses using an optoelectronic time-domain measurement technique. Effects of various test structure design factors such as substrate thickness, thickness of transmission line metallization, discontinuity spacing, ground plane width, pulser/sampler line length, and pulser/sampler geometry on picosecond electrical pulse propagation in microwave/millimeter wave coplanar waveguide transmission lines are discussed, and schemes for minimizing the adverse effects of each of the above factors are provided.<
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