Simulation and performance of passive millimeter wave coplanar waveguide circuit devices

This paper presents a descriptive study of the design and modeling of coplanar waveguide test circuits based on grounded coplanar waveguides (GCPW) and finite ground coplanar waveguides (FGCPW). Specific emphasis was placed on the study of bend discontinuities and microstrip transitions and the affects of grounding vias for GCPW circuits, as well as the design of effective power dividers and filters using FGCPW circuits for W-band operation. The test circuits presented were fabricated and measured, and the results were compared to simulated results obtained using full wave electromagnetic analyses based on the finite-difference time-domain method, the planar generalized Yee-algorithm, and the method of moments. The ability of these methods to accurately predict the performance of these devices is demonstrated and their efficiency is discussed.