Micro-coplanar striplines-new transmission media for microwave applications

In this paper a new transmission line for microwave applications, referred to here as the Micro-Coplanar Stripline (MCPS), is introduced. The propagation characteristics, such as, characteristic impedance (Z/sub 0/) and effective dielectric constant (/spl epsiv//sub eff/) for a range of MCPS geometries have been modeled using the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) technique and presented here. Also, preliminary experimental results on the performance of an MCPS-Microstrip transition and an MCPS-fed patch antenna are presented. The results indicate several potential applications of the MCPS line in microwave integrated circuit technology.