Composite Right/Left-Handed Transmission Line With Wire Bonded Interdigital Capacitor

An enhanced composite right/left-handed (CRLH) transmission line (TL) is presented in this letter. This TL, designed in microstrip technology, is implemented by means of a new improved interdigital capacitor (IDC), the so-called wire bonded IDC (WBIDC). The use of the WBIDC broadens the frequency band where the CRLH TL can be considered as a TL. A conventional 70-Omega CRLH TL (using IDCs) has been compared, by full-wave simulation and measurements, with its enhanced counterpart (using WBIDCs). In addition, this enhanced CRLH TL has been used to design a CRLH diplexer which presents several advantages over standard CRLH coupled lines (using IDCs). The diplexer response has been verified by means of a full-wave electromagnetic solver