Design and characterization of coplanar waveguides and filters on thin dielectric membranes at D-band frequencies

Several types of grounded coplanar waveguides on thin dielectric membranes which have shown promising performance at lower frequencies (Dib et al, 1991) have been designed and characterized for D-band frequencies. Waveguides with different characteristic impedances have been fabricated and their S-parameters and propagation constants as well as their attenuation have been experimentally determined. Simulated and measured data are shown in this paper. Furthermore, low pass filters for D-band frequencies have been investigated. The classical five section approach (Robertson et al, 1996) has been optimized for a corner frequency of 120 GHz. Simulated and measured insertion and return loss are in close agreement. The investigated structures were measured using a test fixture which provides a transition from coplanar waveguide to conventional rectangular waveguide.