U18ECI7204

RF AND MICROWAVE
ENGINEERING

Introduction to MIC
Thilagavathi K / AP III
Department of Electronics and Communication
Engineering
 Overview of this Lecture

• Microstrip lines
• Parallel striplines
• Coplanar striplines and
• Shielded striplines
• MMIC materials
• MMIC Fabrication steps
 Transmission line
• A transmission line is a connector which transmits energy from one
point to another. The study of transmission line theory is helpful in
the effective usage of power and equipment.

• There are basically four types of transmission lines;

➢Two-wire parallel transmission lines
➢Coaxial lines
➢Strip type substrate transmission lines
➢Waveguides

• While transmitting or while receiving, the energy transfer has to be

done effectively, without the wastage of power.
 Modes of Propagation
• A wave has both electric and magnetic fields. All
transverse components of electric and magnetic fields are
determined from the axial components of electric and
magnetic field, in the z direction. This allows mode
formations, such as TE, TM, TEM and Hybrid in
microwaves.
TEM Transverse Electromagnetic Wave
In this mode, both the electric and magnetic fields are purely transverse to the
direction of propagation. No components in Z direction.
Ez=0andHz=0
TE Transverse Electric Wave
In this mode, the electric field is purely transverse to the direction of propagation,
whereas the magnetic field is not.
Ez=0andHz≠0
TM Transverse Magnetic Wave
In this mode, the magnetic field is purely transverse to the direction of propagation,
whereas the electric field is not.
Ez≠0andHz=0
HE Hybrid mode
In this mode, neither the electric nor the magnetic field is purely transverse to the
direction of propagation.
Ez≠0andHz≠0
The conventional open-wire transmission lines are not suitable for microwave
transmission, as the radiation losses would be high.
- At Microwave frequencies, the transmission lines employed can be broadly
classified into three types.
•Multi conductor lines
•Co-axial lines
•Strip lines
•Micro strip lines
•Slot lines
•Coplanar lines, etc.
•Single conductor lines- Waveguides
•Rectangular waveguides
•Circular waveguides
•Elliptical waveguides
•Single-ridged waveguides
•Double-ridged waveguides, etc.
• Open boundary structures …….e.g.Micro strip lines and optical fibers
• Di-electric rods
• Open waveguides, etc
Types of Waveguides
 Introduction to MIC
• MIC is a type of integrated circuit (IC) that operates
at microwave frequencies (300 MHz to 300 GHz).

• MIC’s are realized using planar transmission line as the

transmission media.

• Transmission lines made of flat metallic conductors that lie

entirely in the same plane or in parallel planes are called
planar transmission line.

• The main advantage of ICs over discrete components is the

reduced size and increased reliability.

• Perform functions such as microwave mixing, power

amplification, low-noise amplification, and high-frequency
switching.
 Planar Transmission lines
Basic Versions:
• Strip line
• Microstrip line
• Slot line

Variants:
• Suspended strip line
• Suspended Microstrip line
• Coplanar line
 MIC Adv & D.Adv
• MICs promise higher reliability and reproducibility,
better performance, smaller size, and lower cost than
conventional microwave circuits.

• The main disadvantages of MMICs are shared with all other

ICs in that it is difficult (if not impossible) to tune the
performance once the IC is fabricated.
 Stripline
A Strip line consists of a central thin conducting strip of width ω which is greater
than its thickness t. It is placed inside the low loss dielectric (εr) substrate of
thickness b/2 between two wide ground plates. The width of the ground plates is
five times greater than the spacing between the plates.
 Slot line
• A Slot line transmission line, consists of a slot or gap in a
conducting coating on a dielectric substrate and this
fabrication process is identical to the micro strip lines.
 Micro Strip Lines
• The strip line has a disadvantage that it is not accessible for
adjustment and tuning. This is avoided in micro strip lines, which
allows mounting of active or passive devices, and also allows
making minor adjustments after the circuit has been fabricated.
• A micro strip line is an unsymmetrical parallel plate
transmission line, having di-electric substrate which has a
metallized ground on the bottom and a thin conducting strip on
top with thickness 't' and width 'ω'.
Microstripline cross section
Characteristic Impedance of
Microstrip lines
 Losses in Microstripline

• Dielectric losses in the substrate

• Conductor (or ohmic) losses in the
strip conductor and the ground plane;
• Radiation losses
Parallel Striplines
 Coplanar Striplines

• Coplanar Stripline (CPS) is an attractive uniplanar

transmission line offering flexibility in the design of
planar microwave and millimeter-wave circuits,
especially in mounting the solid-state device in series or
shunt with no via holes.

• Its balanced structure is useful in applications such as

printed dipole antenna feeding, rectennas, uniplanar
mixers , integrated optic traveling-wave modulators,
optical control microwave attenuators and modulators,
and other opto-electric devices.
• It consists of two conducting strips on one substrate
surface with one strip grounded

• CPS characteristics include low loss, small dispersion,

small discontinuity parasitics, comparable insensitivity
to substrate thickness, and simple implementation of
open ended or short-ended strips.
Coplanar Waveguide and Coplanar Stripline:

❖The coplanar waveguide (CPW) or coplanar

stripline (CPS) structures are uniplanar.
❖Such structures have unique advantages
like small dispersion, easier implementation
of short circuit at the ends, easier integration
of lumped elements and active circuits and
circumventing the need for via holes.
❖The existence of parasitic modes, field non
confinement and lower power handling
capability comes under its disadvantages.
Shielded Striplines
 Monolithic MICs (MMICs)
• Monolithic means “one stone” from which the whole circuit is
manufactured using only diffusion method and no “add-ons”.

• Inputs and outputs on MMIC devices are frequently matched to a

characteristic impedance of 50 ohms.

• This makes them easier to use, as cascading of MMICs does not

then require an external matching network.

• MMICs are dimensionally small (from around 1 mm² to 10 mm²)

and can be mass-produced, which has allowed the proliferation of
high-frequency devices such as cellular phones.
• MMICs were originally fabricated using gallium arsenide (GaAs),
a III-V compound semiconductor.

• It has two fundamental advantages over silicon (Si), the traditional

material for IC realisation: device (transistor) speed and a semi-
insulating substrate. Both factors help with the design of high-
frequency circuit functions.

• Silicon germanium (SiGe) is a Si-based compound semiconductor

technology offering higher-speed transistors than conventional Si
devices but with similar cost advantages.

• Gallium nitride (GaN) is also an option for MMICs. Because GaN

transistors can operate at much higher temperatures and work at
much higher voltages than GaAs transistors, they make ideal
power amplifiers at microwave frequencies.
Advantages of MMICs
 Disadvantages of MMICs

1- Performance compromised, since the optimal materials

cannot be used for each circuit element.

2- Power capability is lower because good heat transfer

materials cannot be used

3- Trimming adjustments are difficult or impossible.

4- Unfavorable device-to-chip area ratio in the semiconductor

material.
5- Tooling is prohibitively expensive for small quantities of
MMIC.
MMIC Materials
 MMIC Fabrication Techniques
The following are steps of fabricating simple monolithic integrated
circuits:
• Wafer Preparation
• Epitaxial Growth
• Diffused Isolation
• Base Diffusion
• Emitter Diffusion
• Pre-ohmic Etch
• Metallization
• Circuit Probing
• Dicing
• Mounting and Packaging
• wire Bonding
• Encapsulation.
Summary
• Microstrip lines
• Parallel striplines
• Coplanar striplines and
• Shielded striplines
• MMIC materials
• MMIC Fabrication steps