A Study on a Meander line employing Periodic Patterned Ground Structure on GaAs MMIC

Abstract

In this study, highly miniaturized short-wavelength meander line employing periodically patterned ground structure (PPGS) was developed for application to miniaturized on-chip passive component on GaAs MMIC (monolithic microwave integrated circuit). The meander line employing PPGS showed shorter wavelength and slow-wave characteristic compared with conventional meander line. The wavelength of the meander line employing PPGS structure was 17 % of the conventional meander line on GaAs MMIC. Due to its slow-wave structure, the meander line employing PPGS exhibited large propagation constant than conventional meander line, which resulted in larger phase shift and shunt inductance value. Above results indicate that the meander line employing PPGS is a promising candidate for application to a development of miniaturized on-chip RF components as well as inductor with a high inductance value on GaAs MMIC.

A Basic Study on RF Characteristics of Meander Line Employing Periodic Ground Structure on GaAs MMIC for Application to Miniaturization of RF Components

“…Recently, our research group has studied the MLEPGS on GaAs substrate [5]. In the MLEPGS, periodic ground structure (PGS) exists between SiN film and GaAs semiconducting substrate, and it was electrically connected to backside ground plane through the via holes [5,7]. Therefore, the PGS serves as ground plane with backside ground plane.…”

“…In wireless communication system market, miniaturization of RF passive components has been required constantly for the development of low cost communication system [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Above all things, transmission line should be miniaturized to reduce the size of RF components, because all distributed RF components basically consist of transmission line.…”

“…Above all things, transmission line should be miniaturized to reduce the size of RF components, because all distributed RF components basically consist of transmission line. The meander line has been widely used for application to compact transmission line due to its small layout area, which enabled a reduction of chip size [1][2][3][4][5].…”

“…For a further reduction of the layout size, we proposed the meander line employing periodic ground structure (MLEPGS) [5,7]. According to the results, the MLEPGS showed wavelength much shorter than conventional meander line, which enabled realization of highly miniaturized on-chip passive components on MMIC.…”

“…For application to various on-chip components on MMIC, basic characteristics of the MLEPGS should be explored thoroughly. We have published several papers dealing with a miniaturized RF component employing the MLEPGS [5,7]; however, an extensive investigation of basic characteristics on the MLEPGS has not been performed yet.…”