Js. Bagby et al., IDENTIFICATION OF PROPAGATION REGIMES ON INTEGRATED MICROSTRIP TRANSMISSION-LINES, IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques, 41(11), 1993, pp. 1887-1894
There has been a resurgence of interest in the propagation characteris
tics of open integrated microstrip transmission lines. This is due in
part to the discovery of diverse propagation regimes for higher-order
modes on open lines. In contrast to the dominant EH(o) mode, three dis
tinct propagation regimes exist for higher-order modes on microstrip t
ransmission lines. In this paper, a rigorous spectral-domain integral
equation formulation is used to analyze propagation in all three regim
es. This formulation provides a clear physical picture of the differen
t propagation regimes based on the mathematical location of poles and
branch points in the complex spectral-variable plane. As an illustrati
on, the formulation is applied to the case of an isolated uniform micr
ostrip transmission line. The integral equation is discretized via the
method of moments, and entire-domain basis functions incorporating su
itable edge behavior are utilized to provide convergence with relative
ly few terms. The results obtained are compared to the results of othe
r workers, and good agreement is observed.