A RIBBED-DIELECTRIC TRANSMISSION-LINE

Ribbed-dielectric transmission lines (RDL) are finding increasingly wi de applications in volume microwave integrated circuits [1]. These lin es have been used to develop components for such functional units as d irectional couplers [2), phase shifters [3], filter [4], antennas [5], loads [6], etc. A knowledge of the electromagnetic field structure is required when designing the components. A rigorous field calculation involves cumbersome numerical methods of solving internal and external electrodynamic problems of the ribbed-dielectric lines [6]. These sol utions can only be tested by comparison with experimental results. Mor eover, information on the field distributions makes it possible, to a first approximation, to solve the problems of matching the RDL's to ot her types of transmission lines, and including active elements and inh omogeneities in such lines. This paper carries out an experimental ana lysis of the structure of the electrodynamic field of ribbed dielectri c lines in the near and far fields.