28 IEEE MICROWAVE AND WIRELESS COMPONENTS LETTERS, VOL. 11, NO.

1, JANUARY 2001

A Wideband Coplanar Stripline to Microstrip

Abstract—A wideband coplanar stripline (CPS)-to-microstrip multisection impedance transformers in the CPW transmission
line was developed. The transition has a simple structure for the line. Mao et al. [9] demonstrated a CPS-to-CPW transition
ease of fabrication with low cost. The measured performance of two operating up to 20 GHz with an insertion loss of less than 0.5
back-to-back transitions exhibits an insertion loss of less than 3 dB
and a return loss of better than 10 dB over a bandwidth from 1.3 dB and a return loss of better than 10 dB.
GHz to 13.3 GHz (1 : 10.2). For narrower bandwidth, an insertion This letter presents a wideband CPS-to-microstrip transition
loss of less than 1 dB with a return loss of better than 10 dB was operating from 1.3 GHz to 13.3 GHz (1 : 10.2) with an insertion
achieved from 1.4 GHz to 7.3 GHz (1 : 5.2). loss of less than 3 dB and a return loss of better than 10 dB for
Index Terms—Balun, coplanar stripline (CPS), CPS-to-mi- back-to-back transition. It is simple and can be easily fabricated
crostrip transition, transition, wideband transition. using a low dielectric constant substrate . A mi-
crostrip-to-CPS-to- microstrip back-to-back structure has been
fabricated for easy measurement with the conventional network
I. INTRODUCTION
analyzer.

C OPLANAR STRIPLINE (CPS) is a uniplanar trans-

devices without via holes. The advantage of CPS over coplanar The structure of back-to-back CPS-to-microstrip transition
waveguide (CPW) is that CPS has less metal compared to CPW is illustrated in Fig. 1. The circuit simulation was accom-
and correspondingly can efficiently utilize the substrate area. plished with the aid of IE3D software, which uses the method
Various methods of designing CPS-to-microstrip transitions of moment algorithm for full wave electromagnetic simula-
have been reported. In [1], Dib et al. reported a type of uni- tion [10]. RT/Duroid 5870 is used as the substrate with a di-
planar transitions based on the concept of mode conversion electric constant of 2.33 and a thickness of 20 mil. The gap
with a 3 dB back-to-back insertion loss bandwidth from 7 GHz between CPS strips is 0.6 mm and the strip width is 1.5 mm.
to 11.5 GHz (1 : 1.6) for the CPS-to-microstrip transition. In The CPS characteristic impedance is 184 , as was simu-
1997, Qian and Itoh [2] improved the performance with a 3 dB lated with IE3D. The microstrip line’s width and length are
back-to-back insertion loss bandwidth from 6 GHz to 13 GHz 1.3 mm and 40 mm, respectively. The radial stub’s radius is
(1 : 2.1) by employing symmetric -junction for the structure of designed as 5.5 mm for broadband operation. Electric field
[1]. Simons et al. [3] also proposed a transition using a coupling of CPS lines is formed across the two strip lines and on the
method with a 2.4 dB back-to-back insertion loss bandwidth contrary, electric field of microstrip line is formed normal to
from 5.1 GHz to 6.1 GHz (1 : 1.2). However, this design used a the substrate. Hence, the radial stub is rotated with an angle
CPS-to-microstrip-to-CPS back-to-back structure and required to change electric field orientation from parallel to ver-
special CPS TRL (through-reflect-line) on-wafer calibration tical against the substrate. The rotation angle, , is optimized
standards with the National Institute of Standards and Tech- as 30 for good coupling. The high characteristic impedance
nology (NIST) de-embedding software program for a network of CPS, 184 , can be transformed to the microstrip line’s
analyzer calibration [4]–[6]. Most of these CPS-to-microstrip 50 by a smooth insertion of the ground plane toward the
transitions used high dielectric constant substrate to microstrip line. Since it does not employ any quarter wave-
reduce the CPS characteristic impedance [1]–[3]. length transformer, which limits the bandwidth as seen in
CPS-to-CPW transitions have also been developed with other methods [1], [2], wideband performance is achieved.
wider reported bandwidth. Tilley et al. [7] presented a wide-
band CPS-to-CPW transition with 1 dB back-to-back insertion III. TRANSITION PERFORMANCE
loss from 0.45 GHz to 5 GHz (1 : 11). Li et al. [8] proposed The return loss and insertion loss of two back-to-back tran-
a CPS-to-CPW back-to-back transition with the bandwidth sitions were measured using an HP8510B network analyzer.
ranging from 0.4 GHz to 3.6 GHz (1 : 9) by using Chebyshev The measured return and insertion loss of back-to-back tran-
sition excluding the SMA connector loss are illustrated in
Manuscript received August 11, 2000; revised December 13, 2000. This work Fig. 2.
was supported in part by the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The measured 3 dB insertion loss bandwidth of back-to-back
The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, transition is from 1.3 GHz to 13.3 GHz (1 : 10.2) with a return
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3128 USA (e-mail:
[email protected]). loss of better than 10 dB. The 1 dB insertion loss bandwidth
Publisher Item Identifier S 1531-1309(01)01968-7. for back-to-back transition is from 1.4 GHz to 7.3 GHz (1 : 5.2).
1531–1309/01$10.00 © 2001 IEEE
SUH AND CHANG: WIDEBAND CPS TO MICROSTRIP TRANSITION 29

Fig. 1. CPS-to-microstrip back-to-back transition structure.

Fig. 2. Measured return and insertion loss of the back-to-back transition.

For an insertion loss of less than 0.5 dB for the back-to-back REFERENCES
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