20

Cylindrical and
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AXD TECHNIQUES,VOL. MTT-26,riO. 1, JANUARY 1978
Cylindrically Warped Strip and
Microstriplines
YEN-CHU WANG, MEMBER, IEEE
A bstractThe impedances of cylindrical and cvlindricallv warrd
strip and microstripkres are pres;nted. Applications include roll&
up circuits using flexible dielectric material, transition adapter,
balun, slotted line, and other special transmission lines. Effects of
warpage on the impedances of planar strip and microstriplines are
also presented.
1. INTRODUCTION
I
N THIS PAPER uniform (nonplanar) circular arc strips
with cylinders are considered. Illustrated in Fig. 1 are the
cross sections. The concept of nonplanar lines was first
conceived by Barrett [1] in 1952, who pointed out that this
scheme involves using flexible dielectric material, rolling the
circuit up in a manner similar to the construction of a paper
capacitor. The nonplanar lines can also be used as coaxial-
to-planar line transition adapters by taking advantage of
their circular cylindrical configurations. Also considered are
the warped lines, which are important special cases of the
nonplanar lines, as illustrated in Fig. 2. Their impedances
are obtained from the nonplanar line solutions by letting the
radii of cylinders become very large while maintaining finite
arc length of the strip and finite line height. Warped lines are
of special interest because severe environmental changes
may cause an otherwise planar conventional strip or micro-
stripline to warp. In Fig. 1, a and b are radii of two grounded
cylinders, c is the radius of the arc strip, 8* is the relative
permittivity of the medium, Mis the half-angle of the strip,
and ~ is the angular variable in the polar system. Two
regions are designated as I and H, respectively, denoting
a < p < c and c < p < b, where p is the variable along the
radial direction.
II. CYLINDRICAL AND WARPED STRIPLINES
We shall assume that only TEM modes exist and solve for
the potential, 41 and ~ II in, respectively, the two regions: I,
below the strip and II, above the strip. For the stripline the
cylinders of radii a and b are grounded and, without loss of
generality, the strip of radius c is maintained at a potential of
1 V. Laplaces equation in cylindrical coordinates is
(1)
Due to the symmetry of the structure, only the even circular
Manuscript received February 28, 1977; revised May 10, 1977. This
work was supported in part by the Solid State Electronics Development
Program (a Rockwell International Science Center-University Joint
Program) under a Summer Research Position (1976).
The author is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Howard
University, Washington, DC 20059.
(a)
(b)
Fig. 1. Cross sections of (a) cylindrical stripline and (b) cylindrical
microstripline.
I
I
Fig. 2. Cross section of warped stripline,
harmonics are retained in the solution, and only one half of
the structure, i.e., O < @< n need be considered (see Fig.
1(a)). Applying boundary conditions, we have
~,= ao in p/a+ ~ a. cos nq!Jsinh n in pJa, a<p<c
h = %(ln c/a)/(ln c/b) in p/b
(2)
+ ~ a,, M. cos no sinh (n in p/b), c<p<b
(3)
0018 -9480/78/0100-0020 $00.75 Q 1978 IEEE
WANG: WARPED STRIP AND MICROSTRIpLINES
where the summation is over n. n = 1, 2, ~., and aOand a,,
satisfy the dual series
L. A sinh n in c/a, f ~ (ln b/a)/in b/c, g A in c/a (6)
K. A H sinh (n in b/a)~sinh (n in b/c). ;7)
Knowing aO and a., and therefore $ I and $11, we can
calculate Ho = (Ni&,/377) d4/?p. The characteristic im-
pedance Z is obtained as
@
y= 11= 2 (n [H@]o=adfj=~mo (8)
o
c
z = (y + X,)-l. (lo)
For the warped stripline, we consider the symmetrical
strip case, i.e., b c = c a = }1/2, where the line height b is
equal to b u. The strip width W is defined as 2tic. When
radii b, c, and a become large and z small so that h and W
remain finite, we get the warped stripline structure, as shown
in Fig. 2. Since b/a = 1 + h/2a, b/c = (b/a)/(1 + h/2a),
in (1 + x) ~ x. x <1, we obtain g = in c~a = h/2a.
in bu = hla. in b/c > b/2a, and from (6) f= 2 and
a = W/2c m W12a = ( W/h)(h/a )/2. Therefore, for given h a
as parameters, the impedance formula (10) can be evaluated
for a different width-to-height ratio W/h of a warped
stripline. Warpage of the line is indicated by the height-to-
radius ratio ;I,ia.
III. CYLINDRICAL AND WARPED MICROSTRIPLINE
The analysls for the microstripline is similar to that of the
stripline. From Fig. l(b) we obtain
aog+~a. L.cos no= 13 o<~<u (12)
ao.f+ ~ a,l K. cos nd = O, ct<~<7c (13)
K. = n(c* cosh n in bja + sinh H in b/a) (15)
g = in bla (16)
j= ~*,
The characteristic impedance
uated and is given by
I
,n
(17)
Z can be similarly eval-
]-1 IQQ<
I
Z = 2 I (Hop),,.a dqh =
Luu. d
(18)
() ~:PaOn
where 41 is given by (11) and U(, will be determined by
methods treated in Section IV.
21
For the case of warped microstriphne, these results can be
used provided we let a and b become large and the line height
b = h a be finite. We obtain, consequently, g s hia,j = c*,
and the linewidth W N 2GW.The strip half-angle is given by
u = ( W/h)(h/a)/2. Therefore. for given warpage h/a, as par-
ameters, the impedance will vary with W/}L When these data
are substituted into ( 12)( 17), and a. and an are solved by
simple integration methods treated in Section IIV, the im-
pedance of warped mlcrostripline will be obtained from (18).
IV. METHODS OF SOLVING THE DUAL SERIES
We will use two methods to solve for a. and n. from the
dual series for both the strip and microstriplines, i.e. the
least square and the simple integration methods; both will
reduce the dual series to N linear equations for a,, whiclh can
be solved numerically. We find it convenient to use the least
square method for the cylindrical lines and the integration
method for the warped lines. In both cases. a. are found to be
accurate with N = 20 for the least squat-c approximation,
which is essentially a method-of-moments approach [5]1,and
with N = 10 for the integration method. Clements etal.[6]
have previously used a method similar to ours on a different
class of problems and found dependence of N on strip width.
Similarly, we find in this work that a large number of terms
are required as the strip goes to zero. Since the dual seri(:s for
both the strip and microstriplines are formally the same
[compare (4), (5) and (12), (13)] and the differences lie in the
quantities ~,, K.. g, and f [compare (6), (7) and (14)-(17)],
the analyses presented below are applicable to both.
A. hut Sqaaw Method
We will minimize. according to (4), (5) or (12), (13), the
following sum of square errors through the choice of a ~and
an, n=l,2, ., N [2]
F(ao,a.) = l (1 aog ~ a,, ~ cos }z@) d+
o
By differentiation with respect to a,] and a,, and equating the
results to zero we get a system of N linear equal ions for a..
For dF/dao = O, ?F/fian = O, we obtain
a. = (Yg ~ a. fl.)p (20)
and for the wth equation, we get
~ a,, ~LL. ,1~
cos }~~ cos m~ do
~=1
I
+ K. Km, ( COS @ COS Mj do I@nfl,nl
,Z
o
where
P=[w72+(na)fTl
(23)
22 IEEETRANSACTIONSON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. MTT-26, NO, 1, JANUARY 1978
~(DEG2EES)
Fig. 3. Impedance versus strip half-angle for a cylindrical stripline, with
b/a = 1.1 and c/a = 1.04, 1.08.
The linear equations as shown in (21 ) can be solved numer-
ically for a.. On using (20), aOis determined and so are the
impedances according to (8)-(10) for the stripline and (18)
for the microstripline.
B. Simple Integration Method
Integrating (4) with respect to@ from Oto Rand (5) from u
to 7cgives
aO= up/g p ~ a.(L. /g K.)(sin na)/n (24)
P=[~+(nu)f]-l
(25)
where g andf are given by (16) and (17). Multiplying (4) by
cos m~ and integrating from O to M, we get
aO+g-~a.LHUmn= g-
where
(
U~. = 1 cos ng5 cos m+ d~ 1 cos m~
o o
(26)
d+
1
. (27)
Substituting (24) into (26), we obtain the linear equations for
a., of which the mth equation is
f a.{Ln U~. - P(L. - gK.)(sin nu)/n} = 1- UP. (28)
~=1
Solving for afl numerically from (28 ),and substituting a. into
(24), we obtain a, and therefore the Impedances as shown in
(8)-(10) for the warped stripline and (18) for the warped
microstripline. The various parameters are given by the last
paragraphs of Sections II and III, respectively, for the two
types of warped lines.
It is interesting to note that the approximate formula
Z = 377/(W/h) can be obtained from (24), where a ~ W/2rch
for small h/a and ~14 ng, Kfl + n, f = C* = 1.
V. NUMERICAL RESULTS
Figs. 3 and 4 show the impedances of a stripline for,
respectively, b/a = 1.1 and 2 versus x, the half-angle of the
strip.
In Fig. 5 the impedances of a warped stripline (upper
curve) and the planar symmetric stripline (lower curve) are
compared. The warpage n/a is assumed to be 0.01. It is noted
that warpage has less effect on the impedance for large W/it
than for small W/h. From a design point of view, W/h should
be larger than 1.0 in order to minimize the effect of warpage.
Fig. 6 shows the impedance of microstriplines for C* = 1
<;
;:
.Qo
la
>
20
I I I I 1 1 I I 1 I I I I
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 60 180
d (DEGREES)
Fig, 4. Impedance versus strip half-angle for a cylindrical stripline, with
bla = 2 and c~a = 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, and 1.8.
I I I 11111 --~
001
0.5 1.0 2.0 3040
W/h
Fig. 5. Impedance versus width-to-height ratio for a warped stripline,
with warpage b/a = 0.01,
I I 1 1
1,
I
20 60 100 140 180
d @GPEES)
Fig. 6. Impedance versus strip half-angle for a homogeneous cylindrical
microstripline (z* = 1) The dashed curve 1s obtained from [3] with
bia = 2.3.
with various values of the radius ratio b/a. The radii a and b
are shown in Fig. 1(b). The dashed curve is obtained from [3]
using a variational method for b/a = 2.3. It is noted that
both the present and the variational method give 50-f2
impedance at u = 180, as they should for a coaxial air line at
b,/a = 2.3. At small angles of strip, however, the two methods
differ. Illustrated in Figs. 7 and 8 are the impedances and
velocity ratios of microstriplines for E* = 2 and 4,
respectively.
WANG: WARPEDSTRIPAND MICROSTRIPLINES
140r
23
Fig. 7. Impedance and velocity ratio versus strip half-angle for a cylin-
drical microstripline with C* = 2.
Fig, 8. Same as Fig. 7 except S* = 4
In Fig. 9 the impedances of warped microstriplines for
# = 1, 2,4, and 8 and the warpage h/a = 0.01 are given. The
dashed curves are taken from Wheelers impedance formula
of planar lines [4] for C* = 1 and 8, which is a prototype of
the planar microstriplines. Similar to the warped stripline
case, the impedances of the warped microstrip approach
those of planar lines as W/h increases. The ratio of free-space
wavelength to microstrip wavelength for the warped micro-
stripline is calculated and found to be a few percent larger
than that of the planar microstripline for the same dielectric
material.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
Extensive impedance values are presented for both cylin-
drical and warped strip and microstriplines. In the case of
LLLi.LLo
VW+
Fig. 9. Impedance versus strip half-angle for warped microstriplin:s with
warpage It/a = 0.01. The dashed curves are taken from [4] for planar
parallel strips.
warped lines, it is found that a larger width-to-height ratio
tends to reduce the warpage effect on an otherwise planar
line.
For the homogeneous (c* = 1) cylindrical microstripline,
the methods presented here are compared with the varia-
tional method in calculating the impedance. They are in
close agreement at intermediate and large strip angles.
The methods presented here may be applied to lines of
more complicated cylindrical geometries. The extension to
warped cases can be used, either as a check against im-
pedance results, if available, of a planar counterpart, or as an
approximate formula of the latter if the exact formula is not
available, by letting hJa, the warpage, approach zero.
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
REFERENCES
R. M. Barrett, Etched sheets serve as microwave components, Elec-
tronics, pp. 114-118, June 1952.
A. Sommerfeld, Partial Differential Equations in Physics. New York:
Academic, 1964, pp. 29-31.
J. W. Duncan and V. P. Minerva, IOO: 1 bandwidth balun transfor-
mer, Proc. IRE, vol. 48, pp. 156-164, Feb. 1960.
H. A. Wheeler, Transmission-line properties of parallel strip
separated by a dielectric sheet, IEEE Trans. Microwarw Theory Tech,
vol. MTT- 13, pp. 172185, Mar. 1965.
R. F. Barrington, Field Computation! by Moment Met/7ods. New York:
Macmillan, 1968.
T. E. Clements, C. R. Paul, and A. T. Adams, Computation of the
capacitance matrix for systems ofdielectric-coated cylindrical conduc-
tors, IEEE Trans, Electromagm Compat., vol. EMC-17, pp. 218-248,
Nov. 1975.