Terahertz attenuation and dispersion characteristics of coplanar transmission lines

• Published in: IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques 1991-06, Vol.39 (6), p.910-916
• Main Authors: Frankel, M.Y., Gupta, S., Valdmanis, J.A., Mourou, G.A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Attenuation; Circuit properties; Coplanar transmission lines; Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Frequency domain analysis; Microwave circuits, microwave integrated circuits, microwave transmission lines, submillimeter wave circuits; Power system transients; Sampling methods; Semiconductor materials; Signal analysis; Steady-state; Time domain analysis; Transient analysis
• ISSN: 0018-9480; 1557-9670
• DOI: 10.1109/22.81658

Experimental verification of analytic formulas for the dispersion and the attenuation of electrical transient signals propagating on coplanar transmission lines is presented. The verification is done in the frequency domain over a terahertz range although the experiments are in the time domain. The analytic formulas are obtained from fits to the full-wave analysis results. It is quantitatively verified that the full-wave steady-state solutions can be directly applied to the transient time-domain propagation experiments. Subpicosecond electrical pulses and an external electrooptic sampling technique are used to obtain the time-domain propagation data. From the Fourier transforms of the time-domain data both the attenuation and the phase information as a function of frequency are extracted. The dispersion and the attenuation characteristics are investigated for both coplanar waveguide and coplanar strip transmission lines. The investigation is carried out on both semiinsulating semiconductor and dielectric substrate materials. No observable losses caused by the semiconductor material are indicated.< >