Printable planar dielectric passive microwave components

Printable planar dielectric passive microwave components are investigated in this paper. Micron-size-thick films are printed on low-loss microwave substrates and considered as nearly perfect magnetic walls to realize microwave components. The permittivity contrast between the substrate and film is kept high in order to minimize the leakage power and consequently the insertion loss. An approximate theoretical technique is used to analyze the structures. The theoretical results are confirmed by experimental results and the results from a simulation-based numerical method. The impact of dielectric loss of the film is much less than that of the substrate, allowing realization of highly efficient components using films with medium loss properties (e.g., ε" = 3). Several prototypes including waveguide and antennas are fabricated by screen-printing and characterized at different frequencies.