Leaky wave excitation on three-dimensional printed interconnects

Leaky wave excitation on three-dimensional single and coupled microstrip interconnects is studied. Closed-form asymptotic expressions for the fields associated with the interconnect are derived, and are applicable in both the travelling/standing wave and leaky wave regimes, both of which lead to radiation. The leaky-wave beam angle is found to correspond to the usual two-dimensional ray-optics leakage angle for long interconnects, as expected, and depends on interconnect length and spacing for shorter interconnects. Comparisons with fullwave results are shown for the case of coupled interconnects.