Bloch-Wave Analysis of Stripline- and Microstrip-Array Slow-Wave Structures

The paper discusses a general approach to the analysis of periodic structures essentially consisting of an array of coupled striplines or microstrips. It is shown that any such structure can be represented as a cascade of identical multiport networks of known topology, thus allowing a straightforward analysis in terms of Bloch waves. The method is equally applicable to homogeneous and nonhomogeneous dielectric (i.e., MIC) devices.