D-Band characterization of co-planar wave guide and microstrip transmission lines on liquid crystal polymer

In this paper, for the first time, characterization of planar transmission lines on organic Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) substrate in D-Band is presented. Via-less conductor backed co-planar wave guide (CB-CPW) and microstrip lines are designed, fabricated and measured on 2 mil organic LCP substrate. Line-reflect-reflect-match (LRRM) calibration technique was used to measure the fabricated lines, whereas in order to accurately extract line loss and to characterize the substrate, a thru-reflect-line (TRL) calibration was performed. The results have shown excellent RF performance of LCP in the D-band, while the microstrip line exhibits a loss of 0.1755 dB/mm at 110 GHz, with a monotonous increase to 0.331dB/mm at 170 GHz. An almost constant (~2.6) effective dielectric constant is also reported within the whole measurement band.