Effects of microstructural defects in multilayer LTCC stripline

This paper proposes novel stripline models including embedded pores and sharpened conductor edges, which are commonly introduced during the multilayer low-temperature cofired-ceramic (LTCC) process. This model enables designers to obtain conductivity and tanδ of the stripline that are difficult to obtain using the experimental methods from arbitrary frequencies. This paper confirms that the proposed models are appropriate for LTCC striplines by comparing the simulated results with the experimental results. We found that embedded pores contributed to increase in unloaded quality factor (Qu) and characteristic impedance in the range of 5% to 6% while effective ε_r decreased in the range of 11%. Sharpened edges contributed to maximum peak in Qu and decreased characteristic impedance. These models will contribute to precision design of the future LTCC striplines.