A simple method to estimate the loading effects of Al/Si on the characteristic impedance of multilayer microstrip line

Abstract

The present study aims to experimentally determine the microwave transmission and reflection properties of aluminum thin film grown on silicon using sputtering. A simple microstrip line based structure has been used for the microwave characterization in the frequency range 10 MHz to 26.5 GHz. Complex S-parameter measurements reveal only small differences on silicon loading and aluminum/silicon loading in comparison to the microstrip line. The characteristic impedance (Z) of the microstrip line loaded with silicon and with aluminum/silicon have been obtained corresponding to the length of the loadings using two port microwave analysis. Comparison of loaded microstrip line with no loading shows large changes in the real part well as imaginary part of the characteristic impedance in the frequency range less than 10 GHz. Percentage changes in the real (Z) and imaginary (Z) have been found as ± 40% and ± 10% in average, respectively, for silicon loading in comparison to the no loading case, whereas these changes have been found to be below ±5% for aluminium/silicon loading, thus these smaller changes suggest the similar responses for aluminium/silicon loading and no loading. The results reveal that the propagation can be restored with the application of aluminum with any semiconductor or dielectric as loading on the microstrip line, which shows its potential to be explored for making an individual microwave component.