Optimally designed membrane-supported grounded CPW structure for submillimeter-wave applications

In this paper, a very low loss CPW structure for application in submillimeter wave region is proposed and an optimized solution in terms of loss and dispersion is obtained. In this new structure, substrate is removed totally, which allows a pure TEM wave propagation. Furthermore, using the side walls in the structure, there are no higher order substrate mode excitations. The only remaining source of loss is the conductor loss. Metallic loss has been reduced considerably by optimizing the structure so that a relatively uniform current distribution on the center conductor is established.