Microwave/millimeter wave metamaterial development using the design of experiments technique

The successful use of design of experiments (DOE) approach in a feasibility and design study of a metamaterial structure is presented. The frequency of interest is 40 GHz and the technology used is multilayer low temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC). The chosen approach for the double negative metamaterial implementation is a loaded coplanar waveguide (CPW) transmission line. The design goals are a resonant frequency of 40 GHz and minimum insertion loss at that frequency. The electromagnetic performance of the loaded transmission line is simulated with a full wave time domain commercial simulator. The results of these simulations are incorporated into the DOE technique. First, the significant factors in achieving each of the goals are identified, then statistical models are developed for the two output variables and applied to optimize the structure.