Novel thick film microstrip load

Thick film microstrip lines have been shown to exhibit acceptable performance at frequencies up to 18 GHz. However, broadband, low VSWR, microstrip matched loads have always been difficult to achieve in microstrip. Discrete resistors have been used but they are not effective at high frequencies. This paper presents a novel low VSWR load implemented in thick film technology at I/J band using an interactive design method to achieve an optimum configuration. One form of the load gives a VSWR of less than 1.2 from 9 GHz to 13.5 GHz. A broadband version gives a VSWR of less than 1.5 over an 18 GHz bandwidth