The effect of dielectric anisotropy and metal surface roughness

We provide an overview of recently published research on the effect of planar substrate dielectric anisotropy and metal surface roughness. The effect of metal roughness on loss is shown to be substantially different from that predicted by commonly used models. Roughness has also been shown to have a substantial effect on velocity of propagation/effective dielectric constant due to the introduction of substantial surface inductance, far in excess of that predicted by smooth surface skin effect. We also explore a recent technique for quickly and easily measuring the dielectric constants of a uniaxially anisotropic planar substrate. Analysis of substrates using the generally incorrect assumption of isotropy can now be avoided.