MODELLING OF CONDUCTOR LOSS IN MICROSTRIPS AND CPWs FOR MEMS COMPONENTS
W. PASCHER, L. VIETZORRECK

Abstract. A numerical method is presented here, which analyzes very accurately and efficiently the high-frequency behavior of various micromachined transmission lines. One special feature of lines, which are parts of MEMS devices, is the presence of very thin layers-compared to other geometrical dimensions, resulting from the technological process. With usual numerical methods, where the entire domain is discretized, those thin layers are difficult to consider. The alternatives are a very small mesh size with the resulting extreme long calculation times and large storage requirements or approximate boundary conditions, which are usually less accurate. Here it will be shown how thinlayer planar waveguide structures can be analyzed very accurately with reasonable numerical effort by the Method of Lines (MoL). The method combines the advantages of an analytical solution with those of a finite difference discretization. Its approach is demonstrated for the modelling of multilayer waveguide structures. Conductor loss and effective dielectric constant for a micromachined microstrip line and a coplanar MEMS waveguide with a special electrode configuration will be presented.