In Chapter 2, the measured results of the modified Marchand balun agree well with the simulated results. Some of the possible reasons cause the difference between the simulation and measured results are: the air gap between two layers, the inductance of the via used to connect bottom transmission lines and ground, non-identical physical lengths of the two extended output ports and misalignment between two substrates. This kind of balun showed a good performance in spite of imperfect fabrication facilities leading to a misalignment between the two substrates.
Thus, this design allows considerable flexibility in the design procedure and yields reasonable tolerances for fabrication. Adding the transmission line between two couplers improves the performance of the Marchand balun significantly.
In addition, the compensated transmission line can be added between the LTCC spiral broadside coupled stripline to increase the bandwidth of the Marchand balun in Chapter 3. Then, the broadband LTCC double-balanced mixer can be implemented with two Marchand balun. The simulated results indicate that the LTCC double-balanced mixer can achieve broadband bandwidth.
In Chapter 4 and 5, the measured results of the three-pole combline filter with cross-coupling measured with GSG probe and the substrate environments are shown in Figure 6-1. The solid lines are the measured results with substrate environments and the dot lines are the measured responses with GSG probe. These measured results agree with the simulated results in Figure 5.1-4 except the location of zeros. The ceramic substrate of the LTCC has dielectric constant of 33. Under such high substrate dielectric constant, the performances of the filter are sensitive to the shrinkages of the LTCC. In a free sintering process, the LTCC is shrinking in X- and
Y- and Z-direction (thickness). Therefore, the shrinkage of the LTCC may cause the error of the dimension. In Figure 5.1-6, the suppression of the combline with the substrate environment is –24dB for second harmonic. Decreasing the series L (more via-holes) can move the high-side zero toward higher frequency. Then, the suppression can achieve –30dB.
Figure 6-1 Measured results with GSG probe and substrate environments
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