Planar Microwave Engineering: A Practical Guide to Theory, Measurement and Circuits

Citation

Ellis, B. (2005), "Planar Microwave Engineering: A Practical Guide to Theory, Measurement and Circuits", Microelectronics International, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 42-43. https://doi.org/10.1108/mi.2005.22.2.42.2

About 9 months ago, I reviewed The Design of CMOS Radio‐Frequency Integrated Circuits from the same pen and publisher as this one. I said then, “It must be said from the start that the subject of this book is marginal to this journal, although there is some overlap.”. This one, despite its title, is less marginal because it contains the best treatise on planar passive elements, as on printed, hybrid and integrated circuit boards that I have ever seen. Of course, this includes stripline, microstrip and coplanar waveguides as well as coupled elements, splitters and so on. Perhaps less well‐known are planar antennas and filters, all of which can be etched onto printed circuits. Even more important, this is not just the theory but also the practical implementation.

However, it does not stop there. With the book comes a fantastic CD‐ROM, that is full of all sorts of useful toys to help engineers design their circuits, both microwave and lower frequencies. If the truth be told, the CD‐ROM would be easily worth the price of the book to a design engineer. It includes a 354 page biography of Maxwell and softwares for: solving electromagnetic fields for microstrip structures; simulating impedance and radiation patterns of microstrip antennas; analysing all types of antenna; matching impedances; simulating active and passive microwave circuits with lumped and distributed elements; simulating traditional lumped circuit; designing lumped filters and translating them to distributed types; designing phase‐locked loops; designing, analysing and simulating a whole host of planar elements, such as on printed circuits, with the in‐built parameters of typical substrates; designing and simulating couplers, splitters, filters and including even a couple of PCB design softwares. Obviously, some of these are “lite” or old versions, but they are all functional and useful. There are also a few interesting documents, including two types of Smith chart, on top of those incorporated in some of the softwares.

Let's not forget the book itself. It is, like its predecessor, well written, printed and clear. Also like it, let's not forget more than just a shade of humour, especially where the author digresses a little from his direct path to give us an historical insight. A few passages are identical to his previous work. As I said, it surpasses itself in information marrying RF and microwaves to various forms of practical circuit, which is the leitmotif of this journal. Manufacturing bare boards and assembling them is fraught with problems at these frequencies, no matter whether you use FR4, PTFE, ceramic, glass, or silicon, as substrate. This book answers all your practical questions (or wakes you up to some you did not know existed!) in this complex field. Most highly recommended for all working in it.