Analysis of Phase Velocity Matching in Coupled Microstrip Lines with Dielectric Overlay

This paper describes a concrete method for computing characteristic impedances and effective dielectric constants of the microstrip coupled lines without and with a dielectric overlay. The frequency-independent spectral domain method is used for the analysis of these lines. This method is a powerful, accurate, and numerically efficient approach for planar transmission line structure. For designing the optimal directional coupler, the velocities of even and odd mode must be equal but velocities of these two modes are different in the conventional coupled line which is inhomogeneous. The results show that these two velocities can be almost same according to variations of structural and material parameters in terms of the overlay(superstrate).