High-resolution near-field measurements of microwave circuits

Abstract

In this paper we report on measurements of electric field intensities of microwave field above surface of microwave circuits using miniaturized coaxial antennas. During the scanning process the antenna is driven at various distances above the sample surface according to topographic data acquired prior to the field measurement. A position/signal difference method is used to increase the spatial resolution of the antenna to about 20 jm ( A/104) - one order of magnitude better than contemporary microwave scanning systems. For measurement of the tangential field components parallel to the sample surface the antenna is tilted by about 45? relative to the sample surface. By its rotation about the vertical axis various components of the field are measured, vertical and horizontal electric field intensities are recalculated. Performance of our scanning system utilizing these methods is tested using a PCB surface capacitor, a microstrip filter and a microstrip transmission line.