Low-Frequency excitation of leaky modes in a microstrip line with a top cover

Abstract

This paper studies the excitation of a physical leaky mode in a covered microstrip structure at low frequencies. We calculate the current excited in the line by a delta-gap voltage source via a full wave analysis based on a mixed potential integral equation scheme. The current in the line is decomposed into its bound mode and continuous spectrum components. The bound mode component is associated with the propagation effects whereas the continuous spectrum component is associated with reactive and/or radiative effects and contains the contribution of the leaky mode. Our analysis also includes a detail study of the dispersion relations of the bound and leaky modes along with their corresponding electric fields. At low frequencies, in the covered microstrip structure with a low top cover height, we have found that the bound mode role is superseded by the leaky mode, in the sense that it is the leaky mode which partially or totally carries the signal energy. Therefore, the spurious effects associated with the excitation of a leaky mode, which usually appear at high frequencies in open microstrip lines, appear here in the low frequency range. This effect may have very relevant practical consequences in the performance of such systems.