User Guide

Table Of Contents
ME910G1 Hardware Design Guide
1VV0301593 Rev.15 Page
60 of 100 2022-08-23
Not Subject to NDA
possible power losses. A Grounded Coplanar Waveguide (G-CPW) line was chosen, since
this kind of transmission line ensures good impedance control and can be implemented
in an outer PCB layer as needed in this case. A SMA female connector has been used to
feed the line.
The interface board is made on a FR4, 4-layers PCB. The substrate material is
characterized by relative permittivity εr = 4.6 ± 0.4 @ 1 GHz, TanD= 0.019 ÷ 0.026 @ 1 GHz.
A characteristic impedance of nearly 50 is obtained using the trace width = 1.1 mm,
clearance from a coplanar ground plane = 0.3 mm each side. The line uses the reference
ground plane on layer 3, while copper is removed from layer 2 below the line. The height
of the trace from the ground floor is 1.335 mm. The calculated characteristic impedance
is 51.6 , the estimated line loss is less than 0.1 dB.
The line geometry is shown below:
Figure 18:
Line geometry
6.1.2.2. Transmission Line Measurements
An HP8753E VNA (Full-2-port calibration) was used in this measurement session.
A calibrated coaxial cable was soldered to the pad corresponding to RF output; a SMA
connector was soldered to the board in order to characterize the losses of the
transmission line including the connector itself. During Return Loss / impedance
measurements, the transmission line has been terminated to 50 load.