Air

bridge

Lossy film
Lossy film

Planar resistor Chip resistor Loop inductor Spiral inductor

Dielectric

r r

Interdigital Metal-insulator- Chip capacitor

gap capacitor metal capacitor

Resistors are fabricated with thin films of lossy material such as nichrome, tantalum nitride,
or doped semiconductor material. In monolithic circuits such films can be deposited or grown,
whereas chip resistors made from a lossy film deposited on a ceramic chip can be bonded or
soldered in a hybrid circuit. Low resistances are hard to obtain.
Small values of inductance can be realized with a short length or loop of transmission
line, and larger values (up to about 10 nH) can be obtained with a spiral inductor, as shown
in the following figures. Larger inductance values generally incur more loss and more shunt
capacitance; this leads to a resonance that limits the maximum operating frequency.
Capacitors can be fabricated in several ways. A short transmission line stub can provide
a shunt capacitance in the range of 0–0.1 pF. A single gap, or an interdigital set of gaps, in
a transmission line can provide a series capacitance up to about 0.5 pF. Greater values (up to
about 25 pF) can be obtained using a metal-insulator-metal sandwich in either monolithic or
chip (hybrid) form.

Another popular matching technique uses a single open-circuited or short-circuited length

of transmission line (a stub) connected either in parallel or in series with the transmission
feed line at a certain distance from the load, as shown in Figure 5.4. Such a single-stub
tuning circuit is often very convenient because the stub can be fabricated as part of the
transmission line media of the circuit, and lumped elements are avoided. Shunt stubs are
preferred for microstrip line or stripline, while series stubs are preferred for slotline or
coplanar waveguide.
In single-stub tuning the two adjustable parameters are the distance, d, from the load
to the stub position, and the value of susceptance or reactance provided by the stub. For
the shunt-stub case, the basic idea is to select d so that the admittance, Y , seen looking
into the line at distance d from the load is of the form Y0 j B. Then the stub susceptance
is chosen as j B, resulting in a matched condition. For the series-stub case, the distance
d is selected so that the impedance, Z , seen looking into the line at a distance d from the
load is of the form Z 0 j X . Then the stub reactance is chosen as j X , resulting in a
matched condition.
As discussed in Chapter 2, the proper length of an open or shorted transmission line
section can provide any desired value of reactance or susceptance. For a given suscep-
tance or reactance, the difference in lengths of an open- or short-circuited stub is 4.
 d

Y0 Y0 YL

Y0
Y= 1
Z
l
Open or
shorted
stub
(a)

Z0 Z0 ZL

Z0 l Z= 1
Y

Open or
shorted
stub
(b)

FIGURE 5.4 Single-stub tuning circuits. (a) Shunt stub. (b) Series stub.

For transmission line media such as microstrip or stripline, open-circuited stubs are easier
to fabricate since a via hole through the substrate to the ground plane is not needed. For
lines like coax or waveguide, however, short-circuited stubs are usually preferred because
the cross-sectional area of such an open-circuited line may be large enough (electrically)
to radiate, in which case the stub is no longer purely reactive.
We will discuss both Smith chart and analytic solutions for shunt- and series-stub tun-
ing. The Smith chart solutions are fast, intuitive, and usually accurate enough in practice.
The analytic expressions are more precise, and are useful for computer analysis.

The single-stub shunt tuning circuit is shown in Figure 5.4a. We will first discuss an exam-
ple illustrating the Smith chart solution and then derive formulas for d and .

EXAMPLE 5.2 SINGLE-STUB SHUNT TUNING

For a load impedance Z L 60 j80 , design two single-stub (short circuit)

shunt tuning networks to match this load to a 50 line. Assuming that the load is
matched at 2 GHz and that the load consists of a resistor and capacitor in series,
plot the reflection coefficient magnitude from 1 to 3 GHz for each solution.
Solution
The first step is to plot the normalized load impedance z L 1 2 j1 6, construct
the appropriate SWR circle, and convert to the load admittance, y L , as shown on
 the Smith chart in Figure 5.5a. For the remaining steps we consider the Smith
chart as an admittance chart. Notice that the SWR circle intersects the 1 jb
circle at two points, denoted as y1 and y2 in Figure 5.5a. Thus the distance d from
the load to the stub is given by either of these two intersections. Reading the WTG
scale, we obtain

d1 0 176 0 065 0 110

d2 0 325 0 065 0 260

Actually, there is an infinite number of distances d around the SWR circle

that intersect the 1 jb circle. Usually it is desired to keep the matching stub as
close as possible to the load to improve the bandwidth of the match and to reduce
losses caused by a possibly large standing wave ratio on the line between the stub
and the load.
At the two intersection points, the normalized admittances are

y1 1 00 j 1 47
y2 1 00 j 1 47

d1
y1
yL

d2

zL
y2

(a)

FIGURE 5.5 Solution to Example 5.2. (a) Smith chart for the shunt-stub tuners.
 0.110 60 0.260 60

50 50 0.995 pF 50 50 0.995 pF

50 50

0.095 0.405
Solution #1 Solution #2

(b)

1.0

0.8
Solution #2
0.6

0.4
Solution #1
0.2

0
1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
f (GHz)
(c)

FIGURE 5.5 Continued. (b) The two shunt-stub tuning solutions. (c) Reflection coefficient mag-
nitudes versus frequency for the tuning circuits of (b).

Thus, the first tuning solution requires a stub with a susceptance of j1 47. The
length of a short-circuited stub that gives this susceptance can be found on the
Smith chart by starting at y (the short circuit) and moving along the outer
edge of the chart (g 0 toward the generator to the j1 47 point. The stub
length is then

1 0 095

Similarly, the required short-circuit stub length for the second solution is

2 0 405

This completes the two tuner designs.

To analyze the frequency dependence of these two designs, we need to know
the load impedance as a function of frequency. The series-RC load impedance
is Z L 60 j80 at 2 GHz, so R 60 and C 0 995 pF. The two tun-
ing circuits are shown in Figure 5.5b. Figure 5.5c shows the calculated reflection
coefficient magnitudes for these two solutions. Observe that solution 1 has a sig-
nificantly better bandwidth than solution 2; this is because both d and are shorter
for solution 1, which reduces the frequency variation of the match.
 To derive formulas for d and , let the load impedance be written as Z L 1 YL
RL j X L . Then the impedance Z down a length d of line from the load is
RL j XL j Z 0t
Z Z0 57
Z 0 j RL j XL t
where t tan d. The admittance at this point is
1
Y G jB
Z
where
RL 1 t2
G (5.8a)
R 2L XL Z0t 2

R 2L t Z0 XLt XL Z 0t
B (5.8b)
Z 0 R 2L XL Z 0t 2

Now d (which implies t is chosen so that G Y0 1 Z 0 . From (5.8a), this results in a

quadratic equation for t:
Z0 RL Z0 t 2 2X L Z 0 t RL Z0 R 2L X 2L 0
Solving for t gives

XL RL Z0 RL 2 X 2L Z0
t for R L Z0 59
RL Z0
If R L Z 0 , then t X L 2Z 0 . Thus, the two principal solutions for d are
1
tan 1 t for t 0
d 2
5 10
1 1
tan t for t 0
2
To find the required stub lengths, first use t in (5.8b) to find the stub susceptance, Bs B.
Then, for an open-circuited stub,
o 1 1 Bs 1 1 B
tan tan 5 11a
2 Y0 2 Y0
and for a short-circuited stub,
s 1 1 Y0 1 1 Y0
tan tan 5 11b
2 Bs 2 B
If the length given by (5.11a) or (5.11b) is negative, 2 can be added to give a positive
result.

The series-stub tuning circuit is shown in Figure 5.4b. We will illustrate the Smith chart
solution by an example, and then derive expressions for d and .

EXAMPLE 5.3 SINGLE-STUB SERIES TUNING

Match a load impedance of Z L 100 j80 to a 50 line using a single series

open-circuit stub. Assuming that the load is matched at 2 GHz and that the load