Design methodology for high-performance low-cost microstrip termination load for mmWave applications

Millimetre wave (mmWave) has been a popular research topic in recent years. Termination loads are useful for RF components and integrated circuits. Commercially available terminators are expensive and not easily applicable for integration to MMICs. In this letter, a wideband, high-performance, and cost-effective microstrip termination load is proposed based on the combination of a printed monopole antenna and an absorber sheet. The results show an excellent matched termination between 20 and 67 GHz that can be used as integrated with microstrip lines in RF circuits and MMICs and as loaded dummy ports for test and measurements for mmWave applications. The proposed high-quality termination is compact and cost-effectively competitive with commercial products. This work intends to design a microstrip high quality and cheap termination load for both test/measurement purposes (with connector) and also integration to MMICs. The design idea utilizes the printed wideband monopole antenna and absorber material coming up with a novel design methodology. A comparison of this work with other high ranked recent literary works is provided and shows the advantage of the proposed termination load in terms of bandwidth, simplicity and cost.image