Electronic – Huge variation of impedance calculators with same parameters

impedancemicrostrip

There are many free (e.g. AppCad from Agilent) microstrip impedance calculators on the web. I've tested now several, because the first two did show a huge difference in the calculated impedance for a CPW waveguide on silicon, with exactly the same parameters (dieletric constant, geometry etc). One 50 Ohm, while the next 68 Ohm. This will probably generate huge losses.

So how can I be sure, I've chosen the right geometry of my waveguide and get correct impedance match? Should I switch to commercial simulaion software like CST microwave studio or HFSS to get the results nearest to real-world physics in this waveguides?

Best Answer

I was somehow in the same situation recently but my configuration was a differential pair in a stripline mode. I tried different calculators and got different results. After trying to understand how the computation was done by the calculators, I gave up.

I looked for the most recent equations about stripline impedance and made my own calculator in a spreadsheet. Maybe the result is not the most accurate or doesn't take into account some parameters, but as an engineer in a preliminary design, I had to understand the result to be able to see some trade-off. Reading some signal integrity books teach me that the accuracy of these equations (for stripline, but I think it's about the same for CPW), is 10 to 20%.

You can find some equations on CPW impedance here : http://qucs.sourceforge.net/tech/node86.html

To get a better value, a 2D solver is required (accuracy is under 5%). Look at Polar Instruments ( http://www.polarinstruments.com ), their 2D solver is pretty simple but quite accurate. HFSS is a 3D solver, maybe too complex for a first guess of impedance.