Electronic – What are the extra microstrip elements on this RF amplifier board for

impedance-matchingmicrostripmicrowaveRFtransmission line

I am planning to build an amplifier with the HEMT CGH40010. In its datasheet (http://www.wolfspeed.com/downloads/dl/file/id/317/product/117/cgh40010.pdf), there is a picture of a evaluation kit on page 8, and an even better picture is on page 9. There, one can see several small 'copper islands' near the microstrip lines from the connectors to the FET, and near C1 for example is a tuning stub (that one which is bent towards the left hand side) and at the end of this stub, there are also a few of these strange copper islands.

I wonder what the purpose of these small copper pieces is. I guess it is either some kind of resonator, or it is for tuning. But in the 2nd case, how does it work? is the idea to 'scratch off' some of the copper with a scalpel to tune the stub, or what exactly is it?

Photo of that board
(Source: wolfspeed.com)

PCB schematic
(Source: wolfspeed.com)

Best Answer

Those small islands are there for tuning the input and output impedances seen by the power amplifier. They're not to be removed! Another example (it's common practice, in fact):

Tuning sections

You can solder several of them together in order to build a stub of the length you need, placed at the distance you need for impedance and/or noise matching.

There are also sections of different width at the output. You can tune the length of each section by soldering some of those islands together.