A Fabrication-Motivated Model for Improving Simulations of On-Wafer Transmission Lines

Published

February 25, 2026

Author(s)

Florian Bergmann, Nicholas Jungwirth, Nicholas Derimow, Bryan Bosworth, Meagan Papac, Eric Marksz, Tomasz Karpisz, Jerome Cheron, Vincenzo St. George, Angela Stelson, Benjamin Jamroz, Christian Long, Nathan Orloff

Abstract

Electromagnetic simulations are a ubiquitous tool for microwave engineers. We benchmark simulations by their agreement with experimental results. Transmission lines are an excellent test case because they have well-established measurement methodologies and are straightforward to simulate. However, when disagreements between simulation and experiment arise, finding the root cause can be quite difficult due to the number of design parameters. Here, we investigated a fabrication-motivated model that reduces this complexity by leveraging correlations between transmission line design parameters. We validated our model by comparing its prediction of cross-sectional geometry to scanning electron microscopy (SEM) measurements. Our procedure provides a simple path for microwave engineers to improve simulations on a broad range of on-wafer devices.

Citation

IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1109/LMWT.2026.3665127

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Keywords

Circuit parameters, coplanar waveguide, finite-element simulations, impedance, on-wafer, transmission lines

Citation

Bergmann, F. , Jungwirth, N. , Derimow, N. , Bosworth, B. , Papac, M. , Marksz, E. , Karpisz, T. , Cheron, J. , St. George, V. , Stelson, A. , Jamroz, B. , Long, C. and Orloff, N. (2026), A Fabrication-Motivated Model for Improving Simulations of On-Wafer Transmission Lines, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, [online], https://doi.org/10.1109/LMWT.2026.3665127, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=960872 (Accessed May 14, 2026)

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