AN 958: Board Design Guidelines

ID 683073
Date 6/26/2023
Public
Document Table of Contents

5.1.7. Understanding Transmission Lines

The transmission line is a trace and has a distributed mixture of resistance (R), inductance (L), and capacitance (C). There are two types of transmission line layouts:

Figure 70 shows a microstrip layout, which refers to a trace routed as the top or bottom layer of a PCB and has only one voltage-reference plane (i.e., power or GND). Figure 71 shows a stripline layout, which uses a trace routed on the inside layer of a PCB and has two voltage-reference planes (i.e., power and/or GND).

Figure 70. Microstrip Transmission Line Layout
Figure 71. Stripline Transmission Line Layout
Notes to Figure 70 and Figure 71:
  • Microstrip
  • Stripline
  • W = width of trace, T = thickness of trace, and H = height between trace and reference plane.
  • W = width of trace, T = thickness of trace, and H = height between trace and two reference planes.