Analysis of the reflection properties in electromagnetic bandgap coplanar waveguides loaded with reactive elements

In this work, we study the reflection properties of coplanar waveguides (CPW) periodically loaded with shunt connected capacitances and periodically perturbed by varying the slot width. These structures are of interest because the low pass frequency response with spurious frequency bands, inherent to the presence of capacitors, can be improved. This is achieved through the attenuation of frequency parasitics that is obtained by the introduction of slot width modulation. Both sinusoidal and square wave patterns are considered and the effects of the relative position of reactive elements with regard to the perturbation geometry is analysed. According to coupled mode theory, the central frequencies of the rejected bands in periodic transmission media are given by the spectrum of the perturbation function. However, it is demonstrated that, due to the presence of capacitors, multiple spurious bands can be simultaneously suppressed even in the case of a singly tuned (sinusoidal) perturbation geometry. This result points out that the frequency selective behaviour associated to the presence of slot width modulation can not be interpreted in the framework of coupled mode theory, since the rejection of spurious bands in periodic loaded CPWs is not merely given by the spectrum of the perturbation geometry.