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A Talai, F. Steinhäußer, B Gmeiner, M. Wegener, A. Bittner, U. Schmid, A. Roosen, R. Weigel, K. Kölpin:
"Electromagnetic Analysis of Conductor Track Surface Roughnesses from 1 GHz to 110 GHz";
Talk: International Conference on Electromagnetics in Advanced Applications (ICEAA), Palm Beach, Aruba; 08-03-2014 - 08-08-2014; in: "Proceedings of the 2014 International Conference on Electromagnetics in Advanced Applications (ICEAA)", IEEE, (2014), ISBN: 978-1-4673-5710-4; 415 - 418.

Conductor tracks comprise a frequency
dependent attenuation of electromagnetic waves,
since with increasing frequency the current flow is
displaced to the near surface region due to the skin
effect. Therefore, the effective length of the con­
ductor is increased by the surface roughness, while
its effective cross-section is decreased by current
displacement, both leading to higher metallization
loss. In this paper, surface topographies of typi­
cal conductor materials were recorded by confocal
microscopy and rebuilt as 3D CAD models. Sub­
sequent electromagnetic simulations reveal the in­
fluence due to roughness on high frequency charac­
teristics for physical vapor deposited, thick film and
photochemically etched microstrips.

Conductor tracks comprise a frequency
dependent attenuation of electromagnetic waves,
since with increasing frequency the current flow is
displaced to the near surface region due to the skin
effect. Therefore, the effective length of the con­
ductor is increased by the surface roughness, while
its effective cross-section is decreased by current
displacement, both leading to higher metallization
loss. In this paper, surface topographies of typi­
cal conductor materials were recorded by confocal
microscopy and rebuilt as 3D CAD models. Sub­
sequent electromagnetic simulations reveal the in­
fluence due to roughness on high frequency charac­
teristics for physical vapor deposited, thick film and
photochemically etched microstrips.