The scattering effects of air bridges as used in coplanar MMI Cs

In this paper results of an analysis are presented which lead to a better understanding of the different scattering effects of air bridges as used in coplanar MMICs. Partitioning the structure into homogeneous line sections allows to identify the major parasitic effects and to estimate the scattering behaviour of this necessary transmission line discontinuity. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that for a suitable set of dimensions an air bridge with vanishing reflection can be obtained.