Some investigations on a "hidden" discontinuity: T-branch

Abstract

Among branch discontinuities found in PCB and microwave planar structures, the most usual are "T-branch" (or "T-junction") and "cross", the former having greater weight in practical applications. "T-branch" discontinuity is often found in standard passive interconnection structures. Normally, the designers use it during multi-connection trees generation when a signal generated by a source is sent to multiple receiver circuits. In these terms, the layout configuration of the trace is no longer single-ended, but a complex network with many "T" discontinuities.