The specifics of the MINT channelizer design are guided by analytical equations and verified or tweaked by simulation. Microwave design is very computer-intensive, with certain simulations running for 3 days or more on a pII 400. We used the industry standard HP EEsof Design software which offers all of our simulation and layout requirments.

The board is constructed in mostly microstrip. 2-D structures are etched from a copper layer on a special substrate. The substrate is a dielectric material sandwiched between 2 copper layers. This is called a 2-layer board. Our substrate is 30 mil thick Duroid 6002, with a dielectric constant of 2.94, considered medium-low. For a more miniaturized design, a higher constant, like 10, should be used. The bottom-most layer is the ground plane an the top layer is the component and microstrip layer. In most cases, the ground plane is a solid sheet. In ours, however, there is artwork on the ground layer. There are times when we needed ground on the component side, and the that is done with a "via". A via is a hole drilled through the substrate and then plated through with copper. There are also cases when the signal needs to travel underneath other signals, in which case a via is used to drop the signal to a "jumper", which is discussed elsewhere.

Microstrip structures are the easiest to fabricate. The artwork is usually either photo- or laser-etched. There is no additional lamination required. Microstrip has the added benefit that surface mount components can be directly connected to the microstrip.