strip result in longitudinal non-TEM components to the wave. This results in dispersion and discontinuity elements have a resistive component causing them to radiate. In the 1950s Eugene Fubini, at the time working for AIL, jokingly suggested that a microstrip dipole would make a good antenna. This was intended to highlight the drawbacks of microstrip, but the microstrip patch antenna has become the most popular design of antenna in mobile devices. Stripline remained in the ascendent for its performance advantages through the 1950s and 1960s but eventually microstrip won out, especially in mass produced items, because it was easier to assemble and the lack of an upper dielectric meant that components were easier to access and adjust. As the complexity of printed circuits increased, this convenience issue became more important until today microstrip is the dominant planar technology. Miniaturisation also leads to favouring microstrip because its disadvantages are not so severe in a miniaturised circuit. However, stripline is still chosen where operation over a wide band is required. Comparison to microstrip Microstrip is similar to stripline transmission line except that the microstrip is not sandwiched, it is on a surface layer, above a ground plane. Stripline is more expensive to fabricate than microstrip, and because of the second groundplane, the strip widths are much narrower for a given impedance and board thickness than for microstrip. See also Printed circuit board Distributed element filter Power dividers and directional couplers References Bibliography Arthur A. Oliner, "The evolution of electromagnetic waveguides", in chapter 16, Sarkar et al., History of wireless, John Wiley and Sons, 2006 . Yarman, Binboga Siddik, Design of Ultra Wideband Antenna Matching Networks, Springer, 2008 . External links Stripline in Microwave Encyclopedia Planar transmission lines Microwave technology Electronic circuits