The radiation emission in far zones from printed circuit boards (PCBs) is obtained by treating lines on PCBs as transmission lines and calculating the far-field emission due to current distribution on lines. In this paper, we present a more precise circuit model, based on TEM assumption, to decompose the total current into differential-mode current and common-mode current. This circuit model is based on transmission line model, but it considers the effect of ground trace. The finite size ground trace can be viewed as an inductive reactance. A knowledge of the net inductance of the ground trace can aid in the analysis and investigation of PCBs emission. We show the derived equations of the modified transmission lines for the geometrics of practical interest. As time-varying current passes through such ground trace, a voltage drop due to the inductance of the trace will act as a source of the common-mode current. Furthermore, charge stored in capacitance between signal and ground traces will cause the current pulses returning to their source. The magnitudes of currents are slightly unequal in the signal and ground traces, which can cause common-mode current to flow. An unbalanced circuit on a PCB constructed with signal and ground trace pairs will radiate as an asymmetric folded-dipole. By antenna theory, the contribution of differential-mode and common-mode currents to radiated emission of PCBs can be calculated. In addition, comparisons between experimental results and calculation results are also given.