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PIERS Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 1923, 2012

UWB Wilkinson Power Divider Using Tapered Transmission Lines

Faroq Razzaz, Majeed A. S. Alkanhal, and Abdel-Fattah Sheta Department of Electrical Engineering, King Saud University P. O. Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract In this paper, an UWB Wilkinson power divider using tapered transmission lines is
proposed. Using tapered transmission lines in microwave components results in reduction of the element length and therefore the overall component size while providing wider operational bandwidths. This power divider has superior performance in the UWB band (3.1 GHz10.6 GHz) and is smaller in size as compared to traditional power dividers. The simulation and experimental results show good insertion loss which is approximately 3 dB, good return loss that is less than 11 dB for the input port over the entire UWB band and less than 16 dB for the other two ports. The power is divided equally between the output two ports and the isolation between the output ports is better than 11 dB. 1. INTRODUCTION

Power dividers are commonly used in microwave circuits such as in balanced mixers, phase shifters, ampliers and antenna array feed networks. The Wilkinson power divider (WPD) is one of the most common components in microwave systems. The WPDcan be matched at all three ports. It is lossless if the output ports are matched, reciprocal, and the output ports are largely isolated. Many designs and modications were proposed to increase the bandwidth of the conventional Wilkinson power divider. The bandwidth of Wilkinson power divider can be increased using multisections [1], using open circuited stubs [2] or using tapered transmission lines [3]. Recently, ultra-wideband (UWB) communication systems have been introduced, and they require their own components that can operates over the UWB range (3.110.6 GHz). Many works had proposed to design UWB power dividers. A modied two-section UWB WPD with open circuited stub on each branch was proposed in [4]. Other UWB WPD was proposed in [5, 6] using open circuited radial stub on each branch. Also, an open circuited delta stub was proposed in [7]. In [8] a two section UWB WPD was designed using without stubs. UWB power dividers using tapered transmission lines were proposed in [911]. In this paper, an UWB Wilkinson power divider based on tapered transmission lines is proposed. The tapered transmission line is used to decrease the overall size and enhance the bandwidth of the power divider. This power divider is designed with only one isolation resistor for output ports. The simulation and measured results show good performance over the UWB range. Roger RT5880 substrate with relative permittivity of 2.2 and thickness of 0.508 mm has been used in the simulation and fabrication of this power divider.
2. DESIGN

Figure 1 shows the structure of the proposed UWB Wilkinson power divider. This power divider is based on the tapered transmission lines. To increase the bandwidth of the Wilkinson power divider a tapered transmission line has been integrated with another uniform transmission line section as shown in Figure 1. The impedance of the tapered transmission line Z (x) varies linearly from Z (0) = Z01 = 2Z0 to Z (L) = Z02 , where L is the length of the tapered transmission line section as shown in Figure 2. The length of the tapered transmission line is less than quarter wavelength of the center frequency of the UWB spectrum which is 6.85 GHz. The second section is uniform transmission with characteristic impedance Z greater than Z02 . The even-odd mode analysis can be used to analyze the proposed power divider because it is symmetric in structure. The output ports are isolated and the isolation resistor is equal to 2Z0 . The characteristic impedance Z0 is chosen to be 50 , the all other parameters can be determined and optimized with corresponding to this value and to the center frequency which is equal to 6.85 GHz. The line impedances Z01 = 100 , Z02 = 65 and Z = 75 . The length of the tapered transmission line L = /8 and the electrical length of the uniform section is equal to 33 . The isolation resistor R is 100 .

Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 1923, 2012 883

l1

l2

l3 W4

W1

W2

W3

Figure 1: The structure of the proposed UWP power divider.

L
Z (x)

Z 01

Z 02

Figure 2: Linearly tapered transmission line section.

Figure 3: Simulated S -parameters of the proposed UWB power divider.

Figure 4: Measured S -parameters of the proposed UWB power divider.

Figure 5: Group delay of the proposed UWB power divider.

3. SIMULATION AND MEASUREMENT RESULTS

The designed power divider has been simulated using full-wave electromagnetic simulator software. Rogers RT5880 with a thickness of 0.508 mm, and a relative permittivity of 2.2 is used in this design. Table 1 contains the values of all optimized parameters of the designed UWB power divider. The overall size of the proposed UWB power divider is 15.51 15.47 mm2 . The performance of the designed circuit is shown in Figure 3. The simulation results show good insertion loss which is approximately 3 dB, good return loss that is less than 11 dB for the input port over the entire UWB band and less than 16 dB for the other two ports. The power is divided equally between the output two ports and the isolation between the output ports is better than 11 dB. The measured results are shown in Figure 4. A good agreement with the simulated results is assumed. The measured results show good insertion loss which is approximately 3.6 dB, good return loss that is less than 11 dB for the input port over the entire UWB band and less than 15 dB for the other two ports. The power is divided equally between the output two ports and the

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PIERS Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 1923, 2012 Table 1: Optimized parameters of the proposed UWB power divider. Parameter Value W1 1.54 l1 6 W2 0.43 W3 1 l2 4 W4 0.78 l3 3

isolation between the output ports is better than 15 dB. The group delay of the proposed UWB power divider is approximately at and is less than 100 ps as shown in Figure 5.
4. CONCLUSIONS

A modied Wilkinson power divider using tapered transmission lines has been proposed for UWB applications. The designed power divider is compact and easy to fabricate. Quality better performance is obtained without using stubs and with only one isolation resistor. Good power dividing, matching, and isolations over the entire UWB spectrum range are obtained as demonstrated by simulation and experimental results.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This research is funded by The National Plan for Science & Technology, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, under project No. 08-ADV210-2.
REFERENCES

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