COMPEL - The international journal for computation and

mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering

COMPUTATION OF PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS OF A TWO-WAY IMPEDANCE-
TRANSFORMING WILKINSON DIVIDER
H.R. MGOMBELO
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To cite this document:
H.R. MGOMBELO, (1989),"COMPUTATION OF PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS OF A TWO-
WAY IMPEDANCE-TRANSFORMING WILKINSON DIVIDER", COMPEL - The international journal for
computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, Vol. 8 Iss 2 pp. 107 - 112
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 COMPEL—The International Journal for Computation and Mathematics in Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Vol. 8, No. 2, 107-112 © 1989 BOOLE PRESS LIMITED

COMPUTATION OF PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS

OF A TWO-WAY IMPEDANCE-TRANSFORMING
WILKINSON DIVIDER

H.R. MGOMBELO
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

ABSTRACT: Performance characteristics of a two-way impedance transforming Wilkinson divider are

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computed using design parameters obtained by imposing the conditions of perfect match at the input port
and infinity isolation at the output ports at the center frequency of operation. It is found that,
theoretically, infinity bandwidth of match at the input port and split is achieved for an impedance
transformation of 2:1 and that similar input VSWR and insertion loss characteristics are achieved for two
cases with transformation ratios (R 2 /R 1 ) whose product is 4 : 1 .

1. INTRODUCTION

Power dividers have been the subject of study of many researchers for a number of
years [1]. Usually all ports of the divider have equal input impedances. There are,
however, applications for dividers with different port impedances such as in antenna
arrays, etc. Such dividers perform impedance transformation and power division
simultaneously. Prior art systems have typically accomplished the required matching
using an equal impedance divider by adding electrical transformer elements. How-
ever, this solution to the problem tends to provide a relatively expensive and bulky
network and at times the useful bandwidth may be reduced.
Recently [2] a modification of a Wilkinson divider [3,4] has been reported
whereby by means of selection of the characteristic impedance of the transmission
media and the value of the combining impedance, the divider may be matched to
input and output impedances which are not the same. However, information about
this divider's performance characteristics is missing in the literature. This communi-
cation sets out to reveal the performance characteristics of this divider with different
impedance transformation ratios after the design relations have been established.
It is found that different transformation ratios give different performance band-
widths. In particular, for an impedance transformation ratio equal to 2:1, the input
VSWR and insertion loss characteristics of the divider are ideally frequency indepen-
dent. Moreover, for the above mentioned characteristics, two similar characteristics
are obtained for impedance transformation ratios whose product is 4:1.

2. COMPUTATION AT CENTER FREQUENCY OF OPERATION

Fig. 1 shows the divider under consideration. The design relations shall be found at

107
 108 H.R. Mgombelo: Computation of performance characteristics of a Wilkinson divider

the center frequency of operation by imposing the condition of proper match at port
1 and proper isolation between ports 2 and 3.
The composite transmission (ABCD) matrix between ports 1 and 2 (Fig. 2) at
center frequency can easily be found to be:

The reflection coefficient at port 1:

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where

The condition for perfect match at port 1 is S11 = 0 which simplifies to:

Fig. 3 shows the circuit used for computing the voltage gain from ports 2 to 3. The
composite ABCD matrix between ports 2 and 3 at the center frequency of operation
can be found to be:

The voltage gain from port 2 to port 3 is:

 H.R. Mgombelo: Computation of performance characteristics of a Wilkinson divider 109

Perfect isolation occurs when Av = 0 or

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Combining eqs. (4) and (7) we get:

Rx = 2R 2 (8)
Eqs. (4) and (8) are the design equations. It can easily be seen that if the
condition of equal impedances (R1 = R2 = R0) is invoked, the conventional Wilkin-
son divider is achieved whereby Z = R0 and Rx = 2R 0 [3,4].

3. PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS

A generalised analysis of the divider satisfying design eqs. (4) and (8) (Figs. 2 and 3)
has been made using a personal computer. As a result of the above, performance
characteristics have been drawn in Figs. 4-7 over a 100% bandwidth. Here the
impedance transformation ratio R = R2/R1.
 110 H.R. Mgombelo: Computation of performance characteristics of a Wilkinson divider
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From the input VSWR (Fig. 4) and insertion loss (Fig. 6) characteristics it can be
seen that as the impedance transformation ratio is increased from fractional R:l
through 1:1 to 2:1, the bandwidth increases up to infinity. A further increase in
transformation ratio reduces the bandwidth in such a way that two similar charac-
teristic curves are obtained when their transformation ratios have a product of 4:1
such as:
2.0:1 and 2.0:1;
1.0:1 and 4.0:1;
0.5:1 and 8.0:1;
0.25:1 and 16.0:1; etc.
 H.R. Mgombelo: Computation of performance characteristics of a Wilkinson divider 111
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As far as the output VSWR characteristics are concerned, it has been found that
at a transformation ratio equal to 0.9:1 all the output VSWR characteristics have
minimum values (see example at f/fcenter = 0.5, Fig. 8).
As regards the isolation characteristics, increasing the transformation ratio from
fractional, through 1:1 and so on increases the bandwidth of operation.

4. CONCLUSIONS

An analysis of a two-way impedance transforming Wilkinson divider has been made.

It has been shown from the performance characteristics that different transformation
 112 H.R. Mgombelo: Computation of performance characteristics of a Wilkinson divider

ratios achieve different usable bandwidths. In particular for the case of an impe-
dance transformation ratio of 2:1 the divider offers, theoretically, frequency in-
dependent match at the input port and split.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author would like to thank the University of Bradford, England through
Professor J.G. Gardiner for allowing him to use their facilities during his Visiting
Research Fellowship, when this work was done.

REFERENCES

[1] J.G. Gardiner and H.R. Mgombelo, Hybrid signal dividers for VHF and UHF receiver distribution
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF EXETER At 05:47 11 August 2015 (PT)

systems, IERE Conf. Publ. on Radio Receivers and Assoc. Syst. 50 (1981) 41-48.
[2] M. Dydyk, Impedance transforming three-port divider, U.S. Patent, No. 4 367 445, January 4, 1983.
[3] E.J. Wilkinson, An n-way hybrid power divider, IRE Trans. Microwave Theory & Tech. MTT-8
(1960) 116-118.
[4] E.J. Wilkinson, Power divider, U.S. Patent. No. 3091 743, May 28, 1963.