Design and Performance Evaluation of a 4*4

Butler Matrix Feeding Network Antennas with

26 GHz
Siwar Louati, Mohamed Ould-Elhassen, Fethi Choubani
INNOVCOM, SUPCOM, Carthage University
Tunisia
louatisiwar12@gmail.com; Mohamed.ouldelhassen@supcom.tn

Abstract—A simulation of the matrix of Butler without
network of antennas was made to obtain the level-headedness in
amplitude and in phase which must be distributed to every
radiant element and determine the radiation pattern. Then, we
shall proceed to a global simulation of the matrix with its
network of antennas to calculate the parameters S of reflection
and insulation of the ways of entrance and see an approach to
radiation pattern of all of matrix.
Keywords— Matrix of Butler; distributor of beams; simulation
with Momentum
I. INTRODUCTION
In the traditional systems of antennas, the omnidirectional
transmissions of radio frequency (RF) are subjected to the
interferences and thus to the rather mediocre quality. Indeed,
this type of cover is necessary because the location of the user
is unknown. This type of transmission has for consequence to
pollute the electromagnetic environment by shining with the
power in useless directions. The intelligent systems of antennas
determine the location of a user and try to concentrate and to
receive the energy only in the desirable directions and thus a
more directive brilliance. This concept already exists for
several years in the field of the defense, but until recently it is
barriers of costs that prevented his employment in consumer
systems. The equipment manufacturers of wireless networks
offer two general approaches: networks of antennas in
commutative beams and adapted networks of antennas. These
two systems try to increase the gain according to the location of
the user, however only the adaptive system proposes an
optimal gain while minimizing the signals of interferences.
This work consists in studying the feasibility in the distributors'
millimeter length domain of beams [ 2 ] with moderate costs
which can be the object for example of an integration in a V2V
and radar an antenna multi-beams has the capacity to train
several beams in various directions. This system works as well
in reception as in broadcast and furthermore it is passive The
matrix of Butler is the best choice for the networks of feed in
multiple beams in technology micro strip [ 2 ], Their
importance bound to the fact that with a single circuit, it is
possible to feed a network of elements and to choose the angle
of checking dependent on the port of entrance. This important
interest is acquired for its possibility of use in them to by-pass
this problem, the conception of a matrix of Butler 4x4 non-
standard would have been preferable because she allows the
obtaining of a beam in the main axis. However couplers (3-
dB, 180 °) possess inconveniences unfit for a use in the
millimeter-length domain. They are asymmetric and non-
directional, which raises problems at the level of the
conception and adds losses to the matrix by supplements of
crossings unwanted. More of these couplers possess a much
narrower bandwidth of few percentages and would have no
range of desired frequency.
Indeed this matrix of Butler 4x4 works with the central
frequency of 26 GHz
II. THE MATRICES OF BUTLER
A. Principle of the matrix of Butler
First, The Butler matrix [6,7 ] is one of the most used
distributors of beams. It is the symmetric passive mutual circuit
in N ports of entrances and N ports of exits that pilots N
producing radiating elements with N different orthogonal
beams (fig. 1). It is the parallel system, which consists of
junctions which connect the ports of the entrance to the ports of
exit by lines of transmission. So an input signal is repeatedly
divided without loss up to the ports of exit. The level of
headedness is given by the following equation”.
(1)
With Bnm represents the amplitude of the field of the nth
radiating element when the port m (in the direction of the
beams from right to left) is activated by a signal of unit
amplitude, of zero phase. N is the Number of radiating
elements [9].

978-1-5386-6220-5/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE

 The input signal is feed into the port 1, it is also distributed
between the other ports situated in the opposite side of the
coupler ports 3 and 4. Thus, there is a difference of 90 degree
phase between these two ports, the closer port to the one in the
entrance (way incident) has a phase of 90 degree. The port
situated on the same side that the port of entrance is isolated
because there is no power which reaching this face Figure2. To
minimize the couplings between lines within the coupler, the
impedance of entrance of the coupler was chosen rather strong.
Indeed, it allows to obtain microstrip lines finer and the
wavelength of which is more important. So this coupler is
feigned with the central frequency of 26 GHz by means of the
software ADS.

Fig. 1. System of a Butler matrix

The matrix of Butler N*N creates a set of orthogonal beams in

the space, these beams are Fixed in the direction of which the
equation:

The change of phase between two elements spaced out by a

distance: is Fig. 3. Layout Design of Hybrid Coupler(3 dB, 90 °)

= This coupler is sized and feigned by the software

Number of wave
B. Simulation of elements establishing the Butler matrix of
4x4 standard
1) Coupler : The couplers are devices which allow to
exits or to collect a proportional power in the entrance.
Generally they are devices in 4 ports with one closed on its
characteristic impedance. The great classes of directive
couplers are couplers with holes, couplers by closeness and
couplers in junctions.
Among these, we distinguish couplers in scale which we
shall study and couplers in ring. The hybrid coupler consists of
four ports (see figure 1). But to ensure the smooth running of
the circuit it is necessary to isolate the port 2 by placing a
resistance of 50Ω, therefore we connect to the mass.
MOMENTUM to work well with the central frequency of 26
GHz, the dimensions of the used lines are calculated by the
option LINECALC of the software HP AD. W50Ω =1265µm,
W35.4Ω = 2103µm, L50Ω = 4018µm and L35.4Ω =
3932µm.This coupler is characterized by using the substrate
RT/Duroid 5880 (h=0.254mm, ϵr =2.2, loss tg d =0.0007).
The results of simulation of the hybrid coupler (3dB, 90 °) are
represented on faces figure3
Hybrid coupler is used to generate signals 90° out of phase at
its outputs. The port closer to the input port (port-2) is leading
in phase by 90 degrees. The port located on the same side as
the input port is isolated since there is no power reaching it..
-4
-6
dB(coupler_mom_a..S(1,3))
dB(coupler_mom_a..S(1,2))
dB(coupler_mom_a..S(1,4))

-8

-10
dB(S(1,2))
dB(S(1,1))

-12

-14

-16

-18

-20
25.0 25.2 25.4 25.6 25.8 26.0 26.2 26.4 26.6 26.8 27.0

freq, GHz

Fig. 2. Hybrid coupler (3DB, 90 °) standard Fig. 4. Parameters versus frequency for the hybrid Coupler
The simulated magnitudes (S11, S12, S13, and S14) for the
hybrid coupler are -19.48dB, -6dB, -6dB and -19.48dB
respectively as shown in Figure 4. As expected, the phase
difference between port 2 and port 3 is 87°. The
Electromagnetic simulation results of the coupler are
encouraging. Indeed, they have an equiamplitude and
quadrature phase in the output. In addition, the coupler has
good impedance matching
Fig. 7. Schematic of crossover

200
phase(coupler_mom_a..S(3,1))
phase(coupler_mom_a..S(4,1))

100

Fig. 8. layout of crossover

-100

The crossover also known as 0 dB couplers are effective means

-200 of crossing two RF transmission line signals with a minimal
25.0 25.2 25.4 25.6 25.8 26.0 26.2 26.4 26.6 26.8 27.0 coupling between them. By cascading two 90° hybrids we can
freq, GHz implement a crossover. The phase shifter is implemented using
micro strip transmission line.

Fig. 5. The phase difference between port 2 and port 3 for the hybrid coupler
0

2) Phase shifter: Every line that is longer than a reference -10

line L by a certain amount ΔL introduces a phase shift θ given
-20
by [7]:
dB(S(1,4))
dB(S(1,1))

-30

ΔL= θ*λg/360° (2) -40

-50
Where the λg denotes the guided wave length. The optimum
design for 50Ω micro strip line with 45° phase shift was -60

achieved as shown -70

25.0 25.2 25.4 25.6 25.8 26.0 26.2 26.4 26.6 26.8 27.0

freq, GHz

Fig. 9. S parameters for the crossover

Fig. 6. Structure of phase shifter
In the same way, the crossover has been designed using 50Ω
3) Crossover: Crossover is the biggest hurdle in the micro strip transmission lines as shown in Figure8 the
realization of the Butler matrix [7]. To avoid overlapping insertion loss for the coupled port S13 is -1 dB while return -23
signals at crossings, we have to use the crossover with good dB respectively for the frequency of interest (Figure 6). These
isolation level between the input ports. It can be built simply by results are satisfactory in terms of reflection and isolation
cascading two hybrid couplers [2]. It has also four symmetrical parameters.-23 dB respectively for the frequency of interest
ports with 2 inputs and 2 outputs. The perfect design of (Figure 6). These results are satisfactory in terms of reflection
crossover is accomplished if every adjacent ports are isolated and isolation parameters.
 C. Butler matrix: The layout of the proposed
4×4 Butler matrix is presented in Figure 10. Combining the
components presented in Sections B, C and D, the proposed
Butler matrix was designed as a passive micro strip
network on the same substrate RT-Duroid. When one of the
input ports (port 1, port 2, port 3 or port 4) was excited by
an RF signal, all the output ports (port 5, port 6, port 7 and
port 8) were excited, though with equal amplitude and
relative phase differences.

Fig. 11. S Parametersof the adaptation and the insulation when the way 1L is
fed.

200

100
phase(S(2,1))

-100

-200
25.0 25.2 25.4 25.6 25.8 26.0 26.2 26.4 26.6 26.8 27.0

freq, GHz

Fig. 12. S Parameters in Phase of the adaptation and the insulation when the
way 1L is fed.
Fig. 10. Layout of the Butler matrix

The operation of the couplers when they are in the matrix or -4

isolated is not the same, a frequency lag and a gap in terms of
-6
amplitude will occur, the couplings must be resized in a way
to function correctly at the frequency of Resonance -8

-10
dB(S(1,1))

III. SIMULATION RESULTS OF THE 4X4 MATRIX

-12
The simulation is done by feeding an input channel and -14
retrieving power on the four output channels provided that the
-16
other input channels are adapted to 50 Ω
-18

-20
25.0 25.2 25.4 25.6 25.8 26.0 26.2 26.4 26.6 26.8 27.0

freq, GHz

Fig. 13. S Parameters of the adaptation and the insulation when the way 1L is
fed.
These results are very satisfactory with levels lower than 15 dB
on the working band figure 10 . The results for the other ways
are presented, but we always stay in levels lower than 15 dB 0

The radiation pattern related to the feed ports given as 1L, -10
1R (figure 11), constitutes a line array antennas of four -20

Mag. [dB]
elements spaced of 0.6 λ0 working on 26Hz. These radiation
-30
pattern are given in the H plane using the electromagnetic
software MOMENTUM, the figure are given below.The -40
comparison with the analytical diagrams shows a good -50
concordance. Indeed, the phase angles of the beams are 26 °
and + 21 ° respectively. The secondary lobes stay below-10dB. -60

-100

-80

-60

-40

-20

20

40

60

80

100
As regards the earnings (gains) of both beams 1L and 1R, them
are maximal in 26GHz and are worth 9.4 and 9.9 dB THETA
respectively. The performances of the antenna, during the
food(supply) of the way 1 or the way 2, are satisfactory and no
frequency gap is spotted(located).
(c)

10
0
0
-10
Mag. [dB]

-10
-20
Mag. [dB]
-20 -30
-30 -40

-40 -50
-100

-80

-60

-40

-20

20

40

60

80

100

-60
-100

-80

-60

-40

-20

20

40

60

80

100
THETA

THETA

(a)

(d)
Fig. 14. Principal component and crossingof the beams formed in plane H and
10
corresponding to Voie 1L (a), 1r (b), 2l (c), 2r (d)
0

To raise any uncertainty on the validity of the method of

Mag. [dB]

-10
conception, as well as on the theory presented to implement a
-20 new topology of matrix in axial beam, it was decided to realize
of the antenna.
-30
CONCLUSION
-40
This first version improved by the matrix of Butler 4x4
-100

-80

-60

-40

-20

20

40

60

80

100

integrated with the antennas network based on 4 radiating

THETA elements offers better configuration than is without crossing
quality beams in term of and opening at the middle
power.Indeed the first system completely planar and monolayer
offered the advantage to be easily practicable, but we came up
(b)
against important radiating parasites, resulting in particular
from the brilliance of elbows in the matrix and in problems of
assembly of the circuit.

REFERENCES
[1]. Contribution à l’étude d’antennes à pointage électronique en
millimétrique. Conception et réalisation de différentes topologies
de Matrices de Butler » Thèse de doctorat n°42-2003 – Université
de Limoges - soutenue en Novembre2003
[2]. Clerk Maxwell, "Simplified Design Procedure for Butler Matrices
Incorporating 90° Hybrids or 180° Hybrids," IEEE Proc. H,
Microwave and Antenna and Propagation, pp. 50-54, February
1987.Y.T.
[3]. Patterson C E, Khan W T, Ponchak G E, et al. A 60-GHz active
receiving switched-beam antenna array with integrated butler
matrix and GaA samplifiers[J]. Microwave Theory and
Techniques, IEEE Transactions on, 2012, 60(11):3599-3607
[4]. Madany Y M, Elkamchouchi H M, Salama A A. Design and
analysis of optimum miniaturized conformal smart antenna
[5]. system using 1× 8 switched Butler Matrix for wireless
applications[C]//Microwave and Millimeter Wave Technology
(ICMMT), 2012 International Conference on. IEEE, 2012, 1: 1-4.
[6]. K. UEHARA, T. SEKI and K. KAGOSHIMA,"A planar sector
antenna for indoor high-speed wireless communication terminals",
Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium, 1997.
IEEE. Digest, Vol. 2, 13-18 Jul. 1997, pp. 1352-1355.
[7]. Moulder W F, Khalil W, Volakis J L. 60-GHz two-dimensionally
scanning array employing wideband planar switched beam
network[J]. Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, IEEE,
2010, 9: 818-821