216 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 57, NO.

1, JANUARY 2009

A Dual Band Unequal Wilkinson Power Divider

Without Reactive Components
Yongle Wu, Student Member, IEEE, Yuanan Liu, Member, IEEE, Yaxing Zhang, Jinchun Gao, and Hui Zhou

Abstract—This paper presents an unequal Wilkinson power di-

vider operating at arbitrary dual band without reactive compo-
nents (such as inductors and capacitors). To satisfy the unequal
characteristic, a novel structure is proposed with two groups of
transmission lines and two parallel stubs. Closed-form equations
containing all parameters of this structure are derived based on
circuit theory and transmission line theory. For verification, two
groups of experimental results including open and short stubs are
presented. It can be found that all the analytical features of this
unequal power divider can be fulfilled at arbitrary dual band si-
multaneously.
Index Terms—Dual band, unequal power divider, Wilkinson
power divider.

Fig. 1. Proposed structure of dual band unequal power divider.

I. INTRODUCTION

P OWER dividers and combiners are key components in mi-

crowave and millimeter-wave systems. With the prolifer-
ation of dual band requirement in wireless communication sys-
general, this structure has two main features, which are: 1) a
distributed structure is adopted without reactive components,
which means that the power divider can be fabricated easily and
tems, several dual band Wilkinson power dividers have been de-
characteristic distortion of reactive components can be avoided
veloped [1]–[5] based on Monzon’s analysis on dual-frequency
at high frequency and 2) two structures, i.e., an open stub and
transformer [6]. One structure was developed [1] by connecting
a short stub, can be chosen to satisfy the application flexibility.
a parallel RLC component to improve the isolation. Two struc-
Since power dividing ratio is unequal in this structure, the tradi-
tures were characterized by a shunt element connected to the
tional even-mode and odd-mode analysis is not available in this
input port [2] and a flexible output port location [3], respec-
case. Alternatively, this paper concentrates on circuit theory and
tively. Later on, another two structures for dual band power di-
conventional transmission line theory to provide the analytical
viders were proposed [4], [5]. Although many advances have
solutions. This paper can be considered as an extension of the
been made on the design of dual band power dividers, they do
equal Wilkinson power divider [4].
not involve the issue of unequal power dividing ratio, which
has been proposed in [7]–[10] for single-band operations. More
recently, as the research on dual-frequency unequal power di- II. THEORY AND DESIGN EQUATIONS
viders furthers, a new dual-frequency unequal power divider for
The circuit construction of the proposed dual band unequal
a certain frequency and its first harmonic has been proposed by
Wilkinson power divider is shown in Fig. 1. Several sections of
authors [11].
transmission lines are required to match all ports at two arbitrary
In this paper, a new structure of dual band unequal Wilkinson
frequencies. The characteristic impedances are different, which
power divider is proposed. Its isolation structure only contains
is consistent with the unequal power dividing ratio. Isolation is
a resistor and the impedance characteristics are asymmetric. In
improved by a single resistor R. In Sections II-A–C, mathemat-
ical discussions will be given.
Manuscript received June 25, 2008; revised September 27, 2008. First pub-
lished December 12, 2008; current version published January 08, 2009. This
work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of
A. Characteristic Impedances Design
China under Grant 60736002, under the National High Technology Research
and Development Program of China (863 Program, 2008AA01Z211), and under
The entire design process can be divided into two parts. One
the Project of Guangdong Province Education Ministry Demonstration Base of is to calculate the circuit parameters in block T, as illustrated in
Combining Production, Teaching and Research 2007B090200012. Fig. 1 and the other is to design the rest of components.
Y. Wu, Y. Liu, J. Gao, and H. Zhou are with the School of Electronic Engi-
neering, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, 100876 Beijing,
Firstly, components outside of block T are considered. As-
China (e-mail: wuyongle138@gmail.com). suming the ratio of the output power at ports 3 and 2 is equal to
Y. Zhang is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, , the following resistance relationships must
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-6400 USA.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
be satisfied [7]–[9], [11]:
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMTT.2008.2008981 (1)
0018-9480/$25.00 © 2008 IEEE

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WU et al.: DUAL BAND UNEQUAL WILKINSON POWER DIVIDER WITHOUT REACTIVE COMPONENTS 217

Fig. 2. Circuit of the power divider with voltage source at port 2.

To match port 1, the characteristic impedance must then be

(2)

Combining (1) and (2), the two input impedances and

can be obtained as follows:

(3)

For convenience, and are defined as

(4)

Based on Monzon’s theory [6], to match all the output ports at

both frequencies and , where is the frequency
ratio, the corresponding characteristic impedances of transmis-
sion lines connected to ports 2 and 3 must satisfy

m
k = p2
Fig. 3. Impedances of (a) lines and (b) stubs against the frequency ratio
when .

(5)

(6)

where

(7)

The electrical length at can be expressed as

Fig. 4. Fabricated unequal Wilkinson power divider I.
(8)

and is chosen in this paper to make a compact power port 2. According to Kirchhoff’s laws in circuit theory, the cur-
divider. rents and voltages in Fig. 2 satisfy the following expressions:
The next step is to ascertain the parameters in T, i.e.,
and two stubs. In this step, a combination of circuit
theory and transmission line theory [8], [9] is required.
As illustrated in Fig. 2, all ports are matched exactly. Ports
1 and 3 are grounded, while a voltage source is connected to (9)

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218 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 57, NO. 1, JANUARY 2009

Fig. 5. Simulation and measurement results of power divider I. (a) Magnitude of S and S . (b) Magnitude of S . (c) Magnitude of S . (d) Magnitude of
S . (e) Magnitude of S .

Furthermore, the relationship between currents and voltages can Apparently, to fulfill the ideal isolation, the following expres-
be expressed in terms of transmission matrices sion should also be satisfied

(10)
(11)

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WU et al.: DUAL BAND UNEQUAL WILKINSON POWER DIVIDER WITHOUT REACTIVE COMPONENTS 219

As shown in (9)–(11), there are 12 variables in 11 equations.

After some manipulations, the resistor across the two
branches can be obtained as follows [11]:

(12)

Likewise, in the case when the voltage source is linked to port 3

and other ports are grounded, the resistor can be determined
to assure as follows:
Fig. 6. Fabricated unequal Wilkinson power divider II.

(13)
After some manipulations, the following equations can be ob-
tained to design the characteristic impedances of transmission
Using transmission line theory, the transmission matrices illus- line sections in T:
trated in Figs. 1 and 2 can be expressed as (14) and (15), shown
at the bottom of this page. From (14) and (15), it is found that
and . Thus, (12) and (13) are equiva-
lent. Moreover, the input impedances can be expressed as
(19)

(16)
(20)

From (3), (4), (14), and (15), it can be easily found In practice, two susceptance, and , in (20), can be
that and are real, while translated to open or short stubs according to the following equa-
and are purely imaginary. It is inter- tions [4].
esting to mention that if For open stubs,

(17)

the resistor determined by (12) will be real and the (16) can (21)
be easily solved. This condition is very important in the design
process.
Rewrite (16) and (17) based on (1), (3), (14), and (15) as
For short stubs,
follows:

(18) (22)

(14)

(15)

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220 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 57, NO. 1, JANUARY 2009

Fig. 7. Simulation and measurement results of power divider II. (a) Magnitude of S and S . (b) Magnitude of S . (c) Magnitude of S . (d) Magnitude of
S . (e) Magnitude of S .

Obviously, to ensure that the impedance values are positive, resistor across the two branches, therefore, does not change
the condition for open stubs and for short with the frequency. Combining (12) and (18), the value of re-
stubs should be satisfied. Thus, the corresponding positive in- sistor can be simplified as
teger for different frequency ratio can be chosen flexibly
based on (8).
(23)
B. Resistor Design
In summary, parameters of the unequal Wilkinson power di-
From (8), (14), (15), and (18), it can be proven that vider can be calculated directly by (5)–(8), (19), and (21)–(23).
does not change with frequency when . The Especially when , parameters can be obtained as

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WU et al.: DUAL BAND UNEQUAL WILKINSON POWER DIVIDER WITHOUT REACTIVE COMPONENTS
, which exactly coincide with the
results given in the preceding report [4].
C. Analysis of the Impedance Values
In this section, the relationships between the available
impedance values and the corresponding scope of the fre-
quency ratio are presented. The power dividing ratio is
set as the analysis on the equal power dividing
case, i.e., has been given [4]. Fig. 3(a) and (b) shows
impedances of lines and stubs vary with the frequency ratio
when , respectively. Assuming that the available
impedance values are in the range of , the
maximum frequency ratio range is for the
short stubs case and for the open stubs
case. Like the unequal single band power divider [10], the
difference between impedance values (i.e., and ) at the
two branches will become greater as the power dividing ratio
increases. Therefore, the maximum frequency ratio range
decreases as increases. For the proposed dual band unequal
power divider, it is necessary to employ special techniques to
implement high-impedance transmission lines when is large.
This subject is beyond the focus of this paper.
III. SIMULATION AND MEASUREMENT
In this section, two dual band unequal power dividers have
been fabricated on an F4B substrate with 0.8-mm thickness and
2.65 relative permittivity to verify the proposed design method.
The open and short stubs are both adopted. The simulation is
based on ideal lossless transmission line model (in closed-form
equations) and circuit model. The measurement results are col-
lected from HP8753D network analyzer.
A. Power Divider I
Initial conditions are as follows:
GHz
Parameters calculated from (5)–(8), (19), (21), and (23) are as
follows:
The fabricated power divider is shown in Fig. 4. The simu-
lation and measurement results of -parameters are presented
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221
in Fig. 5. From Fig. 5(a), the measured are 5 dB at
1 GHz and 6.5 dB at 1.8 GHz, while are almost 2 dB
at both 1 and 1.8 GHz. Therefore, the power dividing ratio is
3 dB at 1 GHz and 4.5 dB at 1.8 GHz. From Fig. 5(b), the isola-
tion parameter values of are below 20 dB at both 1 and
1.8 GHz. From Fig. 5(c)–(e), the matching parameters values of
are better than 15 dB at both 1 and 1.8 GHz.
Neglecting some frequency offset, the operating bandwidth can
be up to 100 MHz when dB and
dB.
B. Power Divider II
Short stubs are adopted with parameters calculated from (22)
as . Other parameters
are equal to power divider I. The fabricated power divider is
shown in Fig. 6. The simulation and measurement results of
-parameters are presented in Fig. 7. Seen from Fig. 7(a),
the measured are 5.2 dB at 1 GHz and 5.8 dB at
1.8 GHz, while are 2 dB at both 1 and 1.8 GHz. The
power dividing ratio is 3.2 dB at 1 GHz and 3.8 dB at 1.8 GHz.
From Fig. 7(b), the isolation parameter values of are
below 20 dB at both 1 and 1.8 GHz. From Fig. 7(c)–(e), the
matching parameters values of are also better
than 15 dB at both 1 and 1.8 GHz. Neglecting some frequency
offset, this fabricated power divider offers an operating band-
width of 140 MHz when dB and
dB.
C. Results Analysis
It is found that the power dividing ratio is not the ideal
3 dB and the working frequencies offset to some degree. The
disagreement is due to the negligence of substrate losses and
the inaccurate nominal value of the resistor. Additionally, in
power divider II, is a small stub impedance that
is difficult for microstrip implementation. The discontinuity
and adverse effects may enlarge the inconsistence. Ultimately,
GHz the practical performance of the fabricated unequal Wilkinson
power dividers fulfills the design goal.
IV. CONCLUSION
A theoretical design and practical implementation of arbitrary
dual band unequal Wilkinson power divider without reactive
components has been presented in this paper. It can be regarded
as an extension of the research on an equal Wilkinson power
divider [4]. In Section II, a comprehensive process is given via
several closed-form mathematical expressions. The analytical
results are then verified through experiments. In summary, the
design method of the proposed power divider can offer sufficient
flexibility in fabrication. It also avoids characteristic distortion
of reactive components.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank research scientist S.-T. He,
Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, for testing
power dividers and express their gratitude to the anonymous
reviewers for their insightful comments.
222 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 57, NO. 1, JANUARY 2009
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Yongle Wu (S’08) was born in Hunan, China, in
1983. He received the B.Eng. degree in communica-
tion engineering from the Beijing University of Posts
and Telecommunications, Beijing, China, in 2006,
and is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree at
the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunica-
tions.
His research interests include generalized Smith
charts, generalized transmission lines, and dual-fre-
quency components design.
Yuanan Liu (M’93) received the B.E., M.Eng., and
Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the
University of Electronic Science and Technology of
China, Chengdu, China, in 1984, 1989 and 1992,
respectively.
In 1984, he joined the 26th Institute of Electronic
Ministry of China, where he was involved with the
development of the inertia navigating system. In
1992, he began his first postdoctoral position with the
Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Laboratory,
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications
(BUPT), Beijing, China. In 1995, he began his second postdoctoral position
Authorized licensed use limited to: Kamran Raza. Downloaded on July 29, 2009 at 03:52 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
with the Broadband Mobile Laboratory, Department of System and Computer
Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada. Since July 1997,
he has been a Professor with the Wireless Communication Center, College
of Telecommunication Engineering, BUPT, where he is involved in the de-
velopment of next-generation cellular system, wireless local area networks
(LANs), Bluetooth application for data transmission, EMC design strategies
for high-speed digital systems, and electromagnetic interference (EMI) and
EMS measuring sites with low cost and high performance. He is interested
in smart antennas for high-capacity mobile signal-processing techniques in
fading environments, EMC for high-speed digital systems, ISI suppression, and
orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) and multicarrier system
design.
Dr. Liu is a senior member of the Electronic Institute of China.
Yaxing Zhang received the B.Eng. degree in com-
munication engineering from the Beijing University
of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, China, in
2008, and is currently working toward the Master de-
gree at the University of Florida, Gainesville.
His research interests include the design of mi-
crowave components and computer-aided design
(CAD) tools.
Jinchun Gao received the M.S. degree from the
Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing,
China, in 1987, and the Ph.D. degree in electronic
circuits and systems from the Beijing University of
Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, China, in
2004.
She is currently a Professor with the Beijing Uni-
versity of Posts and Telecommunications. Her inter-
ests include wireless communications and electrical
contact reliability.
Hui Zhou received the B.Eng. degree in commu-
nication engineering from the Beijing University
of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, China,
in 2006, and is currently working toward the M.S.
degree at the Beijing University of Posts and
Telecommunications.
His research interests include microwave systems
and components.