Multi-Stage, Multi-Way Microstrip Power Dividers with Broadband Properties

Mitsuyoshi KISHIHARA
Isao OHTA
Kuniyoshi YAMANE

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics   Vol.E89-C    No.5    pp.622-629
Publication Date: 2006/05/01
Online ISSN: 1745-1353
DOI: 10.1093/ietele/e89-c.5.622
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: PAPER
Category: Microwaves, Millimeter-Waves
Keyword: 
design automation,  microstrip components,  multiport circuits,  power dividers,  Chebyshev transformers,  

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Summary: 
This paper presents a design method of multi-stage, multi-way microstrip power dividers with the aim of constructing a compact low-loss power divider with numbers of outputs. First, an integration design technique of power dividers composed of multi-step, multi-furcation and mitered bends is described. Since the analytical technique is founded on the planar circuit approach combined with the segmentation method, the optimization of the circuit patterns can be performed in a reasonable short computation time. Next, the present method is applied to the design of broadband Nn-way power dividers such as 32-way power divider consisting of 3-way dividers in two-stage structures, respectively. In addition, a 12-way power divider constructed from a series connection of a 3-way and three 4-way dividers is designed. The dividers equivalently contain a 3-section Chebyshev transformer to realize broadband properties. As a result, the fractional bandwidths of nearly 85% and 66.7% for the power-split imbalance less than 0.2 dB and the return loss better than -20 dB are obtained for the 9- and 12-way power dividers, respectively. The validity of these design results is confirmed by a commercial em-simulator (Ansoft HFSS) and experiments.