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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 58, NO. 4, APRIL 2010

A Design Method for Microstrip Directional

Couplers Loaded With Shunt Inductors for
Directivity Enhancement
Seungku Lee and Yongshik Lee, Member, IEEE

AbstractAn accurate design method is proposed for directivity

enhancement of microstrip directional couplers loaded with shunt
inductors. The parasitic effects of junction discontinuities in various parts of such microstrip directional couplers have critical effects especially on the directivity, and therefore they must be taken
into account. Without proper modeling of these parasitic effects,
directivity enhancement becomes extremely difficult especially for
weak coupling levels. The demonstrated method of analysis can be
applied to obtain exact designs of all previous microstrip directional couplers that are loaded symmetrically with series and/or
shunt reactance for directivity enhancement, regardless of the coupling levels. Based on the proposed method, a 20-dB microstrip directional coupler is designed at 2.4 GHz. A maximum directivity
of 56 dB has been measured, which is an improvement of 48 dB
over a conventional microstrip directional coupler. A 16.3% bandwidth at 2.4 GHz has been measured in which the directivity remains above 20 dB, while the maximum variation in the coupling
level is 0.5 dB. This is the first work to demonstrate directivity of
more than 50 dB for a 20-dB microstrip directional coupler.
Index TermsDirectional coupler, directivity enhancement,
isolation enhancement, microstrip directional coupler, parallel
coupled line, parallel coupled-line coupler, parasitic effect, 20-dB
coupler.

I. INTRODUCTION

ARIOUS techniques have been proposed to overcome

the inherent problem of microstrip directional couplers,
which is poor directivity. Among them, the method of reactive
loading such as those in [1][8] have been a popular choice
due to its relatively simple design procedure, compared with
the methods of distributed compensation [9][12] and other
techniques utilizing delay lines [13], spur lines [14], or reflected
power cancellation [15][17].
However, the reactively compensating methods have been
demonstrated experimentally for relatively tight coupling levels

Manuscript received February 24, 2009; revised December 04, 2009. First
published March 15, 2010; current version published April 14, 2010. This work
was supported by the Low Observable Technology Research Center and the
Defence Nano Technology Application Center Programs of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration and the Agency for Defense Development of
Korea under Contract UD080040GD and Contract UD090088JD.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,
Yonsei University, Seoul 120-749, Korea (e-mail: liskfary@gmail.com; yongshik.lee@yonsei.ac.kr).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMTT.2010.2042544

only. For instance, [1] and [2] utilize series inductors for directivity enhancement of directional couplers with a relatively tight
coupling level of 10 dB only. This is perhaps due to the design
equations that are based on approximate analysis, making them
valid only for tight coupling levels. On the other hand, the
design equations for the capacitive-compensation techniques in
[3] and [4] are accurate. Also, they have a strong advantage of
providing a superior directivity-enhanced bandwidth, since the
compensating capacitors are seen in the odd mode only but not
in the even mode. However, the experimental results are shown
for a fairly tight coupling level of 7 dB only.
Directivity enhancement becomes a much more difficult task
for weakly coupled directional couplers [18], especially with
reactive loading. The most important issue is the parasitic effects related to junction discontinuities that have never been investigated. The effects on the directivity of such couplers may
be detrimental especially for weak coupling levels at high frequencies, Therefore, they must be taken into account in the design equation through proper modeling. Otherwise, intensive
layout optimization through time-consuming full-wave simulations may be required.
This paper expands the previous work by the authors [8] and
fully investigates the design method for microstrip directional
couplers loaded with shunt inductors for directivity enhancement. In Section II and III, a design method is demonstrated for
a generalized structure that provide flexibility in design process.
Performance depending on the location of loading is investigated in detail. In Section IV, the proposed method is compared
with other reactively compensating methods. Advantages and
disadvantages in various aspects are discussed. In Section V, the
parasitic effects are discussed that can be detrimental, especially
for loosely coupled couplers that operate at high frequencies. A
new set of design equations is derived to include the capacitance
that model the parasitic effects. In Section VI, experimental results for a 20-dB coupler centered at 2.4 GHz are provided. Finally, conclusion follows in Section VII.
II. MICROSTRIP DIRECTIONAL COUPLER LOADED
WITH SHUNT INDUCTORS
Shown in Fig. 1 are the schematics of a conventional and the
proposed microstrip directional couplers. In the proposed directional coupler, the conventional directional coupler is divided
into three sections and, between two sections of each strip, is
loaded with two identical shunt inductors. Maintaining a symmetric structure is an important factor since an ideal coupler

0018-9480/$26.00 2010 IEEE

LEE AND LEE: DESIGN METHOD FOR MICROSTRIP DIRECTIONAL COUPLERS LOADED WITH SHUNT INDUCTORS

Fig. 1. Schematics of: (a) conventional and (b) proposed microstrip directional
couplers.

Fig. 2. Even- and odd-mode equivalent circuit of proposed microstrip directional coupler.

with ideal isolation and matching performance can be realized

if and only if the structure is symmetric [4].
The even- and odd-mode electrical lengths of both couplers
at the dein Fig. 1 are such that the lengths are effectively
sign frequency. The proposed coupler in Fig. 1(b) is the general
structure for the couplers in [8], where the inductors are located
, and in [6], where the inductors
at the center
.
are located at the ports
Applying the even- and odd-mode analysis between ports 1
and 3, the proposed four-port coupler can be simplified to a set
of two identical two-port networks, as shown in Fig. 2. Then,
an additional even- and odd-mode analysis between ports 1 and
2 (or ports 3 and 4) is applied, the equivalent circuits of which
are shown in Fig. 3 for all four modes. The input impedance of
each mode in Fig. 3 are
(1)

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Fig. 3. Equivalent circuits of proposed directional coupler: (a) even mode

(ports 1 and 3) followed by even mode (ports 1 and 2); (b) even mode (ports
1 and 3) followed by odd mode (ports 1 and 2); (c) odd mode (ports 1 and
3) followed by even mode (ports 1 and 2); and (d) odd mode (ports 1 and 3)
followed by odd mode (ports 1 and 2).

The -parameters of the four-port coupler in Fig. 1(b) can be

expressed by those of the two-port even- and odd-mode equivalent circuits in Fig. 2. The relationships are [19]
(6a)
(6b)
(6c)
(6d)
where the subscripts and denote even and odd modes, respectively.
is
Thus, the condition for infinite directivity
.
and
can be expressed in terms of the even- and
odd-mode -parameters in (5) as
(7a)
(7b)
is the system impedance.
where
Therefore, the following two conditions are obtained for in:
finite directivity, or

(2)
(8)
(9)

(3)
(4)

With (5), these conditions can be simplified further to

The -parameters of the two-port even- and odd-mode equivalent circuits in Fig. 2 can be expressed by the input impedances

(10)
(11)

(5a)
(5b)
(5c)
(5d)

Applying (1)(4) to (10), the following equation is obtained

for the inductance :
(12)

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 58, NO. 4, APRIL 2010

where

With the even-mode impedance

, the odd-mode
of the original directional coupler and the
impedance
location of loading,
,
,
, and
, the inductance that
provides infinite directivity can be obtained. Also, this condition guarantees not only an isolation null, but also a perfect
match at the same frequency. To the authors experience, (12)
yields positive solutions for all practical cases.
Equation (11) implies that the system impedance
of the
proposed directional coupler is no longer the same as the system
.
impedance of its conventional counterpart,
This is a common phenomenon for reactively loaded directional
couplers. Reactively loading a directional coupler improves its
directivity but, at the same time, alters the system impedance
and, therefore, the actual coupling level
.
In order to maintain the original system impedance
and
the coupling level before and after loading, (10), (11), and the
in (6c) must be solved
equation for the coupling level
simultaneously. However, the resulting are nonlinear equations
that are difficult to solve analytically. As an alternative, an iterative solution method can be applied, which is discussed in detail
in Section III.
Fig. 4 shows the inductance , system impedance , and
the coupling level depending on the location of loading for couplers with various coupling levels at 2.4 GHz. The substrate has
3.5, 0.76-mm thickness,
0, and 35- m copper
cladding. The figure shows the actual parameters of the initial
design, which are altered due to loading. The figure also shows
the design parameters of the final design which has the same
system impedance and the same coupling level as the original
unloaded coupler. The final design is obtained by the iterative
solution method in Section III.
For instance, for a 20-dB coupler with inductors loaded at
, the initially calculated inductance is
the center
5.771 nH from Fig. 4(a). However, the loaded inductors change
50 to
the system impedance from
96.54 [Fig. 4(b)], resulting in an actual coupling
17.82 dB [Fig. 4(c)] in a
96.54 system.
level of
To compensate for the changes in the system impedance and
the coupling level, the iterative solution method in Section III
is applied. In the final design, the coupled line needs to be designed to have a coupling level of 22.03 dB [Fig. 4(c)] in a
23.78 system [Fig. 4(b)]. When this coupled line
is loaded with 2.504-nH inductors [Fig. 4(a)], the resulting is
a coupler with perfect matching, infinite directivity, and exact
20 dB coupling at 2.4 GHz in a
50system.

Fig. 4. (a) Calculated inductance (L), (b) system impedance (Z ), and (c) coupling level (C ) as a function of location of loading for various coupling levels.
) and design parameters of final design
Actual parameters of initial design (
(

).

The results in Fig. 4 indicate that there is no optimum location

for inductive loading. As can be seen in Fig. 4(a), the minimum
inductance is required when the coupler is loaded at the center
, regardless of the coupling level. This is a great
advantage since lower inductance generally indicates higher
and higher self-resonant frequency [20], [21]. Moreover, when
loaded at the center, the actual inductance is half of the value
in Fig. 4(a) since the two shunt inductors can be combined. On
is at its maximum when the
the other hand, the change in
,
inductors are located at the center of the coupler
while it is at its minimum when they are loaded at the ports
.
Fig. 4 suggests that, for very tight coupling, the changes
in the system impedance and the coupling level may be sufficiently small to be neglected. However, as the coupling

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optimum location of loading, depending on the design parameters such as the inductance and/or the directivity and coupling
bandwidths.
III. ITERATIVE SOLUTION METHOD
The iterative solution method serves to obtain the design parameters of the proposed coupler that provide infinite directivity
while maintaining the system impedance and the coupling level
before and after loading. The method compensates for the difand the acferences between the designed
tual
and between the designed and the acrepeatedly, until the differences become negtual coupling
ligible. The required inductance is recalculated after each iteration stage.
of the
To avoid confusion, the system impedance
in this section. This leads to
original coupler is denoted as
the following relationships between the even-/odd-mode impedances and the coupling level :
(13a)
(13b)
Fig. 5. (a) Directivity and (b) coupling levels for 5-dB and 30-dB couplers, as
a function of location of loading.

becomes weaker, the changes may be sufficiently substantial

that they must be compensated for. This is especially true when
the inductors are loaded at the center since the change in
is the largest. This may be problematic, especially for weak
coupling levels. For a 30-dB coupler, for instance, the coupled
17.02 , which may be
line must be designed to have
too low to implement. This can be overcome by loading the
, the
inductors at different locations. For instance, for
coupled line can be designed to have a much more practical
31.34 .
system impedance of
Shown in Fig. 5 are the circuit simulation results for 5-dB and
30-dB directional couplers at 2.4 GHz on the same substrate,
, at the
when the inductors are loaded at the center
quarter lengths
, and at the end
. As
can be seen, all couplers show nearly infinite directivity with
specified coupling levels at the design frequency. For a very
tight coupling level of 5 dB, the three locations show nearly the
same directivity bandwidths, while the coupling bandwidth is
the smallest when loaded at the center. However, as the coupling becomes weaker, there is a notable change in the trend.
For a very weak coupling level of 30 dB, not only the directivity
bandwidth, but also the coupling bandwidth are the smallest
when the inductors are loaded at the center. The same phenomenon is observed for loose coupling levels of practical range. By
loading the inductors at other locations, wider bandwidths can
be obtained.
Therefore, the generalized structure in Fig. 1(b) provides a
degree of freedom in designing directivity-enhanced microstrip
couplers by loading with shunt inductors. One can choose the

Initially, the coupler is designed for a system impedance

of 50 . The initial even- and odd-mode impedances and
electrical lengths of the coupled line are calculated accordingly.
Then, the compensating inductance is calculated with (12).
From these initial parameters, the actual system impedance
in (11) is calculated.
Due to the inductive loading, the actual system impedance
is now different from the designed system impedance
.
This leads not only to a poor matching performance, but also to
in (6c) that is different from the coupling
a coupling level
level before loading, given by . Moreover, the isolation null
may not be obtained.
is adjusted in proportion to
In the first iteration stage,
the initial
. For instance, suppose that the actual
after
while the designed
is
the inductive loading is 96.54
in the second stage is
50 . In this case, the designed
25.9 . Then the even-/odd-mode
set to 50 50/96.54
impedances in (13) are adjusted accordingly, and the actual
as well as all other electrical parameters
system impedance
is 55.69
with
are recalculated. Since the recalculated
25.9 after the first iteration,
in the second iteration
is now set to 50 25.9/55.69
23.25 . In this way,
is
converges to 50 . Similarly, the
adjusted iteratively until
is solved iteratively until it converges
actual coupling level
to the original coupling level . In general, the difference
between the initial
and 50 becomes large as the coupling
levels become weaker, requiring more iteration steps.
Based on the proposed method, a 20-dB microstrip directional coupler with a center frequency of 2.4 GHz is designed.
3.5, 0.76-mm thickness,
A lossless RF-35 substrate with
and 35- m copper cladding is used as the substrate. LineCalc
in ADS [22] is utilized to compute the electrical parameters of
the coupled line. For simplicity, the compensating inductors are

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TABLE I
DESIGN OF PROPOSED 20-dB COUPLER AT 2.4 GHz WITH INDUCTORS LOADED AT CENTER

Fig. 6. Circuit simulation results for initial and final 20-dB coupler design in
Table I for Z
50 . Results for conventional 20-dB coupler also shown for
comparison.

loaded at the center of the coupled lines, i.e.,

in
Fig. 1(b).
Table I summarizes the calculated parameters of the couand
pler after each iteration stage. After only six iterations,
converged to 50 and 20 dB, respectively, with negligible
errors for a coupler with a coupling level as weak as 20 dB.
The iterative solution method enables to maintain the system
impedance and the coupling level before and after loading, in
a relatively simple manner. It is not a time-consuming process
since any types of simulations or optimizations are not required
after each iteration stage.
Fig. 6 shows the circuit simulation results for the initial and
final designs of the 20-dB directional coupler in Table I. As evidenced by the figure, the performance of the initial design is far
from the specified. This is mostly due to the system impedance,
96.5 that is nearly twice as high as the initial system
50 . However, the isolation and coupling
impedance
levels of the final design at the design frequency meet the specified, which validates the proposed design method. Although directivity is remarkably improved over its conventional counterpart, the matching bandwidth is narrower than the conventional
coupler, restricting the proposed method for wideband applications.
In rare occasions when the difference between the evenand odd-mode effective dielectric constants are very large for
extremely weak coupling levels, the actual system impedance
may be an imaginary number. In this case, the

Fig. 7. Various reactively compensating methods of directivity enhancement.

Lumped-element values for 20-dB couplers at 2.4 GHz are: (a) 1.90 nH in [1],
(b) 0.16 nH in [2], (c) 80.4 fF in [3] and 82.1 fF in [5], and (d) 112.6 fF in [4]
for circuit simulation results shown in Fig. 8.

iterative solution method cannot be applied due to the absence

of initial . However, as seen in Fig. 4, the method provides
valid solutions for all practical coupling levels, regardless of
the loading locations.
IV. COMPARISON WITH OTHER REACTIVELY
COMPENSATING METHODS
Shown in Fig. 7 are other popular reactively compensating
methods of directivity enhancement for microstrip directional
couplers. With the design equations in the corresponding literature, 20-dB directional couplers at 2.4 GHz are designed
on the same substrate as that used in Section III. For comparison, a 20-dB coupler is designed also by the proposed method.
is chosen since it provides the largest coupling
bandwidth. For the method in [3] and [4], the iterative solution
method is applied to take into account the changes in the effective dielectric constants.
Circuit simulation results in Fig. 8 show that most of the
methods in Fig. 7 provide directivity enhancement over the conventional counterpart. On the other hand, only the conventional
and proposed methods and the methods in [3] and [4] provide
the specified coupling level of 20 dB at the design frequency of
2.4 GHz. Circuit simulation results for the method in Fig. 7(b)
are not shown since the design equations in [2] yields negative
electrical lengths for the coupled-line section.
The design equations in [1] for the method in Fig. 7(a) are
only approximate and are valid only for relatively tight coupling levels. For a coupling level as weak as 20 dB, as seen

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Fig. 9. Microstrip implementation of the proposed directional coupler.

Fig. 8. Comparison with other reactively compensating methods for 20-dB

couplers. Results for the method in Fig. 7(b) are not included since the design
parameter is nonphysical. (a) Directivity. (b) Coupling.

in Fig. 8, a peak in the directivity is not observed while a relatively large deviation in the coupling level is seen. Since the
structure in Fig. 7(b) is symmetric, accurate design equations
can be obtained by applying the demonstrated analysis method
in Section II and III.
The design equations in [5] for the method in Fig. 7(c) do not
provide optimum performance. Although directivity enhancement is obtained over the conventional coupler in a very wide
bandwidth, a prominent peak in the directivity is not seen, and
the specified coupling level is not obtained at the design frequency. On the other hand, accurate performance is obtained
with superior directivity bandwidth with the improved design
equations in [3] for the same method in Fig. 7(c) as well as with
those in [4] for the method in Fig. 7(d) that utilize only one element. The superior directivity bandwidths of these methods are
due to the compensating capacitors that are seen in the odd mode
only.
However, from a practical point of view, the capacitive
compensating methods in [3][5] suffer from the difficulties
that the capacitor must be placed in the narrow gap of the
coupled lines. Otherwise, it requires intensive layout optimization through time-consuming full-wave simulations to
compensate for the parasitic effects associated with the lines
that connect the capacitors with the coupled line. Moreover, the
required capacitance of 80.4 and 112.6 fF for the methods in
Fig. 7(c) and (d), respectively, for a 20-dB coupler at 2.4 GHz
indicate that the capacitance may be too low to be practical
at higher frequencies. Most importantly, these relatively low

Fig. 10. Circuit and full-wave simulation results for proposed 20-dB directional coupler at 2.4 GHz, with inductors loaded at center.

capacitance levels become more problematic when the parasitic

effects, which will be discussed in Section V, are considered.
Indeed, nearly infinite directivity as well as the exact
coupling level at the design frequency are obtained for the proposed method. Although the directivity bandwidth of proposed
method is narrower compared with the methods in [3] and [4],
the proposed method provides a coupling bandwidth that is
larger than these methods. Moreover, the freedom in the location of loading provides more flexibility in the design process.
Most importantly, shunt inductors can be easily implemented
by grounded stubs in shunt, which makes the proposed method
is far more practical especially at high frequencies.
V. MODELING OF PARASITIC EFFECTS
Fig. 9 shows the microstrip implementation of a proposed
coupled line with the inductors that are loaded at the center, including the 50- feeding line at each port. The shunt inductors
are realized with grounded stubs in shunt. Shown in Fig. 10 are
the full-wave simulation results from the High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS) [23] for the final design of the 20-dB coupler in Table I, including the feed line at each port. For comparison, the circuit simulation results for the same design in Fig. 6
are repeated in this figure. As can be seen, no major difference is
seen between the circuit and the full-wave simulation results, except for the isolation performance that is dramatically degraded
in the full-wave simulations.
The major reason is due to the parasitic effects related with
junction discontinuities in various parts of the actual circuit,
which are not included in the circuit simulations. For the coupler

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Fig. 11. Equivalent circuit of the proposed coupler including capacitors that
model dominant parasitic effects, when the coupler is loaded at center and conL= in Fig. 1(b).
nected to feeding lines. The feeding lines are not shown. L

= 2

in Fig. 9, the dominant ones can be modeled as capacitors between the two stubs and between the feeding lines connected to
ports 1 and 3 and to ports 2 and 4. Therefore, the equivalent circuit of proposed coupler in Fig. 1(b) can be modified to include
these capacitors, as shown in Fig. 11. With parasitic capacitance
20 fF and
70 fF, the circuit simulation results
of
are now in excellent agreement with the full-wave simulation
results, as shown in Fig. 10.
and
in Fig. 11 play the exact same
The capacitances
role as does the compensating capacitance in Fig. 7(c) and (d),
respectively. They compensate for the odd-mode phase velocand
of the coupler. In genities, which in turn alters
eral, these capacitance are very small, only about several tens
of femtofarads.
However, as seen in Section IV, the compensating capacitance for a 20-dB coupler at 2.4 GHz is 80.4 fF for the method
in Fig. 7(c) and 112.6 fF for the method in Fig. 7(d). The compensating capacitance values of such levels at 2.4 GHz indicate that the parasitic capacitance of the order of several tens
of femtofarads can be detrimental on the directivity of a coupler. More importantly, as the coupling weakens and/or the operating frequency increases, the compensating capacitances in
Fig. 7(c) and (d) become even lower, indicating that the parasitic effects become more eminent.
The effects of junction discontinuities on the directivity is a
common problem not only for reactively loaded directional couplers, but also for the directional couplers utilizing other techniques for directivity enhancement [13], [14]. The directivity
is also alis affected the most, but the system impedance
tered. However, the importance of parasitic effects on the directivity of directivity-enhanced couplers have never been investigated. This is because their effects are not prominent in most
of the previous reactively compensated microstrip directional
couplers, perhaps due to their relatively tight coupling levels
and/or relatively low operating frequencies. For instance, in [8],
the parasitic effects are negligible due to its relatively tight coupling level of 10 dB and the relatively low operating frequency
of 0.9 GHz. However, the results in Fig. 10 indicate that the parasitic effects cannot be ignored for a 20-dB coupler at 2.4 GHz
and that they can be modeled properly with capacitors.
As a rule of thumb, when the capacitance that models the
parasitic effects are comparable to the compensating capacitance, they must be included in the design equations. Otherwise, proper performance may be obtained only through inten-

Fig. 12. Fabricated 20-dB directional couplers: proposed (left) and conventional (right).

sive layout optimization via time-consuming full-wave simulations.

Accordingly, the design equations for the proposed directional coupler in (1)(4), (11), and (12) must be modified to include the capacitance that model the parasitic effects. For the directional coupler in Fig. 11, in which the coupled line is loaded
, the modified design equations
at the center
are
(14)
(15)
(16)
(17)
(18)
where

The iterative solution method in Section III also needs to be

applied to compensate for the changes in the system impedance
and the coupling level
due to the inductive
loading as well as parasitic effects.
VI. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
For experimental verification, an inductively loaded 20-dB
directional coupler at 2.4 GHz is fabricated in an RF-35 sub3.5, 0.76-mm thickness, and 35- m copper
strate with
cladding. The inductors are realized with 75- stubs, grounded
by via holes of 0.25-mm radius. Fig. 12 shows a photograph of
a fabricated directivity-enhanced directional coupler. For comparison, a conventional 20-dB directional coupler is also fabricated in the same substrate, as shown in the same figure.

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TABLE II
FINAL DESIGN PARAMETERS

Since the parasitic effects are fully characterized, a 20-dB

coupled-line coupler in Table I is redesigned to include capaciand
in Fig. 11 that model parasitic effects, with
tances
initial values of 20 and 70 fF, respectively. Then, the iterative so50 and
lution method in Section III is applied to meet
20 dB. The final even-/odd-mode impedances, the total
length of the coupled line, and the inductance that load the line
are 34.70 , 30.24 , 18.39 mm, and 2.53 nH, respectively. The
large differences between these design parameters and those in
Table I (25.75 , 21.97 , 18.08 mm, and 1.252 nH) in which
the parasitic effects are not taken into account and which can be
obtained also from the design equations in [8] and after applying
the iterative solution method, indicate how large the impact of
parasitic effects are on the overall performance of a coupler at
2.4 GHz with a coupling level as weak as 20 dB. The change in
the parasitic capacitance may be relatively large, even for small
and
in the final
changes in the layout. The capacitances
design are 15 and 40 fF, respectively.
Finally, the design is optimized in a full-wave simulator,
HFSS [23], to compensate for other parasitic reactance including the via hole effects that are not exactly modeled in
Fig. 11. The final design parameters are summarized in Table II
along with those for the conventional 20-dB directional coupler.
The fabricated couplers are measured in the 14-GHz range
with an MS4624D vector network analyzer from Anritsu.
Electronic calibration is achieved with a 36584KF calibration
module. Fig. 13(a) shows the full-wave simulated and measured
results for the proposed coupler, which are in excellent agreement. A maximum isolation of more than 76 dB with a coupling
level of 20.1 dB have been measured at 2.41 GHz. Fig. 13(b)
shows the measured and simulated directivity and coupling
levels of the proposed and conventional 20-dB directional
couplers. A maximum directivity of 56 dB has been measured
for the proposed coupler, whereas the directivity of the conventional coupler remains under 9.5 dB in the measured range. For
the proposed coupler, the directivity remains above 20 dB in a
16.3% bandwidth, from 2.25 to 2.65 GHz, in which the maximum variation in the coupling level is 0.5 dB. In this frequency
range, the minimum and maximum directivity improvements
of the proposed coupler are 12 and 48 dB, respectively, over
the conventional counterpart. For the conventional directional
coupler, the maximum variation of the coupling level is 0.2 dB
in the same frequency range. This suggests that improvement in
the coupling level bandwidth of the proposed coupler remains
as future work.
VII. CONCLUSION
This paper presents an accurate design method for microstrip
directional couplers, loaded with shunt inductors for directivity

Fig. 13. Full-wave simulated and measured results. (a) S -parameters of proposed coupler. (b) Directivity and coupling levels of proposed and conventional
couplers.

enhancement. Complete design equations are derived for a

generalized structure, providing more design flexibility when
designing such couplers. Also, the demonstrated iterative solution method enables to maintain the system impedance and
the coupling level before and after reactive loading. Moreover,
by properly modeling the dominant parasitic effects as capacitors, improved design equations are derived to provide proper
performance. Among various reactively compensating methods
of directivity enhancement, the proposed method is the most
practical method especially for weak coupling levels at high
frequencies.
Based on the proposed design method, a 20-dB microstrip
directional coupler loaded with shunt inductors at 2.4 GHz
is designed and fabricated. A maximum directivity of 56 dB
has been measured, which is an improvement of 48 dB over
a conventional microstrip directional coupler. This is the first
work to demonstrate directivity of more than 50 dB for a
20-dB microstrip directional coupler. The directivity remains
above 20 dB in a 16.3% bandwidth, with a maximum variation
of 0.5 dB in the coupling level. Without proper modeling of
parasitic effects, the superior directivity performance would not
have been possible for a coupling level as weak as 20 dB. Although the proposed method is capable of providing the largest
coupling bandwidth among various reactively compensating
methods, the coupling as well as matching bandwidths are

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narrow, compared to the conventional counterpart. Improvement in these bandwidths remains as future work.

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Seungku Lee was born in Seoul, Korea, in 1982. He
received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, in 2008 and 2010, respectively.
He is currently with the Radio Communication
Research Center, Yonsei University. His current
research interests include multiband planar circuits
for microwave applications.
Mr. Lee was the recipient of the Bronze Award
in the Samsung Human-Tech Paper Competition in
2008 and the Silver Award in 2010.

Yongshik Lee (S00M04) was born in Seoul,

Korea. He received the B.S. degree from Yonsei
University, Seoul, Korea, in 1998, and the M.S. and
Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from The
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, in 2001 and
2004, respectively.
In 2004, he was a Post-Doctoral Research Associate with Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.
From 2004 until 2005, he was with EMAG Technologies Inc., Ann Arbor, MI, as a Research Engineer.
In September 2005, he joined Yonsei University,
Seoul, Korea, as an Assistant Professor. His current research interests include
passive and active circuitry for microwave and millimeter-wave applications
and electromagnetic metamaterials.