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Wideband Four-Way Out-of-Phase Slotline

Power Dividers
Kaijun Song, Senior Member, IEEE, Yuxia Mo, Quan Xue, Fellow, IEEE, and Yong Fan, Member,

IEEE
AbstractTwo new wideband four-way out-of-phase slotline
power dividers are proposed in this paper. The half-wavelength
slotlines are employed to construct the presented compact power
dividers. Based on the proposed power-dividing circuit, a
four-way power divider is implemented with compact size and
simple structure. To obtain high isolation among the four output
ports and good output impedance matching, another four-way
out-of-phase slotline power divider with improved isolation
performance is designed by introducing an air-bridge resistor and
two slotlines with isolation resistors. The simulated and measured
results of the proposed power dividers demonstrate reasonable
performance of impedance matching, insertion loss, amplitude
balancing, and isolation among the output ports.
Index TermsWideband, slotline, out-of-phase power divider,
compact, isolation

I. INTRODUCTION

HE rapid development of RF and microwave industries

requires various of passive or active RF circuits [1-15, 32,
33]. Among various RF circuits, high-power solid-state power
amplifier is important in industrial applications [15, 16, 19, 20,
32, 33], which is widely used in wireless/wireline
communications such as industrial systems and consumer
electronics. As the output power from an individual solid-state
device is rather modest at microwave/millimeter-wave
frequencies, the need for power combining becomes evident.
This has motivated considerable research activities to develop
wideband and efficient power-dividing/combining circuits at
these frequencies [1, 10-28]. Moreover, the power dividers
/combiners with low cost and compact size [8, 9, 12, 21-28] are
widely used in antenna arrays, mixers, phase shifters, and so on.
Then, they play an important role in many industrial electronic
systems. Recently, various multiple-way power dividers have
been presented and developed [1, 10-21]. In these designs,
several kinds of waveguide-based wideband power dividers,
such as ring-cavity power divider [1], rectangular waveguide

Manuscript received July 7, 2013. Accepted for publication August 9, 2013.

Copyright (c) 2009 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted.
However, permission to use this material for any other purposes must be
obtained from the IEEE by sending a request to pubs-permissions@ieee.org.
Kaijun Song, Yuxia Mo, and Yong Fan is with the EHF Key Laboratory of
Science, School of Electronic Engineering, University of Electronic Science
and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China (e-mail:
ksong@uestc.edu.cn, kaijun.song@hotmail.com).
Quan Xue is with the State Key Lab of Millimeter Waves, Department of
Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

Out-of-phase
power divider

Power amplifier array

o

Out-of-phase
power combiner

180

180

0
Input

Output
o

180
180

Fig. 1 Schematic illustration of the power-combining amplifier

power dividers [15-17], radial waveguide power dividers

[10-13], conical power divider [14], and coaxial waveguide
power dividers [18-20] have been widely investigated and used
in microwave and millimeter-wave systems because of their
low insertion loss, wide bandwidth, and high power capability.
However, these waveguide-based dividers may suffer from
problems of low isolation between the output ports of the
power divider, and have poor impedance matching at the output
ports.
In [21-27], several planar power dividers have been studied,
which can achieve good impedance matching at all the output
ports and high isolation among the output ports. However, only
two- or three-way power-dividing function can be implemented
due to the structural limitation, which will greatly limit their
application in practical systems. A multilayer substrate
integrated waveguide (SIW) four-way out-of-phase power
divider is presented in [28], which can implement good
performances of impedance matching at all ports and isolation
among the output ports.
In this paper, the half-wavelength slotline is employed to
construct the novel wideband four-way out-of-phase power
dividers. Moreover, a compact four-way out-of-phase slotline
power divider operating at C- and X-band has been designed.
To further improve isolation performance and impedance
matching of the output ports, the air-bridge isolation resistor
and two slotlines with isolation resistors are applied to the
power divider. The equivalent-circuit model and even- and
odd-mode analysis method are also involved to develop the
power divider with isolation improvement. Finally, the two
four-way out-of-phase slotline power dividers have been
implemented. The measured results agree with the simulated
ones closely. The measured results indicate that the proposed
power dividers have several advantages, such as wide
bandwidth, low insertion loss, excellent impedance matching at
all ports, good amplitude balance at output ports, and

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Wm

Port 4

Zs,d

Port 3

lm
Ws

Z0

ls

Top layer

Port 1

Zs,s

Z0
, m

Bottom layer

Zs,d

1:n

Zs,s

(a)

Port 3

Port 4

Z0

Port 2

Z0

Port 3

Z0

Port 4

Z0

Port 5

Port 1

Port 2

Port 5

n:1

1:n

ML

SL

ML

Fig. 3 Equivalent circuit of the proposed power divider

Port 2

Port 5
E-field

Port 1

current

(b)
Fig. 2 The proposed power divider (a) structure (b) phase analysis of the
output ports

reasonable isolation among the output ports (for the power

divider with isolation improvement). Fig.1 shows a schematic
illustration of the power-combining amplifier using
out-of-phase four-way power divider/combiner. It can be seen
that the out-of-phase four-way power divider/combiner can be
applied to construct the power -combining amplifier after
appropriate arrangement.
II. FOUR-WAY OUT-OF-PHASE SLOTLINE POWER DIVIDER
A. Structure and Design
Fig. 2(a) shows the proposed half-wavelength slotline
four-way out-of-phase power divider without isolation resistor.
It is composed of input/output microstrip feedlines and a
half-wavelength (s/2) slotline resonator (namely d+lss/4),
where s is the guided wavelength of the slotline at the central
frequency. The slotline resonator is bent to reduce the size of
the presented power divider. The input microstrip feedline (port
1) is placed at the middle of the power divider, which is an
open-circuited microstrip line with a length lmm/4 (m is the
guided wavelength of the microstrip line at the center
frequency) from the slot to the open end, while the four output
ports with identical sizes are arranged symmetrically on the two
sides of the input microstrip feedline. The half-wavelength
slotline resonator is etched on the bottom layer of the substrate
and crossed with the input and output microstrip feedlines near
the center of the slotline. It can also be seen that the presented
power divider only has five parameters, which will greatly
simplify the analysis and optimization of the presented power
divider.
When the RF signal is excited at the input microstrip feedline,
the RF power will transmit to the center of the slotline through
the microstrip-slotline transition, and then be parallelly divided

into two-equal RF signals, where each transmits to the

slotline-microstrip transition of the output microstrip lines
through the slotline. Finally, the RF power at the
slotline-microstrip transition is equally divided into the two
output ports located at the two ends of the same microstrip line.
The electric field and current distributions are drawn in the
slotline and microstrip line in Fig. 2(b) (To describe them
clearly and directly, the slotline is not bent), respectively,
which enables us to have a conceptual understanding of the
in-phase and out-of-phase coupling behavior. It can be seen
from Fig. 2(b) that port 1, port 2, and port 5 are in-phase
because their current directions are the same. Similarly, port 3
and port 4 are also in-phase. However, port 2 and port 3 are
out-of-phase because of their opposite current directions.
Obviously, port 4 and port 5 have a phase difference of 180.
That is to say, the two output ports located at the two ends of the
same microstrip line is out-of-phase when RF power is
transmitted through the slotline-microstrip transition from
slotline to the microstrip line. Then, the total four-way
out-of-phase power divider can be viewed as the combination
of a two-way microstrip/slotline in-phase power divider and
two two-way slotline/microstrip out-of-phase power dividers.
It can be seen that the four output signals are of equal power
levels. Apparently, the two ports located at the same microstrip
line are out-of-phase, while the two ports, which are located at
the same side of slotline and also symmetric with respect to the
input microstrip feedline, are in phase.
Fig. 3 shows the transmission-line equivalent circuit of the
proposed four-way out-of-phase power divider, where Z0 and
Zs are the microstrip-line and slotline characteristic impedances,
respectively. m=2lm/m, s=2ls/s, and d=2d/s denote the
microstrip-line electrical length of the extend portion, the
slotline electrical length of the extend portion, and the slotline
electrical length between two adjacent microstrip lines at
coupling point, respectively. The microstrip-slotline transition
can be expressed as an equivalent transformer [29]. The
transformer turn ratio n represents the coupling magnitude
between the microstrip line and slotline. After making a
number of approximations in the analysis, a closed-form
expression for transformer turn ratio n is given as [29]

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Magnitude (dB)

-10

S21(calculated)
S21(simulated)
S11(calculated)
S11(simulated)

-20

(a)
(b)
Fig. 5 Photograph of the fabricated power divider: (a) top view, (b) bottom
view.

-30
3

6
7
8
9
Frequency (GHz)

10

11

12

Fig. 4 Calculated and simulated frequency response of the proposed power

divider ( l m =6.5 mm, l s =9 mm, d=1.36 mm, Ws =0.2 mm, Wm =0.96 mm)

J 0 (k esWm / 2 )J 0 (k emWs / 2)
2
k es2 + k em

k em
k 2 r
k es2 k1

k 2 r cos k1h k1 sin k1h k1 cos k1h + k 2 sin k1h

(1)

Magnitude (dB)

n=

-10
-20
-30
S11(simulated)
S21(simulated)
S31(simulated)
S41(simulated)
S51(simulated)

-40

where J0() is the zeroth-order Bessel function and

k1 =

2
k 02 r k es2 k em
= k 0 r res rem

k 2 = k 0 res + rem 1

k es = k 0 res , k em = k 0 rem
Here, rem and res are the effective dielectric constants of the
microstrip line and the slotline, respectively. res can be
determined according to [29].
According to the equivalent circuit (shown in Fig. 3) of the
proposed power divider, the input impedance matching and
transmission performance can be analyzed and synthesized.
The reflection and transmission coefficients of the four-way
slotline out-of-phase power divider can be calculated according
to its equivalent circuit. Therefore, its frequency response can
also be analyzed and optimized. Finally, the optimized
dimensions of the four-way slotline out-of-phase power divider
can be obtained under the desired frequency response. Fig. 4
shows the comparison of the calculated frequency response
from its equivalent circuit with the simulated one by using an
EM simulator (IE3D). It can be seen that they agree well with
each other, which validates the validity of its equivalent circuit.
Moreover, the operation frequency range perhaps can cover the
UWB band (3.1 GHz - 10.6 GHz) after increasing the coupling
of the microstrip-slotline transition.
B. experimental results
According to above analysis method, a compact wideband
four-way out-of-phase slotline power divider is designed by
using the equivalent circuit and the EM simulation about the

-50

6
7
8
9
Frequency (GHz)

S11(measured)
S21(measured)
S31(measured)
S41(measured)
S51(measured)

10

11

12

Fig. 6 Simulated and measured S parameters of the fabricated power divider

without isolation resistors

proposed power divider is performed by using a commercially

tool (IE3D). The power divider is fabricated on a substrate
Taconic TLE-95-0150 with a dielectric constant r of 2.95, a
thickness of 0.38 mm, and loss tangent of 0.0012. Fig. 5 shows
the fabricated four-way out-of-phase slotline power divider. As
mentioned above, to further reduce size, the slotline etched on
the bottom layer of the substrate is bent. Although a low
dielectric constant has been used, the fabricated four-way
power divider is very compact with a size of 10 mm 8 mm.
The dimensions for the fabricated power divider are found to be
(as illustrated in Fig.2): d=1.36 mm, L s =9 mm, L m = 6.5
mm, W s =0.2 mm, Wm= 0.96 mm.
The simulated and measured S parameters are shown in Fig.
6 to Fig. 8. It can be seen that the measured results agree with
the simulated ones closely over the entire design frequency
range. The measured 10-dB return loss bandwidth is from 4 to
9.6 GHz, while 15-dB return loss bandwidth is found to be
approximately 4 GHz (from 4.6 to 8.6 GHz). The measured
insertion losses S21, S31, S41, and S51 are within 6.50.5 dB in a
wide frequency range from 4 to 9 GHz. The amplitude
imbalance is due to the assembly and fabrication errors.
Fig. 7 shows the simulated and measured isolation among the
output ports, while Fig. 8 shows the return loss of the output
ports. Obviously, it cant simultaneously obtain good

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190

S32(simulated)
S42(simulated)
S52(simulated)
S43(simulated)
S53(simulated)
S54(simulated)

-6
-8

Phase Variation (degree)

Isolation (dB)

-4

10

185

S32(measured)
S42(measured)
S52(measured)
S43(measured)
S53(measured)
S54(measured)

-10

S31- S41(measured)

S21- S31(measured)

180

175

-5

Phase Variation (degree)

-2

-12
170

-14

7
8
9
Frequency (GHz)

10

11

6
7
8
9
Frequency (GHz)

12

10

-10
12

11

Fig. 9 Measured phase difference between the output ports

Fig. 7 Simulated and measured isolation among the output ports

Output Return Loss (dB)

-2

S22(simulated)
S33(simulated)
S44(simulated)
S55(simulated)

-4
-6

Bottom
view

S22(measured)
S33(measured)
S44(measured)
S55(measured)

lg
R R0

Port 4

-8

d0

Port 3

lr
lD

R0

-10

WD

Port 5

-12
-14

7
8
9
Frequency (GHz)

10

11

12

Top layer

Port 1

Port 2

Bottom layer

Fig. 8 Simulated and measured output return loss

Fig. 10 Configuration of the four-way power divider with isolation

impedance matching at all ports and good isolation among the

output ports since the proposed power divider is a lossless
structure [28, 30]. The isolation (S32 and S54) between the
output ports located at the same microstrip line is less than 4
dB, while the other isolation (S42, S52, S43, and S53) between the
output ports located at the different output microstrip lines is
greater than 10 dB from 3 to 10.2 GHz, as shown in Fig. 7. The
measured return losses of the output ports are around 10 dB
from 3 to 11 GHz, as shown in Fig. 8.
Fig. 9 shows the measured phase difference between
different output ports. The phase difference between S21 and
S31 is about 1802 over a wide frequency range from 3.3 to
11.8 GHz, while that between S31 and S41 is about 02
from 3 to 11.7 GHz. It can be noted that the port 2 and port 3,
which are located at the same microstrip line, are out-of-phase,
while the port 3 and port 4, which are symmetric with respect to
the input microstrip feedline, are in-phase.

suffers from poor isolation performance between the output

ports located at the same microstrip line. To improve the
isolation performance, the isolation circuits can be considered.
Fig. 10 shows the configuration of the proposed four-way
out-of-phase power divider with improved isolation
performance. A new air-bridge isolation resistor R is across the
input microstrip lines and connected with the two central points
of the two output microstrip lines, which can be applied to
improve the isolation performance between the output ports
located at the different output microstrip lines.

III. FOUR-WAY SLOTLINE OUT-OF-PHASE POWER DIVIDER

WITH IMPROVED ISOLATION PERFORMANCE
A. Structure and Analysis
As mentioned above, the above proposed power divider

To further improve the isolation performance (S32 and S54)

between the out-of-phase output ports (such as port 2 and 3),
the isolation resistor embedded in slotline under the common
ground can be applied [25, 31]. As shown in Fig. 10, the
slotline (with a length lDs/2) with isolation resistor is
employed to improve the isolation between the out-of-phase
output ports located at the same output microstrip line. The
output microstrip line is bent in a ring shape and a slotline with
isolation resistor R0 is etched on the bottom layer, as shown in
Fig. 10. The length lr/2 is approximately quarter wavelength at
the central operating frequency [25] and the isolation resistor

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:1

Input

Zs,d
Zs,s

2Z0

Output

1:n

R/2

2Z0,m

2Z0

Input
Zs

1:n

Z0

Output

Z0

Output

Zs,s

O.C.

SL

ML

SL

ML

ML
(a)

(a)

n:1

Input
0

Zs,d
Zs,s

2Z0
, m
ML

SL

R/2

Zs/2 Zs/2,s

2Z0

SL

ML

(b)
Fig. 11 Equivalent circuit of the presented power divider for
microstrip/slotline in-phase power dividing: (a) even-mode circuit, (b)
odd-mode circuit.

R0 is located at the center of the slotline.

Output

1:n

Input

Output

1:n

Z0

ML

(b)
Fig. 12 Odd mode equivalent circuit of the presented power divider for
slotline/microstrip out-of-phase power dividing circuit (a) odd-mode analysis,
(b) odd-mode impedance matching circuit.

Then,

B. Microstrip/slotline in-phase power dividing

Apparently, the even- and odd-mode method can be
employed to analyze the presented power divider. Fig. 11(a)
shows the even-mode equivalent circuit of the presented power
divider for the microstrip/slotline in-phase power dividing. In
this case, no current flows through the air-bridge isolation
resistor R, since two signals with the same magnitude and
phase are applied to each output port. Hence, the circuit
element R can be omitted. In the bisected circuit, since the input
port impedance (2Z0) is equal to the output port impedance, a
simple impedance matching circuit (see Fig. 11(a)) is used.
Therefore, we can synthetize and optimize the microstrip-line
electrical length m of the extend portion, the slotline electrical
length s of the extend portion, the slotline electrical length d
between two adjacent microstrip lines at coupling point, the
slotline characteristic impedance Zs, and the microstrip-slotline
equivalent transformer turn ratio n to obtain reasonable levels
of insertion loss, input/output return losses, and isolation
between the output ports simultaneously.
Fig. 11(b) shows the odd mode circuit for the microstrip
/slotline in-phase power dividing. In this case, two signals with
the same magnitude and 180 out of phase are applied to two
output ports, and there is a voltage null along the symmetry
plane, where the power dividing circuit is symmetry with the
input microstrip feedline. To obtain good input/output
impedance matching and good isolation between the output
ports, the following relationship has to be satisfied

R 4Z 0
Z + 2Z 0 cot m tan d / n 2 j cot s
j s

= Zs
2
2
(2Z 0 cot m n Z s tan d )
n
2Z 0 R
(2)

R = 4Z 0

(3)

Equation (2) provides a simple guideline in selection of the

isolation resistor R.
C. Slotline/microstrip out-of-phase power dividing
The odd-mode equivalent circuit for the slotline/microstrip
out-of-phase power dividing circuit of the presented power
divider is shown in Fig. 12(a). In this case, two signals with the
same magnitude and phase are applied to each output port,
since no current flows through the common ground plane. Then,
the slotline (including the isolation resistors) etched on the
common ground plane can be omitted, as shown in Fig. 12(b).
According to the odd-mode impedance matching circuit shown
in Fig. 12(b), the condition for good input/output impedance
matching is given by

n 2 j cot s
2

=
Z0
Zs
Zs

(4)

Then, the slotline characteristic impedance Zs can be

determined by

Zs =

2
Z0
n2

(5)

In addition, according to equation (4), the following

expression can also be derived as

cot s = 0
Namely,

s = k 2 , (k = 0, 1, 2, )

(6)

According to equation (6), the slotline length ls of the extend

portion is about quarter-wavelength, which is compatible with
the above analysis (see section II) when d is very short.

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Z0,r

Z0,r

R0

Output

Cg

Output

ML
(a)

Input Z0,r

2R0
Cg/2

O.C.

(a)

Output
Z0
Z ine

(b)
Fig. 13 Even mode equivalent circuit of the presented power divider for
slotline/microstrip out-of-phase power dividing circuit (a) even-mode
analysis, (b) even-mode impedance matching circuit.

Equation (6) provides a simple guideline in selection of ls.

Fig. 13(a) shows the even-mode equivalent circuit of the
presented power divider for the slotline/microstrip
out-of-phase power dividing circuit, where two signals with the
same magnitude and 180 out of phase are applied to each
output port. In this case, no current flows through the input
slotline. The isolation resistor R0 is doubled ( 2R0 ) and the
slot gap capacitor C g is halved ( C g / 2 ). Fig. 13(b) shows the
even-mode impedance matching circuit for a bisection of the
slotline/microstrip out-of-phase power dividing circuit. Hence,
the input impedance Z ine can be given by

Z ine =

Z0
2 R0
+
j tan r 1 + jR0C g

(7)

where is the operating angular frequency and r=lr/m. To

obtain good impedance matching between the input impedance
Z ine and the output impedance Z 0 , the following condition has
to be satisfied:

Z 0 = Z ine =

Z0
2 R0
+
j tan r 1 + jR0Cg

(8)

Namely,

2 R0
= Z0
1 + ( R0C g ) 2

(9)

2 R02C g
Z0
=
tan r 1 + ( R0C g ) 2

(10)

According to equation (8) and (9), the following expression

(b)
Fig. 14 Photograph of the fabricated power divider with isolation resistors: (a)
top view, (b) bottom view.

can be derived as

Z0
(1 + cot r )
(11)
2
It can be seen that R0 = Z 0 / 2 when lr is equal to half
R0 =

wavelength, which provides a guideline in selection of lr. Then,

good impedance matching and isolation performance between
the output ports can be achieved for the slotline/microstrip
out-of-phase power dividing circuit when the above equation (8)
to (11) are satisfied. In addition, the parameters of the
slotline/microstrip out-of-phase power dividing circuit can also
be obtained according the above equations.
D. Simulated and measured results of the fabricated power
divider with isolation resistors
A wideband four-way out-of-phase slotline power divider
with improved isolation performance is designed according to
the above design method. It is difficult to simulate the
presented power divider with isolation resistors by using an
IE3D, which is suitable for the microwave circuit without
resistor. So, the commercial software CST MICROWAVE
STUDIO is used to simulate and optimize the proposed power
divider. The substrate used in the proposed power divider with
improved isolation is the same as that in the above power
divider without isolation resistors. The fabricated four-way

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-10

-5

Output Return Loss (dB)

-20

-30

-40

S11(measured)
S21(measured)
S31(measured)
S41(measured)
S51(measured)

S11(simulated)
S21(simulated)
S31(simulated)
S41(simulated)
S51(simulated)

6
7
8
Frequency (GHz)

10

-15
-20

Fig. 15 Simulated and measured S parameters of the fabricated power divider

with isolation resistors

mm, L g =1 mm, L D =15 mm, W

=0.2 mm, W

=0.96

mm, W D =0.6 mm. The values for the isolation resistors R

and R0 are 200 and 25 , respectively.
The simulated and measured results of the fabricated power
divider with isolation resistors are shown in Fig. 15, Fig. 16,
and Fig. 17. It can be seen that the measured results show a
reasonable agreement with the simulated ones over the
operating frequency range. The measured 10-dB return loss
bandwidth is found to be approximately 6.4 GHz (from 3.7 to
10.1 GHz) (see Fig. 15), while the simulated 10-dB return loss
bandwidth is from 3.8 to 9.6 GHz. The difference between the
simulated and measured results is most likely attributed to the
fabrication and assembly errors. The measured insertion losses
S21, S31, S41, and S51 are within 6.80.4 dB in a wide frequency
range from 3.9 to 9 GHz, as shown in Fig. 15.
Fig. 16(a) shows the simulated and measured output return
losses, while Fig. 16(b) shows the simulated and measured
isolation among the output ports. The measured output return
losses S22, S33, S44, and S55 are greater than 11 dB in the
frequency range from 3 to 10.4 GHz, while the simulated ones
are greater than 12.7 dB from 3 to 10.1 GHz, as shown in Fig.
16(a). Meanwhile, the simulated isolation between the output
ports is greater than 10.6 dB from 3.7 to 11 GHz, while the
simulated isolation S42 and S53 are greater than 15 dB from 3 to
9 GHz. Moreover, the measured isolation between the output
ports is greater than 10 dB from 3 to 10.8 GHz, while the
measured isolation S42 and S53 are greater than 13 dB from 3.2
to 8 GHz. Compared with the above power divider without

10

11

0
S32(simulated)
S42(simulated)
S52(simulated)
S43(simulated)
S53(simulated)
S54(simulated)

-5

Isolation (dB)

mm, g =0.2 mm, L s =8.4 mm, L m =7.3 mm, L r =14.7

6
7
8
Frequency (GHz)
(a)

S32(measured)
S42(measured)
S52(measured)
S43(measured)
S53(measured)
S54(measured)

-10

-15

-20

6
7
8
Frequency (GHz)

10

11

(b)
Fig. 16 Simulated and measured results of the proposed power divider with
isolation resistors: (a) output return losses, (b) isolation among the output ports

190

Phase Variation (degree)

out-of-phase slotline power divider with isolation resistors is

shown in Fig. 14, where port 1 indicates input port and ports
2-5 indicate the output ports. Similarly, the fabricated power
divider is compact with a size of 14.5 mm15 mm. The
dimensions for the fabricated power divider are found to be (as
illustrated in Fig. 2 and Fig. 10): d=1.8 mm, d 0 =0.3

S22(measured)
S33(measured)
S44(measured)
S55(measured)

-10

-25

11

S22(simulated)
S33(simulated)
S44(simulated)
S55(simulated)

10

185

S31- S41(measured)

180

S21- S31(measured)

175

170

6
7
8
Frequency (GHz)

-5

10

Phase Variation (degree)

Magnitude (dB)

-10
11

Fig. 17 Measured phase difference between the output ports

isolation resistors, the designed power divider with isolation

resistors has improved isolation performance. The isolation S32
and S54 have been greatly improved from less than 4 dB (see

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8
Fig. 7) to greater than 10 dB (see Fig. 16(b)) over the designed
frequency range. Since the isolation resistors and good
impedance matching circuit have been employed, good
input/output impedance matching and reasonable isolation
between the output ports can be achieved simultaneously.
The measured phase difference between different output
ports is shown in Fig. 17. The phase difference between S31
and S41 is about 02 over a wide frequency range from 3 to
10.5 GHz, while that betweenS21 and S31 is about 1802
from 3.1 to 10.9 GHz.

[7]

IV. CONCLUSION

[11]

Wideband four-way out-of-phase slotline power dividers

have been presented. The appropriate isolation circuits have
been developed to improve its isolation performance and
impedance matching of the output ports, while the
equivalent-circuit method has been used to analyze the
presented out-of-phase power dividers. The simulated and
measured results of two four-way out-of phase slotline power
dividers (without and with the isolation resistors) have shown
acceptable input impedance matching, low insertion loss, and
good amplitude balance. Moreover, the out-of-phase slotline
power divider with isolation resistors has also demonstrated
reasonable isolation among the output ports. It can be seen that
the presented slotline power dividers have the advantages of
compact size, wide operating bandwidth, good input/output
impedance matching, low insertion loss, good amplitude
balance at output ports, and reasonable isolation among the
output ports, which makes it very competitive in the practical
applications.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The work for this grant was supported by National Natural
Science Foundation of China (Grant No: 61271026), by the
Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University
(Grant No: NCET-11-0066), and by the Research Fund of
Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST201243).
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Millimeter Waves of China, and the Assistant Head of the Department of

Electronic Engineering. He has authored or coauthored over 180 internationally
refereed journal papers and over 70 international conference papers. He is
currently an Editor of International Journal of Antennas and Propagation. His
current research interests include microwave passive components, active
components, antenna, MMICs, radio frequency identification and RFICs, etc.
Dr. Xue is currently an Associate Editor of IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON
MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES and IEEE TRANSACTIONS
ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS.

Kaijun Song (M09-SM12) received the M.S.

degree in radio physics and the Ph.D. degree in
electromagnetic field and microwave technology
from University of Electronic Science and
Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu, China, in
2005 and 2007, respectively.
Since 2007, he has been with EHF Key
Laboratory of Science, UESTC, where he is
currently a Professor. From 2007 to 2008, he was a
postdoctoral research fellow with Montana Tech of
the University of Montana, Butte, USA. He was a
research fellow with State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves of China, City
University of Hong Kong from 2008 to 2010 and a senior visiting scholar in
November 2012. He has published more than 80 internationally refereed journal
papers. His current research fields include microwave and
millimeter-wave/THz power-combining technology; UWB circuits; and
microwave remote sensing technologies. He is the Reviewer of tens of
international journals, including IEEE Transactions and Letters.
Yuxia Mo graduated in electromagnetic field and
microwave technology from the University of Electronic
Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu,
China, in 2011 and is now pursing her M.S. Degree. Her
research interests include millimeter-wave/THz
power-combining
technology
and
microwave
/millimeter-wave devices, circuits and systems.

Yong Fan (M05) received the B.E. degree from

Nanjing University of Science and Technology,
Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, in 1985 and the M.S. degree
from University of Electronic Science and Technology
of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China, in 1992.
He is now with the School of Electronic Engineering,
University of Electronic Science and Technology of
China, where he is currently a full Professor. His
current research interests include electromagnetic
theory, millimeter-wave technology, communication
and system. He has authored and coauthored over 130
papers.
Mr. Fan is a senior member of the Chinese Institute of Electronics. He
received the first award of science and technology of national industry, the
second award of science and technology progress of ministry of electronic
industry, the third award of science and technology progress of ministry of
information industry, and the third award of science and technology progress of
Sichuan province (twice).
Quan Xue (M02-SM04-F11) received the B.S.,
M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electronic engineering
from University of Electronic Science and
Technology of China, Chengdu, China, in 1988, 1990,
and 1993, respectively.
Since 1999, he has been with City University of
Hong Kong, Hong Kong, where he is currently a
Professor, the Director of the Information and
Communication Research Center, the Deputy
Director of the State Key Laboratory (Hong Kong) of

Copyright (c) 2013 IEEE. Personal use is permitted. For any other purposes, permission must be obtained from the IEEE by emailing pubs-permissions@ieee.org.