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An Analytical Report on the IEEE Microwave

and Wireless Components Letter titled
‘Two-Section Cascaded Coupled Line Wilkinson
Power Divider for Dual-Band Applications’
By Myun–Joo Park

…RF & MICROWAVE

ENGINEERING
ASSIGNMENT…

Mayank Agrawal
06BEC145
Nilanjan Guha
06BEC157
 IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letter

An Analytical Report on the IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letter titled
‘Two-Section Cascaded Coupled Line Wilkinson Power Divider for Dual-Band Applications’
By Myun–Joo Park

Mayank Agrawal
Nilanjan Guha

INTRODUCTION
In the present paper, an attempt has been made to utilize the functional capabilities of a Wilkinson
Power Divider to design a prototype for a dual band power divider working for two different frequency
ranges namely, at 900 MHz and 2.5 GHz. Normally, for such operations the suitable options are
generally a parallel RLC circuit, multi sectional cascade, modified stub lines or extended ports. However
the inherent properties of a Wilkinson Power Divider which are explained later make it a highly useful
tool to be utilized in such applications with certain modifications.

THE WILKINSON POWER DIVIDER

In the field of microwave engineering and circuit design, the Wilkinson Power Divider is a specific class
of power divider circuit that can achieve isolation between the output ports while maintaining a
matched condition on all ports. The Wilkinson design can also be used as a power combiner because it is
made up of passive components and hence reciprocal. The scattering parameters for the common case
of a 2-way equal-split Wilkinson power divider at the design frequency is given by

−𝑗 0 1 1
𝑆 = 1 0 0
2 1 0 0
Inspection of the S matrix reveals that the network is reciprocal (S ij = Sji), that the terminals are matched
(S11, S22, S33 = 0), that the output terminals are isolated (S23, S32=0), and that equal power division is
achieved (S21 = S31). The non-unitary matrix results from the fact that the network is lossy.
No loss occurs when the signals at ports 2 and 3 are in phase.

DESIGN ESSENTIALS

The dual band feature is harnessed by modifying the existing power divider design by a introducing a
coupled line. Two section cascaded coupled line structure is proposed and analyzed for the applications.
the dual band operation is completely controlled by the coupled line parameter only, without any
additional components such as stub lines. This simplifies the general architecture of the entire divider by
a huge margin with the small number of transmission line sections and the use of coupled lines.
𝑃3
The coupling factor is defined as: C3,1 = -10log 𝑃1 dB

where P1 is the input power at port 1 and P3 is the output power from the coupled port

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 IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letter

The coupling factor represents the

primary property of a directional
coupler. Coupling is not constant,
but varies with frequency. While
different designs may reduce the
variance, a perfectly flat coupler
theoretically cannot be built.
Directional couplers are specified
in terms of the coupling accuracy
at the frequency band center. For
example, a 10 dB coupling +/- 0.5
dB means that the directional
coupler can have 9.5 dB to 10.5 dB
coupling at the frequency band
center. The accuracy is due to
dimensional tolerances that can be
held for the spacing of the two coupled lines. Another coupling specification is frequency sensitivity. A
larger frequency sensitivity will allow a larger frequency band of operation. Multiple quarter-
wavelength coupling sections are used to obtain wide frequency bandwidth directional couplers.
Typically this type of directional
coupler is designed to a frequency
bandwidth ratio and a maximum
coupling ripple within the frequency
band. For example a typical 2:1
frequency bandwidth coupler design
that produces a 10 dB coupling with a
+/- 0.1 dB ripple would, using the
previous accuracy specification, be said
to have 9.6 +/- 0.1 dB to 10.4 +/- 0.1 dB
of coupling across the frequency range.

The actual architecture of the circuit

consists of two coupled line sections
cascaded in series and a lumped
resistor between the two output ports.
The two coupled line sections are the central element in the proposed divider enabling the dual-band
operation. The dual band characteristics of the divider are determined by the coupled line parameters
only. The lumped resistor r is required for the matching and isolation of the divider and is not directly
involved in controlling the dual-band operation because it is designed with a fixed value for all operating
conditions.
As can be seen in the figure, the overall structure of the divider is very simple and is quite similar to that
of the conventional quarter-waveWilkinson divider, with the quarter-wave lines replaced by the two

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 IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letter

cascaded coupled line sections. The even-odd analysis for the conventional Wilkinson divider [1] also
applies to the proposed divider with the equivalent half circuits in Fig. 2. For the analysis purposes, all of
the impedances in the divider are normalized to the port impedance.

DESIGN EQUATIONS

If the proposed divider is to be matched at the input port, the even mode half circuit of the divider
should be matched at the input. This condition is imposed by matching the input admittance seen from
port 1 to its characteristic impedance 2 with port 2 matched in the even mode equivalent half circuit in
Fig. 2(a)

The two output ports of the divider should be matched and isolated from each other. This requires the
output ports of both the even mode [Fig. 2(a)] and the odd mode [Fig. 2(b)] half circuits to be matched.
Port 2 of these half circuits are matched to their characteristic impedance 1 for this purpose. The output
matching condition for the even mode half circuit in Fig. 2(a) yields

Similarly, the output matching condition for the odd mode half circuit in Fig. 2(b) yields

The value of the isolation resistor r is easily found from (3)

This value is fixed in all conditions and therefore the resistor has no control over the dual-band
operation of the divider.
The coupled line impedances are obtained from (1)–(3) with the line length θ as a parameter

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 IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letter

As the solutions in (5) are even in tan θ, the dual-band operation can be achieved with the following
choice of the line electrical lengths [6]

where θ1 and θ2 are the line electrical lengths at two bands frequencies f1 and f2, respectively. In
designing a dual-band divider with the
desired band-ratio f2/f1, the line
electrical lengths are determined
according to (8). Then the even mode
impedances z1e,z2e of the coupled lines
are uniquely determined from the line
length using (5) and (6). There is one
degree of freedom in choosing the odd
mode impedances z1o,z2o using (7) and
this can be used to control the relative
coupling levels of the coupled line
sections.

SIMULATION

The simulation was carried out on AWR Microwave office v7.5 with the given parameters as specified by
the designer. However, following the general element constraints in the available library in the software,
the recommended substrate material Teflon couldn’t be used. Instead, Copper with a resistivity of
5.8x10-7 mho-m was selected with has its inherent property close to Teflon. The dimensional
parameters of the Microstrip and the transmission lines were calculated using the inbuilt tool Tx Line
Calculator by the given physical values of the corresponding impedance, electrical length and substrate
thickness.

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RESULT
The various parameter like ‘coupling coefficient and normalized line impedance with changing
band ratio ’ regarding the two section cascaded and coupled line Wilkinson power divider for dual band
application taken out through the proposed design equations and the respective graphs are shown
below. Now our analysis and the following outputs are:
1. Analysis of the coupling of first line section C1 with the different coupling level of second coupled
line section C2 with respect to changing band ratio retrieve the following :
 The required line coupling is reduced with fixed C2.
 At fixed band ratio the increment in C2 requires larger C1 value.
 So preferred to keep the coupling C2 at low level why because to prevent C1 increments at small
band-ratio.
 As we go for the power divider one with uncoupled second line(C2=0) section to have smallest
coupling level C1 .to get this:
 z2o=Z2e (makes second line section uncoupled)
 As the band ratio increases the Z1e decreases while Z1o increases.therefore C1 decreases with
band ratio.
 If we keep all the line uncoupled this power divider turns to conventional quarterwave
Wilkinson power divider.
3- With all band ratio and coupling analysis we do our operation for F2/F1>2.13 and C1< -6db.
4- Prototype Wilkinson power divider specifications:
 F1/F2=900 MHz /2.45 GHz.
 At electrical length 48.4o and on 900 mhz, z1e=1.465,z1o=1.079,z2e=z2o=1.365

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 IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letter

 Which results at C2=0 and C1= -16.4 db.

 The dual band operation is clearly observed around 900 mhz and 2.45ghz and the measured
results are:

Parameter Symbol Value At 900mhz Values At 2.45ghz

Input Matching S11 -27.5db -26.9db
Output Matching S22=S33 -36.1db -26.2db
The Isolation S23 -33.1db -50.8db
The Transmission S21=S31 -3.08db -3.08db
The rest can be analyzed from the graph shown. The simulated graph follows the necessary traits of the
theoretical predictions. The scattering gain as observed from Port 3 is damped at the frequencies 900
MHz and 2.45 GHz.

CONCLUSION

A dual band operation scheme is proposed for the Wilkinson power divider. Coupled lines are
employed effectively for the dual-band operation for the above. The proposed two cascaded coupled
line section dividers are very simple in structure and can be implemented in compact circuit size.

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