BRANCH LINE

DIRECTIONAL COUPLER

11/13/15

coupler

Branch line coupler

Objective
To obtain design specifications of branch line and directional
coupler.

Outcome

We get various parameters involved like impedances and

admittances along with the variation of various transmission
losses according to the normalized frequencies. such as..
Insertion Loss
Coupling Loss
Isolation Loss
Return Loss

Introduction
These are essentially power division network.
Four port network with having at least one plane
of symmetry.
Extensively used in antenna array feed systems.
Provides advantage of direct d.c. coupling in
active devices.
Forms building block for several other
components like balanced mixers, variable
attenuators, PIN diode phase shifters, directional
filters, duplexers, multiplexers etc.

BRANCH LINE DIRECTIONAL COUPLER DESIGN:

BASIC

PARAMETERS OF A COUPLER

Coupling C(dB) = -20 log10()

Directivity D(dB)= -20log10(|S34|)
Insertion Loss I(dB)= -10 log10()
Isolation Loss In(dB) = -10 log10()
Return Loss R(dB) = -10 log10()
Input VSWR =( 1+|S11|)/(1-|S11|)

S11e/s11o

S12e/S12o =
Subscript e or o refer to even or
odd mode excitations respectively

S11 = (S11e+S11o)/2
S12 = (S12e+S12o)/2
S13 = (S12e-S12o)/2
S14 = (S11e-S11o)/2
6

TWO STUB BRANCH LINE COUPLER

Design
A
two-stub branch line coupler is a fundamental
direct coupled structure in which the line is
directly bridged to the secondary line by means
of two shunt branches.
Length of each branch, l= one quarter
wavelength=

ABCD parameter is given by

For even mode
(e)= **;
T = tan( where

Design

Similarly for odd mode replace T by (1/T) and Yb by /(-Yb)

(o)= **;

Using these ABCD parameters in the formulas above shown

we get different scattering parameters and subsequently
use them to get different kind of transmission losses.

Result

10

Different transmission losses as a function of frequencies

Result

11

Return loss

Conclusion
All the above graphs plotted using matlab.
All other design specifications such as
admittances etc also be obtained using matlab.
Thus a very cheap source to study and design
couplers.

12

BACKWARD WAVE
COUPLERS

Introduction
Also called Parallel-Coupled Directional
Coupler.
Offers much larger bandwidth.
Forward-wave couplers can have same with
use of inhomogeneous medium.
Most commonly used is the TEM-mode
single section backward wave coupler.
Maximum coupling occurs when length of
coupling region = one quarter of
wavelength or its odd multiple

Why the name Backward

wave
Here the electric and magnetic field
interaction between the parallel coupled
conductors causes the coupled signal to
travel in direction opposite to that of the
input signal.

Analysis of backward wave coupler

TEM mode.
Determine voltage signals appearing
at four ports.
Ports are terminated in a constant
resistance Zc.
Ze & Zo are characteristic
impedances in even & odd mode
respectively.
Cv is midband coupling factor.

Design equations of a single section

Backward wave coupler

Specify:
Midband operating frequency: f0
Port impedances: Zc
Mean coupling in dB: -20log10Cv
Coupler Parameters:
Coupling length l = (
Ze= Zc{(1+Cv)/(1-Cv)}1/2
Zo= Zc{(1-Cv)/(1+Cv)}1/2
cont..

Cont

Frequency Response:
|V3/V1|2= (Cv2sin2)/(1-Cv2cos2) =/2)(
|V2/V1|2= (1-Cv2)/(1-Cv2cos2);
Coupling in dB= -20log10|V3/V1|

Conclusion
Solving the above formulas and using
them at different frequencies we can
obtain the variation of coupling with
frequencies. And also impedance
values in even and odd modes.

Power Dividers
INTRODUCTION
BASIC TWO WAY POWER DIVIDER
MATCHED POWER DIVIDER
POWER DIVIDER FOR UNEQUAL POWER
DIVISION

INTRODUCTION
DIRECTIONAL COUPLERS AND HYBRID RINGS CAN
BE USED AS TWO WAY POWER DIVIDERS BY
TERMINATING THE FOURTH PORT WHICH IS
ISOLATED PORT WITH MATCHED LOAD .
IN MANY MICROWAVE APPLICATIONS INPUT SIGNAL
IS REQUIRED TO BE DIVIDED INTO SEVERAL
EQUIAMPLITUDE,EQUIPHASE OUTPUT SIGNALS.
A MATCHED SYMMETRIC N-WAY POWER DIVIDER
WHICH GIVES NEITHER AMPLITUDE NOR PHASE
IMBALANCE AT ANY FREQUENCY AND N-WAY
POWER COMBINER WHICH IS SIMPLY REVERSING
INPUT AND OUTPUT PORTS.

BASIC TWO WAY POWER DIVIDER

P1

P2= nP1

P
1

divider

P3=(1-n)P1

P2

combiner

P3=P1+P2

When port 1 be a matched input port and power

incident at port 1 is equally divided between the
output ports 2 and 3 then phase 21 and 31 of s21
and s31 can be equalized to zero by properly
selecting the reference planes
The scattering matrix can be written as

S11
S S 21
S31

S12
S 22
S32

S13
S 23
S 33

S23 S32

 By applying the unitary condition we

can show
S22 S23and
that

| S22 | | S33 | | S |
23

1/2

MATCHED POWER DIVIDER

When an isolation resistor of value 2Zc between

ports 2 and 3 the device is perfect matched at all the
three ports, and ports 2 and 3 are isolated from each
other at the center frequency.

The overall scattering matrix of the device is

as follows

The design formulas for obtaining the resistor

values for this two section case are given by

Excitations of the power divider from port 1 and port 3 and

their equivalent circuits are given below

Power Divider for Unequal

Power Division

Diagram

 With Port 1 as input port, Power

division between ports 3 and 2 be in
the ratio
The Voltages in arms 2 and 3
equidistant from port 1 must be
equal.
To ensure no voltage drop in Isolation
Resistor

Design Formulas

When Z1 is not included

HYBRID RING
Hybrid ring coupler is a four port network
in which the two output signals are either
in phase or 180 degrees out of phase
depending on the choice of input arm
Mean circumference of the ring is
where
is the wavelength in the
transmission medium at mid-band
frequency

 If 12
is the mean electrical length
at
, then

 The electrical length at frequency f is

given by

For analysis, taking advantage of

symmetry along PP , consider one
symmetric half with open circuit at
PP (even mode excitation) and short
circuit at PP(odd mode excitation).
Where
,
,
and
input
admittance of stub of length 3
and for even and odd mode

 One half of the hybrid ring coupler

for the purpose of analysis and its
equivalent circuit

 Elements of [S0] are obtained by

replacing Ya by Ya
In even mode we excite ports 1 and
4 by voltages V/2

In odd mode, port 1 is excited by

voltage V/2 and port 4 by voltage
V/2

 For matched condition at input, S11 =

0
=>
Scattering parameters are reduced
to

Scattering matrix is given by

Rat race hybrid

The rat race hybrid is a special case
of hybrid ring when Ya = Yb = Yc/2

 The scattering matrix is given by

Wide band rat race hybrid

The three quarter wavelength
section is replaced by a quarter
wavelength coupled line section with
diametrically opposite ends short
circuited
This coupled line section is basically
a bandpass filter element and
approximates a phase-reversing
network over a wide frequency range

Wide band rat race hybrid

 Image impedance at = /2 is given by

Where Ze and Zo are even and odd mode

impedances
For matched condition , we have

Where Zr is the characteristic impedance of

the remaining section of the ring made of
single strip conductor

 From Zi and Zr we get

To realize 30.3 dB coupling over an

octave bandwidth, Zr must be chosen
corresponding to 3.3 dB coupling at
midband
Or
with this value of Zr, the hybrid
offers minimum of 20dB isolation & the ring outputs
maintain 180 phase difference within 15 over the
octave bandwidth