A Wideband LTCC Quad-Phase Power Dividing Network and its Application to Ceramic-Based Quadrifilar Helix Antennas

Wei Qin,Lei Ge,Ling-Hua Shi,Wen-Jian Sun,Wen-Wen Yang,Jian-Xin Chen

doi:10.1109/access.2019.2942427

Abstract

A wideband LTCC quad-phase power dividing network, which owns one input and four outputs, is proposed in this paper. It is composed of a 1-to-4 Marchand balun and two 90° phase shifters so as to realize four outputs with equal amplitudes and 90° progressive phase shifts. An example, covering a frequency band from 1.2 GHz to 1.6 GHz, is designed for most frequency bands of the world's four satellite communication and navigation systems. The measured results show that the proposed power dividing network features good performance, such as an amplitude imbalance smaller than 0.8dB and a phase deviation within ±10°. For verification, two ceramic-based quadrifilar helix antennas (QHAs) fed by the proposed power dividing network are designed at 1.561 GHz with right-handed circular polarization (RHCP) and left-handed circular polarization (LHCP), respectively. Both QHAs owns superiorities in size, axial ratio (AR), beamwidth, cross-polarization discrimination, front- to-back ratio, which validates the function of the proposed power dividing network as well.

Highlights

Polarized antennas are widely applied in many communication systems, especially in the world’s four satellite communication and navigation systems [1]–[21]
A wideband quad-phase power dividing network for the quadrifilar helix antennas (QHAs), which is composed of a 1-to-4 Marchand balun and two 90◦ phase shifters, will be presented based on the Low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) technology for the first time
A wideband LTCC quad-phase power dividing network was designed for the feeding network of the QHAs

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Polarized antennas are widely applied in many communication systems, especially in the world’s four satellite communication and navigation systems [1]–[21]. W. Qin et al.: Wideband LTCC Quad-Phase Power Dividing Network and Its Application to Ceramic-Based QHAs. of the coaxial cables, as showing in Fig. 1 in [22]. LTCC quad-phase power dividing networks featuring good phase performance, compact size and wide operating band are highly demanded. A wideband quad-phase power dividing network for the QHA, which is composed of a 1-to-4 Marchand balun and two 90◦ phase shifters, will be presented based on the LTCC technology for the first time. Two 90◦ phase shifters are connected to the outputs of the 1-to-4 Marchand balun so as to provide the required 90◦ phase difference The S-parameters for the 1-to-4 Marchand balun in this design could be derived as follows:

ZL ZS

CONCLUSION