Equal-split Wilkinson Power Divider Research Articles

Minkowski–Sierpinski Fractal Structure-Inspired 2 × 2 Antenna Array for Use in Next-Generation Wireless Systems

In this paper, the design, simulation, fabrication, and characterization study of a low-cost and directional hybrid four-element (2 × 2 configuration) Minkowski–Sierpinski fractal antenna array (MSFAA) for the high-efficiency IEEE 802.11ax WLANs (Wi-Fi 6E) and the sub-6 GHz 5G wireless system is presented. Each element of the array is separated by 0.7 λ0. The complete four-element fractal antenna array system includes designing the single-element Minkowski–Sierpinski fractal antenna using two different substrates for performance comparison and an equal-split Wilkinson power divider (WPD) to achieve power division and to form a feed network. The single-element antenna, four-element fractal antenna array, and WPDs are fabricated using a flame-resistant (FR4) glass epoxy substrate with a dielectric constant (εr) of 4.3 and thickness (h) of 1.66 mm. For performance comparison, a high-end Rogers thermoset microwave material (TMM4) substrate is also used, having εr = 4.5 and h = 1.524mm, respectively. The designed four-element fractal antenna array operates at the dual-band frequencies of 4.17 and 5.97 GHz, respectively. The various performance parameters of the antenna array, such as return loss, bandwidth, gain, and 2D and 3D radiation patterns, are analyzed using CST Microwave Studio. The fabricated four-element antenna array provides the bandwidth and gain characteristic of 85 MHz/4.19 dB and 182 MHz/9.61 dB at 4.17 and 5.97 GHz frequency bands, respectively. The proposed antenna array design gives an improvement in the bandwidth, gain, and radiation pattern in the boresight at both frequencies. In the IEEE 802.11 ax WLANs (Wi-Fi 6E) deployments and the upcoming 5G wireless and satellite communication systems, it is critical to have directional antenna arrays to focus the radiated power in any specific direction. Therefore, it is believed that the proposed dual-band four-element fractal antenna array with directional radiation patterns can be an ideal candidate for the high-efficiency IEEE 802.11ax WLANs (Wi-Fi 6E) and the upcoming 5G wireless and satellite communication systems.

1×4 Dielectric Resonator Antenna Array with Corporate Feed for C-Band RADAR

A four element 1×4 dielectric resonator antenna array with corporate feed structure has been designed and investigated in this paper. microstrip feed has been used to power the corporate feed structure. Proposed antenna radiates at the C-band frequency of 6.5GHz which is widely used for the RADAR applications. For the design of corporate feed equal split Wilkinson power divider concept is been used. Arlon material has been used as base to the antenna which is having a thickness of 0.79mm. Proposed antenna is having a gain of 12dB. From the return loss and smith chart plots we can observed the impedance matching characteristics of the antenna array. A beam width of 250 is obtained with a SLL of 15dB which is best acceptable for array applications.

Design method of dual-band Wilkinson power divider with improved out-of-band rejection performance and high design flexibility

In this paper, a dual-band two-way equal-split Wilkinson power divider (PD) with improved out-of-band rejection and high design flexibility is proposed. The proposed structure is an originally configured impedance transformer that is composed of two impedance matching lines and a short-circuited composite right-/left handed (CRLH) transmission line (TL) stub. CRLH-TL replaces the requirement of quarter-wavelength impedance transformer and also shows the high design flexibility in proposed PDs. The characteristic impedance of composed RH-TL and LH-TL only affects the bandwidth of two pass-bands that assure high design flexibility. Whereas, π phase response in two pass-bands of short-circuited stub is attributed to the improved out-of-band rejection performance. The detailed theoretical analysis indicates the selected range of the two centre frequencies is influenced by CRLH-TL impedance matching line. The proposed dual-band PD centred at 0.90 GHz and 2.45 GHz design is theoretically calculated, simulated and fabricated. The obtained results verify that the proposed design method is having high design flexibility and good out-of-band rejection.

An Enhanced Frequency-Ratio Coupled-Line Dual-Frequency Wilkinson Power Divider

This brief presents a novel design of a dual-band equal split Wilkinson power divider. It is based around a single coupled line section as core and uses stub-based port matching networks at each of the ports. It then incorporates only one isolation resistor, which is independent of frequency-ratio, for achieving perfect isolation. Closed form design equations are developed for the general analysis of the power divider and design case studies are provided to evaluate the proposed design. The developed prototypes for frequency-ratios of 2 and 7 show a good agreement between the electromagnetic simulated and measured results and thus validate the reported theory.

Simulation, design of unequal five way wilkinson power divider for EW applications

This paper deals with the design and simulation of unequal 5-way Wilkinson power divider used for Electronic Warfare (EW) applications. The frequency range of operation intended for this design is 6 GHz to 18 GHz. The proposed Wilkinson power divider is designed on a low cost FR-4 substrate having height of 1.5mm, relative permittivity of 4.4 and loss tangent of 0.02. The design occupies a size of 11mm x 33 mm x 1. 5 mm. Equal split Wilkinson power dividers are utilized for implementation of this design. High isolation has been obtained throughout the frequency range of 6 GHz to 18 GHz. The design procedure is discussed. The simulated results are presented by using ADS simulation software.

Design and development of vivaldi antenna array for wind profiler RADAR application

AbstractWind velocity profile are required for the study of atmospheric phenomena and weather forecasting. Atmospheric radar is a remote sensing instruments, which can observe the air motion of the troposphere with high degrees of accuracy. Wind Profile Radar (WPR) can provide the three dimensional profile of wind velocities and wind direction of each layer of atmosphere in real time and has become crucial to the world today. In this article, the Vivaldi antenna array is designed and developed for WPR that would operate at center frequency of 1.35 GHz and the VSWR <2 over frequency range from 1.25 to 1.45 GHz and also to design and develop 1:4 equal Split Wilkinson Power divider. The microstrip design is optimized and utilized in a corporate‐feeding network for an antenna array. The return loss, coupling, and isolation between the ports of power divider are evaluated to determine the design. Antenna array and the power divider network are mounted back to back on Aluminum plate. VSWR <2 over the band and isolation between outputs ports of power divider are critical design requirements.

Novel balanced composite right‐/left‐handed unit and its application in multiband power divider

ABSTRACTA novel balanced composite right‐/left‐handed (B‐CRLH) unit is proposed and discussed. The B‐CRLH structure is composed of two inverted L‐type lines and two parallel rows of interdigital strips that are vertical to the two L‐type lines, respectively. Dispersion relation of the structure features a balanced property and a nonlinear phase response. To characterize this structure, the T‐type equivalent circuit model is established and verified by simulation. Compared with the traditional CRLH unit of the same dimension, this symmetric configuration, eliminating the undesired resonances occurred in interdigital strips, achieves wider operating bandwidth. According to the electromagnetic characteristics of the proposed structure, multiband equal split Wilkinson power dividers are realized by replacing the quarter‐wavelength transmission line with B‐CRLH units. In addition, a dual‐band power divider (PD), a quad‐band PD and a sextuple‐band PD based on the novel B‐CRLH units are designed, fabricated, and measured. Good agreement is achieved between the simulated and measured results. The experimental results show that the dual‐band PD based on one B‐CRLH unit operates at 2.16 and 3.54 GHz, and the two bandwidths can reach 34 and 25.2%. The operation frequencies of the quad‐band PD based on two B‐CRLH units are 1.49, 2.12, 2.89, and 3.72 GHz, with the input return loss better than 14 dB. The sextuple‐band PD denotes equal power division at 1.34, 1.71, 2.19, 2.77, 3.40, and 4.03 GHz, which includes three B‐CRLH units. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 59:1100–1107, 2017

General design of impedance‐varying multi‐way Wilkinson power divider with bandwidth redefinition characteristics

In this article, a general design methodology of a multi-way compact equal split Wilkinson power divider (WPD) with bandwidth redefinition characteristics and planar structure is proposed. Quarter-wave matching uniform transmission lines in the conventional design are replaced with non-uniform transmission lines (NTLs) governed by a truncated Fourier series. Even mode analysis is adopted to obtain NTLs with predefined bandwidth functionalities; whereas several isolation resistors are optimized in the odd mode analysis to achieve proper isolation and output ports matching over the frequency range of interest. Compactness is achieved by incorporating only one quarter-wave wideband NTL transformer, with a length computed at the center frequency, in each arm. Two 3-way WPDs with different frequency bands (i. e., 5-9 GHz and 4-10 GHz) and one 5-9 GHz 4-way divider examples are designed and simulated. Furthermore, a wideband 3-way WPD operating over 4-10 GHz band is fabricated and measured. Results show input and output ports matching and isolation below −15 dB, and transmission parameters in the range of [–4.9,–6.2] dB and [–6,–7.5] dB across the operating band of the 3-way and 4-way WPDs, respectively.

A New Simplified Approach for Design of Dual-Band Wilkinson Power Divider with Two and Three Transmission Line Sections Using Only Even-Mode Analysis

In this paper, design of dual-band equal-split Wilkinson power divider (WPD) with two and three transmission line (TL) sections is tackled from the perspective of a new simplified mathematical approach as compared to the previously presented work. It is mathematically proven and experimentally verified that only even-mode circuit analysis suffices for outlining the design guidelines for such WPDs which greatly reduces the mathematical complexity. Owing to the cascaded nature of the TL sections and using even-mode analysis, firstly, design equations and design graph are drawn for the two TL sections WPD. The technique is then extended to the design of a three TL sections WPD with simplifications in the circuit, rendering the approach much simpler and mathematically less rigorous (as compared to the previous work). The comparisons of the proposed and previous design approach are drawn. To prove the efficacy of the presented simplified design approach, a two TL sections and a three TL sections WPD are designed at 1GHz and 2.4GHz and fabricated. The measured S-parameters show good conformance with the simulated results indicating practical viability of the presented simplified approach. For instance the insertion loss in the two and three TL section is better than 3.2dB. The return loss and isolation between the ports in two TL sections WPD come out to be better than 28dB and 29dB, and in three TL sections is better than 30dB and 29dB respectively at the two design frequencies.

New Wilkinson Power Dividers and Their Integration Applications to Four-Way and Filtering Dividers

This paper involved developing two (Type I and Type II) equal-split Wilkinson power dividers (WPDs). The Type I divider can use two short uniform-impedance transmission lines, one resistor, one capacitor, and two quarter-wavelength ( \(\lambda/4 \) ) transformers in its circuit. Compared with the conventional equal-split WPD, the proposed Type I divider can relax the two \(\lambda/4 \) transformers and the output ports layout restrictions of the conventional WPD. To eliminate the number of impedance transformers, the proposed Type II divider requires only one impedance transformer attaining the optimal matching design and a compact size. A compact four-way equal-split WPD based on the proposed Type I and Type II dividers was also developed, facilitating a simple layout, and reducing the circuit size. Regarding the divider, to obtain favorable selectivity and isolation performance levels, two Butterworth filter transformers were integrated in the proposed Type I divider to perform filter response and power split functions. Finally, a single Butterworth filter transformer was integrated in the proposed Type II divider to demonstrate a compact filtering WPD.

A novel design of dual-band Wilkinson power divider with simple structure and wide band-ratios characteristics

The design and analysis of a dual-band equal-split Wilkinson power divider are presented in this paper. It is proved that a coupled line with a pair of stubs structure is capable of the dual-band operation in the Wilkinson power divider. Moreover, the overall structure of power divider can be simplified with small number of transmission line sections using the proposed method, and the proposed divider can achieve dual-band operation over a wide range of band-ratios. For verification, a microwave power divider operating at 1 and 2.5 GHz is fabricated, and the experimental results show that the designed power divider fulfills all the features of a conventional Wilkinson power divider, such as an equal power split and impedance matching at ports.

Dual- and Triple-Band Wilkinson Power Dividers Based on Composite Right- and Left-Handed Transmission Lines

This paper presents dual- and triple-band equal-split Wilkinson power dividers (WPDs) based on composite right- and left-handed transmission lines. Good isolation between output ports and impedance matching at input ports are achieved simultaneously at all pass-band frequencies for both dual- and triple-band WPDs. The theoretical closed-form design equations are derived, and the design allows a wide range of flexibility for the allocations of the passbands. To verify the proposed design, two prototypes are fabricated and measurements show good agreement with simulated data. The first design is a triple-band WPD with passbands centered at 0.8, 1.3, and 1.85 GHz, and the second one is a dual-band WPD with passbands centered at 0.7 and 1.5 GHz. The triple-band divider has a length of 0.66 wavelengths in the substrate and is more compact comparing to traditional WPDs. The dual-band power divider is designed to have a wide fractional bandwidth with more than 20% at the lower passband and 41% at the upper passband. Measurements also show a good insertion loss at each input port, which is less than 3.6 dB at the center of each passband.

A Novel Wilkinson Power Divider for Dual-Band Operation

The design and analysis of a dual-band equal-split Wilkinson power divider are presented in this paper. The structure of the power divider and the formulas used to determine the design parameters have been given. The divider has two output ports shifted away from the isolation resistor to the open stub. As a result, the bandwidth can be enhanced obviously for small band-ratios. Closed-form design equations are derived using even- and odd-mode formulation. For verification, a microwave power divider operating at 1 and 2 GHz is fabricated, the experimental results show that the designed power divider fulfills all the features of a conventional Wilkinson power divider, such as an equal power split and impedance matching at ports.

Tri-Band Wilkinson Power Divider Using a Three-Section Transmission-Line Transformer

The analysis and design of a triple-band equal-split Wilkinson power divider are described. The circuit proposed is well matched and isolated at three arbitrary frequencies. The design procedure for the three-section transmission-line transformer based equal-split Wilkinson power divider derived from the ideal transmission-line model is provided. Simulated and experimental results in microstrip technology are presented to verify the idea and the derived equations

A dual CP slot antenna using a modified Wilkinson power divider configuration

A dual circularly polarized (CP) slot antenna based on a proposed equal-split Wilkinson power divider is presented. An offset-fed slot antenna, which was analyzed using the method of moments together with a mixed potential integral equation, was used to replace the lumped resistor in the divider. A dual CP slot antenna operating at S-band was designed and demonstrated experimentally. The antenna possessed a return loss bandwidth of 39.3%, an isolation bandwidth of 10% for VSWR <2, and 3-dB axial ratio bandwidth of 28%.