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Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Electronics and

Communications (AE)
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/aeue

A novel two section branch line coupler employing different

transmission line techniques

Q1

K.V. Phani Kumar , Rusan Kumar Barik, S.S. Karthikeyan

Department of Electronics Engineering, Indian Institute of Information Technology Design and Manufacturing, Kancheepuram, Chennai 600127, India

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a r t i c l e

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i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 30 July 2015
Accepted 26 February 2016

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Keywords:
Compact
Wideband
Harmonic suppression
Branch line coupler
Multiple asymmetric -shaped
transmission line

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1. Introduction

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In this paper, a 3 dB wideband branch line coupler with reduced size and harmonic suppression is presented. New multiple asymmetric -shaped, cross and T-shaped transmission line techniques are used
to reduce the physical size of the coupler. At the operating frequency of f0 = 0.9 GHz, the fabricated
coupler achieves 15 dB return loss bandwidth of 44.4% with a size reduction of 76.3%. The designed
coupler has insertion loss better than 3.6 dB with a magnitude balance of 0 1 dB over the frequency
band 0.671.05 GHz. In addition to compact design, the unwanted harmonics are well suppressed up to
4f0 with a level better than 20 dB by maintaining good agreement between the measured results and
theoretical predictions.
2016 Published by Elsevier GmbH.

Branch line coupler is one of the basic circuit components

in microwave and millimeter wave communication systems
and widely used in many applications such as power dividers,
power combiners, balanced mixers, image rejection mixers and
balanced ampliers. Modern communication systems require compact, broadband and cost-efcient components. Therefore, size
reduction, bandwidth enhancement, cost reduction and high performance are the essential requirements for the design of branch
line couplers (BLCs). The bandwidth of single section branch line
coupler comprises of four quarter wavelength transmission line
sections is very less. In order to improve the bandwidth, several
sections have been cascaded [1,2]. But the cascaded sections occupy
larger area at lower microwave frequencies. To design a compact
BLC, several size reduction techniques have been proposed, such as
high impedance transmission lines and interdigitated shunt capacitors [3], partially meandered lines and dual transmission lines [4],
recursively loaded stubs [5], meander T- shaped lines [6], folding
technique and surrogate-based optimization (SBO) [7], etc. A compact broad band branch line coupler using parallel capacitance and
stepped impedance transmission line is reported in [8]. Quarter
wavelength open circuited coupled lines are used to realize a wideband 3 dB branch line coupler with a fractional bandwidth of 49%
[9]. In [10], a wideband BLC is proposed using nonuniform lines

Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9789084959.

E-mail address: edm13d001@iiitdm.ac.in (K.V. Phani Kumar).

governed by a truncated Fourier series, but the reported design is

occupying a large area of 0.25g 0.75g . Mixed type branch line
couplers utilizing T-shaped and Pi-shaped structures with shunt
capacitors and open stubs are reported in [11]. The 15 dB return
loss bandwidth of the demonstrated mixed type three-branch coupler is 26.3% only and the 3 dB power division is also very poor. A
three-branch hybrid designed using lumped distributed elements
obtained a fractional bandwidth of 45% [12]. By combining various
size reduction techniques like meander line, cross and two step
stubs, a compact BLC with fractional bandwidth of 50% is proposed
in [13]. A transmission line consisting of single stepped impedance
and multiple stepped impedance structures is utilized to design a
two section branch line coupler with a fractional bandwidth of 31%
and offers size reduction above 60% [14]. Recently, a three section
branch line coupler is realized using triple open complementary
split ring resonator and open stubs [15]. The proposed coupler occupied an area of 17.46% of the conventional one and the fractional
bandwidth obtained is 53%. In this work, a new multiple asymmetric -shaped structure is proposed to reduce the size and improve
the performance of microwave devices like power dividers and couplers. To validate the size reduction capability of the proposed unit,
the horizontal quarter wavelength transmission lines of the conventional two section BLC are replaced using multiple asymmetric
-shaped structure. The designed BLC obtained a size reduction of
72.2%. Furthermore, to reduce the size of the coupler, T-shaped and
cross-shaped equivalent lines are used to replace the side vertical
branches and the center vertical branch respectively. A wideband
branch line coupler operating at 0.9 GHz is simulated, fabricated
and tested. The measured results shows that the 2nd, 3rd and 4th

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aeue.2016.02.011
1434-8411/ 2016 Published by Elsevier GmbH.

Please cite this article in press as: Phani Kumar KV, et al. A novel two section branch line coupler employing different transmission line
techniques. Int J Electron Commun (AE) (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aeue.2016.02.011

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Fig. 1. Layout of (a) conventional transmission line, (b) asymmetric -shaped transmission line and (c) multiple asymmetric -shaped transmission line.
Fig. 2. Design curves for (a) Z1 versus  1 and (b) Z2 versus  2 (Z0 = 50  and  = 90 ).
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harmonics are suppressed with a level better than 20 dB and the

prototype occupies only 23.7% area of the conventional one.

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2. Proposed multiple asymmetric -shaped structure

analysis and design of BLC

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2.1. Multiple asymmetric -shaped transmission line

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where
1

j tan 2

1
T1 =
Z2

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(1)

cos 1

j sin 1
T2 =
Z1

jZ 1 sin 1
cos 1

(2)

(3)

1
j tan 3
Z3

(4)

Now the ABCD matrix of the quarter wavelength transmission line

can be written as

A0

B0

j
C0 D0 =

Z0

jZ 0
0

Z1 =

Z2 =

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(5)

Then by equating (1) and (5), Z1 and Z2 can be solved as

C D = T1 T2 T3 T3 T2 T1

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T3 =

Fig. 1(b) shows the layout of a asymmetric -shaped transmission line. It consists of two shunt open stubs (Z2 ,  2 ) and (Z3 ,
 3 ) separated by a series transmission line (Z1 ,  1 ). The multiple asymmetric -shaped transmission line is obtained by back to
back connection of two asymmetric -shaped transmission lines as
shown in Fig. 1(c). To replace the conventional quarter wavelength
transmission line with the proposed unit, the ABCD matrices of the
conventional and the proposed transmission lines must be equated
to obtain the equivalent impedance relations.
The ABCD matrix of the structure in Fig. 1(c) can be represented
as

Z0
sin 21 2Ksin2 1 tan 3
Z0 tan 2
cos 21 K sin 21 tan 3

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(6)

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(7)

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where K=Z1 /Z3

The transcendental Eqs. (6) and (7) are solved graphically. These
provide the design curves for the impedances and electrical lengths
of the equivalent multiple asymmetric -shaped structure. For a
90 transmission line with impedance 50 , Fig. 2(a) represents
Z1 plotted against electrical length  1 for three different values of
 3 and likewise Fig. 2(b) shows Z2 versus  2 for a ratio of  2 / 1
and three different values of  3 . From (6), considering K = 1 and
 3 = 45 , the equivalent impedances of the multiple asymmetric 
shaped structure for Z0 = 50  are obtained as Z1 = Z3 = 141.9  for
 1 = 14 and Z2 = 64.3  is obtained from (7) by choosing  1 = 14
and  2 = 28 . The proposed unit electrical length is 28 and is 68.89%
smaller than the conventional 50  quarter wavelength transmission line.

Please cite this article in press as: Phani Kumar KV, et al. A novel two section branch line coupler employing different transmission line
techniques. Int J Electron Commun (AE) (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aeue.2016.02.011

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Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of the conventional two-section BLC.

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2.2. Design of wideband BLC

Fig. 3 shows the schematic diagram of the traditional two section
wideband branch line coupler. The optimized impedance values are
ZA = 38 , ZB = 106  and ZC = 50  [2]. All transmission lines are
quarter-wavelength long at the operating frequency.
To make this circuit compact, the conventional quarter
wavelength transmission lines are replaced by their equivalent
structures.
The proposed unit is utilized to replace the 38  horizontal
transmission line. In order to avoid overlapping or intersection of
stubs at the junctions, the shunt stubs should be meandered and
also to accommodate all the stubs within the unused space of BLC
geometry, the width of the stubs should be less. By xing 45 
is the minimum shunt stub impedance feasible for meandering
using Rogers RT/duroid 5870 substrate with r = 2.33 and height
0.787 mm, following the analysis in Section 2.1, from (6), considering K = 1 and  3 = 45 , the equivalent impedances are obtained
as Z1 = Z3 = 115.5  for  1 = 12.5 . The impedance Z2 = 45.36  is
obtained from (7) by choosing  1 = 12.5 and  2 = 30 . The total
series electrical length of the equivalent unit is 25 only. Table 1
shows the comparison of the proposed multiple asymmetric shaped structure in terms of series electrical length with other
reported structures.
In order to obtain harmonic suppression up to 4f0 , the minimum
electrical length of the open stubs are considered as 30 . From the
table it is observed that the proposed structure is having less series
electrical length. Therefore, the multiple asymmetric -shaped
transmission line is a better choice for realizing transmission lines
with lower characteristic impedance and to reduce the size of the
multi section BLCs to a great extent. The layout of the wideband

Fig. 4. Layout of the two-section BLC using multiple asymmetric -shaped structure.

BLC after replacing the horizontal transmission lines with the

proposed unit is shown in Fig. 4. The layout occupies only 27.7%
area of the conventional coupler.
2.3. Cross and T-shaped transmission lines
To make the circuit further compact, the center vertical transmission line (ZC ,  C ) and the outer vertical branches (ZB ,  B ) are
replaced using its equivalent cross and T-shaped transmission lines.
The layouts of cross and T-shaped transmission lines are shown in
Fig. 5.
The equivalent impedance relations between the conventional
transmission line and the cross and T-shaped transmission lines are
obtained by following the analysis in [16]. The design parameters
of the three transmission line techniques to complete the design of
the compact wideband branch line coupler are listed in Table 2 and
the circuit simulated magnitude response is shown in Fig. 6.
3. Fabrication and measurement
Based on the circuit analysis in Section 2, a compact wideband branch line coupler operating at 0.9 GHz is designed,

Table 1
Comparison with other reported structures (Z0 = 38 ).
Ref.

Equivalent unit

Parameters

Total series length

[11]

Z1 = 43.49 ,
Z2 = 45.11 ,
 2 = 30

60.9

[17]

Z1 = 56.4 ,
Z2 = 90.07 ,
Z3 = 45.04 ,
 2 =  3 =30

56.9

This work

Z1 = 115.5 ,
Z2 = 45.36 ,
Z3 = 115.5 ,
 2 = 30 ,  3 = 45

25

Please cite this article in press as: Phani Kumar KV, et al. A novel two section branch line coupler employing different transmission line
techniques. Int J Electron Commun (AE) (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aeue.2016.02.011

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Fig. 5. Layout of (a) cross shaped and (b) T-shaped transmission line.

Table 2
Design parameters of the proposed branch line coupler.
Structure

Impedance ()

Electrical length (deg)

Multiple asymmetric

Z1 = 115.5
Z2 = 45.36
Z3 = 115.5

 1 = 12.5
 2 = 30
 3 = 45

Cross shaped

Z4 = 71.41
Z5 = 52.57

 4 = 35
 5 = 15

T-shaped

Z6 = 150
Z7 = 107.9

 6 = 35.25
 7 = 27

Fig. 7. Proposed branch line coupler (a) layout and (b) fabricated prototype.

Fig. 6. Circuit simulated scattering parameters of the proposed BLC.

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simulated using a full-wave simulator and fabricated on a Rogers

RT/duroid 5870 substrate having dielectric constant 2.33 and
substrate thickness of 0.787 mm. The layout and the fabricated prototype are shown in Fig. 7. The dimensions in mm
are W1 = 0.45, W2 = 2.67, W3 = 0.45,W4 = 1.28, W5 = 2.2, W6 = 0.2,
W7 = 0.55, L1 = 33.39, L2 = 19.67, L3 = 20.95, L4 = 9.9, L5 = 17.06

and L6 = 44.69. The electrical size of the proposed coupler is

0.2g 0.16g and it is smaller than a conventional single section BLC. The area of the whole circuit is 47.9 39.6 mm2 , which
is only 23.7% of the traditional two section branch line coupler. The
fabricated BLC is tested using R&S ZVL vector network analyzer.
Fig. 8 shows the comparison of simulated and measured scattering parameters of the proposed compact BLC. The measured |S11 |
and |S41 | at the operating frequency are 23.15 dB and 20.34 dB,
respectively. The measurement shows that the 15 dB return loss
(isolation) is from 0.66 (0.68) to 1.06 (1.09) GHz and the fractional
bandwidth is 44.4% (45.5%).
The measured amplitudes at the through and coupled ports are
3.68 dB and 3.28 dB, respectively. The measured and simulated
magnitude balance and phase difference between ports 2 and 3
are shown in Figs. 9 and 10 respectively. The measured magnitude

Table 3
Comparison with reported two section BLCs.
Ref

Design frequency (GHz)

% Fractional B.W. (S11 15 dB)

Electrical size (g g )a

% Size reductionb

Harmonic suppression

Conventional
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
Proposed BLC

0.9
5.9
3
0.91
2
2.45
1.8
0.9

47.7
56.1
38
26.3
45
33.4
32.7
44.4

0.27 0.50
0.25 0.75
0.25 0.75
0.26 0.44
0.28 0.40
0.32 0.35
0.16 0.29
0.20 0.16

15.2
17
17
65.6
76.3

Up to 4th

Up to 4th

a
b

g is the guided wavelength computed for Z0 = 50 .

% size reduction is calculated based on the electrical size of conventional two section BLC of this work.

Please cite this article in press as: Phani Kumar KV, et al. A novel two section branch line coupler employing different transmission line
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balance (|S21 | |S31 |) bandwidth with in 0 1 dB is from 0.67 GHz

to 1.05 GHz. The phase difference between through and coupled
port is approximately 92.5 at 0.9 GHz. In addition to signicant
size reduction, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th harmonics are suppressed by
45.1 dB, 53.7 dB and 20.9 dB respectively using the proposed techniques. Table 3 summaries the comparison of the major features of
proposed and other reported designs.
4. Conclusion

References

Fig. 10. Circuit, full-wave simulated and measured result of the phase difference
between port2 and port3.

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Please cite this article in press as: Phani Kumar KV, et al. A novel two section branch line coupler employing different transmission line
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Fig. 9. Circuit, full-wave simulated and measured result of the magnitude balance
between S21 and S31 .

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A two section branch line coupler is designed using multiple

asymmetric -shaped, cross-shaped and T-shaped structures. The
proposed coupler occupies only 23.7% area of the conventional one.
In addition to compact size, 2nd, 3rd and 4th harmonics are suppressed due to the band stop characteristics of open stubs which
will resonate when they are quarter wavelength long. A prototype
is fabricated and tested. The measured frequency response shows
that the proposed coupler has a fractional bandwidth of 44.4%. The
measured and simulated results are in good agreement with each
other.

Fig. 8. Circuit, full-wave simulated and measured S-parameters of the proposed

wideband coupler (a) S11 and S21 and (b) S31 and S41 .

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