278 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 54, NO.

1, JANUARY 2006

A Dual-Frequency Wilkinson Power Divider

Lei Wu, Zengguang Sun, Hayattin Yilmaz, and Manfred Berroth, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract—In this paper, a Wilkinson power divider operating at

two arbitrary different frequencies is presented. The structure of
this power divider and the formulas used to determine the design
parameters have been given. Experimental results show that all
the features of a conventional Wilkinson power divider, such as an
equal power split, impedance matching at all ports, and a good iso-
lation between the two output ports can be fulfilled at two arbitrary
given frequencies simultaneously.
Index Terms—Dual frequency, power combiner, power divider,
Wilkinson power divider.
Fig. 1. Dual-frequency Wilkinson power divider.

I. INTRODUCTION

T HE POWER divider and combiner are very important

components for microwave power amplifiers. Recent
years have seen a worldwide effort to develop dual-band power
dividers [1]–[5] due to the trend of multiband mobile phones.
One of the frequently used power dividers is the Wilkinson
power divider. A conventional Wilkinson power divider [6]
operates only at one design frequency and at all of its odd
harmonics. Therefore, it is not suitable for some dual-band
operations, e.g., for a downlink operation both at the Global Fig. 2. Circuit of the power divider for the even-mode analysis.
System for Mobile Communication band (935–960 MHz)
and at Universal Mobile Telecommunication Systems band
(2110–2170 MHz) in Europe. Recently, a numerically nearly II. THEORY AND DESIGN EQUATIONS
exact solution for a Wilkinson power divider operating at A schematic diagram of the proposed Wilkinson power di-
a design frequency and simultaneously at its first even vider, which realizes an equal power division at two arbitrary
harmonic has been presented [7]. The analytically exact frequencies, is shown in Fig. 1. is the reference impedance.
solution for this issue has been later demonstrated [8]. Here, we Each quarter-wave branch of a conventional Wilkinson power
present a new design of the dual-frequency Wilkinson power divider is substituted by two sections of transmission line with
divider, which operates at two arbitrary frequencies of interest the characteristic impedance of and and the length of
and , where is the frequency ratio. This power and , respectively. The output ports are shunted with a parallel
divider consists of two branches of impedance transformer, connection of a resistor , an inductor , and a capacitor . The
each of which consists of two sections of transmission line with power divider is symmetric and we can, therefore, use the even-
different characteristic impedance, and a parallel connection and odd-mode analysis to determine the circuit parameters for
of a resistor, an inductor, and a capacitor, which shunts the the dual-frequency power divider.
two output ports. Such a consideration is of great meaning due
to the current trend of compacter, smaller, and more efficient A. Even-Mode Analysis
RF front ends, e.g., the trend of multistandard multifrequency
In the case where two signals of the same magnitude and
power amplifiers.
phase (even-mode signals) are applied to output ports 2 and 3,
In Section II, analytical solutions of the dual-frequency
no current flows through the plane of symmetry. The circuit can
Wilkinson power divider for all the frequency ratios are
be bisected at the midplane, as shown in Fig. 2. Since no cur-
demonstrated. Experimental results and conclusions follow in
rent flows through the plane of symmetry, the circuit elements
Sections III and IV.
, , and , which shunt ports 2 and 3, can be omitted. The
impedance at port 1 is doubled in the bisected circuit. For an
impedance matching at the outputs, the impedance at port
Manuscript received February 22, 2005; revised July 20, 2005. 1 must be transformed to at port 2. To fulfill this transforma-
The authors are with the Institute of Electrical and Optical Communication tion at two different frequencies and (assuming
Engineering, University of Stuttgart, D-70550 Stuttgart, Germany (e-mail:
wu@int.uni-stuttgart.de). the frequency ratio is an arbitrary rational number larger than
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMTT.2005.860300 1), a two-section dual-band transformer is used, which has been
0018-9480/$20.00 © 2006 IEEE
WU et al.: DUAL-FREQUENCY WILKINSON POWER DIVIDER 279

Using (6) in (7) and from (1) leads to

(8)

Since port 2 is shunted with a parallel connection of

and , the output impedance at port 2 be-
Fig. 3. Circuit of the power divider for the odd-mode analysis. comes

introduced by Monzon in [9]. According to his solution, the fol- (9)

lowing conditions:

where . For the impedance matching to at port

(1) 2, must be equal to , resulting in

(10)
(2)
and
and
(11)
(3)
Using (8), (11) can be rewritten as
must be fulfilled, where
(12)

(4)
Similarly, repeating the same derivation above for the second
(5) frequency leads to

and is a positive integer. The parameter denotes the wave-

(13)
length. With these conditions, the impedance transformation in
the opposite direction, namely, from at port 2 to at port
1, is naturally also fulfilled at these two frequencies for the even Equations (12) and (13) are two equations for two unknowns
mode, resulting in the input impedance of at these two fre- of and . To solve these two equations, the following param-
quencies for the whole power divider. That means the input eters are defined:
impedance matching of the power divider is also realized at both
frequencies and . (14)
(15)
B. Odd-Mode Analysis
(16)
In case of an odd mode, the two signals applied to ports 2 and
3 have the same magnitude, but are 180 out-of-phase; there is a
voltage null along the middle of the power divider. Thus, we can and
bisect this circuit by grounding the midplane to give the network
of Fig. 3. (17)
The impedance and at the first frequency can be
presented through the following two equations: Equations (12) and (13) then become

(18)

(6) and

(7) (19)
280 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 54, NO. 1, JANUARY 2006

from which we obtain the values of the shunt capacitor and in- By inserting (16) and (17) into (25) and (26), these two condi-
ductor as follows: tions become

(27)

(20) (28)

To analyze the above two conditions, three different cases

(21) have to be considered. The first one is

Equations (1)–(3), (10), (20), and (21) describe the design pa- (29)
rameters of the dual-frequency Wilkinson power divider, which
operates simultaneously at two arbitrary frequencies and . In this case, (28) becomes
Obviously, the length and , the characteristic impedance
and of the transmission lines, and the shunt resistance
(30)
surely have positive values, where the shunt capacitor and
shunt inductance , given by (20) and (21), have the possibility
to be negative. Therefore, conditions to ensure that and also Since , (30) can be rewritten as
have positive values should be discussed further.
(31)
C. Analysis of the Design Parameters and
Obviously, this condition cannot be fulfilled since it has been
Firstly, we discuss the two most important parameters and assumed that is an rational number larger than 1.
. Inserting (1) and in (14) and (15), we obtain In the second case of

(32)
(22)

both (27) and (28) become

and

(33)

(23) which is contradictory to (32). Since , the left-hand side

of (33) must also be equal to zero on the condition of (32).
The third case is
The relationship between the two parameters and can be
shown as follows:
(34)

and conditions (27) and (28) become

(35)

(24)
Secondly, conditions to ensure that the shunt capacitor and
shunt inductor have positive values should be discussed. Since
, in (20) and (21) is certainly larger
than zero, therefore, the following two conditions must be ful-
filled simultaneously:
(25)
(26)
and
(36)
respectively. With , it can be easily shown that these
two conditions can be fulfilled because the left-hand sides of
both inequations are equal to 1, where the right-hand sides of
them are larger than zero.
The third case has been proven to be valid to guarantee that
the shunt capacitor and shunt inductor have positive values.
Furthermore, it should be discussed what this case expressed by
(34) indicates.
WU et al.: DUAL-FREQUENCY WILKINSON POWER DIVIDER 281

From (4) and (14), it can be seen that . Using and Since it has been assumed that , the solution of (45) can
, given in (2) and (3), we obtain from (34) be rewritten as

(47)

In total, (42) and (47) describe the third case given by (34) in
which the two conditions (27) and (28) can be fulfilled, guar-
(37) anteeing both the shunt capacitor and shunt inductor have
To solve the above inequation, we first assume that , (37) positive values. It can be observed that fixed relationships be-
can be rewritten as tween the integer and frequency ratio are indicated by (42)
and (47).
The length of the transmission lines are given in (1). Intu-
(38) itively, is preferred for a smaller dimension of the power
divider. However, it should be tested as to whether this choice
is suitable for all the values of , i.e., for all two arbitrary fre-
quencies.
which can be simplified as If , has a value between
0- since is a rational number larger than 1. Therefore, the
(39) variable should have a positive value. That means only (42) is
valid for , which leads to
after steps of derivations. Obviously, the solution of (39) is

(40) (48)

With , we obtain finally and then

(41) (49)

Together with (22), solutions of (41) can be determined as This result means that is only suitable for cases where
the frequency ratio .
As we know, for the frequency ratio , a dual-fre-
(42) quency Wilkinson power divider can simply be realized by using
a conventional Wilkinson power divider since a conventional
or Wilkinson power divider operates at one design frequency and
at all its odd harmonics.
(43) Further development for a dual-frequency Wilkinson power
divider operating both at and , where is a rational
Due to the assumption of , we know that only (42) is the number larger than 3, has been implemented beginning with
valid solution. .
Assuming , (37) becomes With , we have . Since it is now
assumed that , is again a value
between 0- . Therefore, still has a positive value. Just like
by , only (42) is valid for , which leads to
(44)

(50)
To solve this inequation, the similar derivations such as the
above have been implemented, resulting in resulting in

(45) (51)

Together with (22), the solution of (45) can be determined as That means, with , a dual-frequency Wilkinson power
follows: divider for both the frequencies and , where is an
rational number between 3–7, can be realized.
The same processes have been repeated for , and the
(46)
following rules can be observed. For every arbitrary integer
282 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 54, NO. 1, JANUARY 2006

Fig. 4. Fabricated Wilkinson power divider for f = 1 GHz and

f = 1:8 GHz.

, is always positive because is always considered

under the condition , which leads to

(52)

Therefore, the following inequation can be achieved from (42):

(53)

resulting in

(54)

In total, under the condition that all the design parameters have
positive values, the following important relationship between
the positive integer and frequency ratio , which is a rational
number larger than 1, can be summarized.
1) With , a dual-frequency Wilkinson power divider
operating at and , where , can be
realized.
2) With an arbitrary integer , a dual-frequency
Wilkinson power divider operating at and ,
where

(55)

can be realized.
3) In the case of , a dual-frequency Wilkinson
power divider can be realized simply with a conventional
Wilkinson power divider.

III. EXPERIMENT
Let be 50 , two dual-frequency Wilkinson power di-
viders have been fabricated on a 0.81-mm-thick RO4003 sub-
strate, which has a relative permittivity of 3.38 and a conductor
thickness of 17 m. The first power divider has been designed
for GHz and GHz and the second one for
GHz and GHz. Fig. 5. Simulation and measurement results of S -parameters for the
The design parameters of the first dual-frequency dual-frequency Wilkinson power divider operating at 1 and 1.8 GHz.
Wilkinson power divider have been calculated at first. In- (a) Magnitude of S . (b) Magnitude of S . (c) Magnitude of S .
(d) Magnitude of S .
equation (49) shows that, for ,
can be chosen. Therefore, according to (1),
the length of the two sections of transmission line is between the two output ports should be .
. Using (2) After determining the parameters and
and (3), the characteristic impedance and of the two sec- according to (14)–(17), the shunt capac-
tions of transmission lines can be determined as itance and inductance between the two output ports can be
and , respectively. According to (10), the resistance calculated as pF and nH using (20) and (21).
WU et al.: DUAL-FREQUENCY WILKINSON POWER DIVIDER 283

Fig. 6. Fabricated Wilkinson power divider for f = 1 GHz and f = 4 GHz.

Simulation with models of real lumped components and the

real substrate has been done applying the software ADS2003C.1
Fig. 4 shows the photograph of the fabricated power divider,
which has an area of 6.4 3.4 cm . The measured and simulated
-parameters are presented in Fig. 5.
There is a good agreement between the simulation and mea-
surement results. Fig. 5(a) indicates that the input signal is al-
most equally divided and transmitted to the output ports, both
at 1 and 1.8 GHz. Fig. 5(b) shows that the power divider passes
the signals at both frequencies very well. A good isolation be-
tween ports 2 and 3 is also fulfilled at these two frequencies, as
shown in Fig. 5(c), whereas a impedance matching at the output
ports is realized, as shown in Fig. 5(d). The peaks of the curves
are slightly shifted away from 1 and 1.8 GHz because of the
limited accuracy by the experimental setup and the models of
the real lumped components and substrate used for the simu-
lation. However, these results are good enough to prove that a
dual-frequency Wilkinson power divider operating simultane-
ously at these two different frequencies is feasible.
The second dual-frequency Wilkinson power divider for
GHz and GHz has further been designed. Since the
frequency ratio is now equal to 4, according to (55),
should be chosen. The length of the two sections of transmission
line is then . According to (2) and
(3), the characteristic impedance and of the two sections
of the transmission line can be determined as
and , respectively. As we know, the resistance
shunted between the two output ports is independent on the
frequency ratio , therefore, is also valid in this
case. After determining the parameters and
according to (14)–(17), the shunt capacitance
and inductance between the two output ports can be calculated
as pF and nH using (20) and (21).
Similar simulation has also been done for this power divider.
Fig. 6 shows the photograph of this fabricated power divider.
It has an area of 7.3 3.8 cm . The measured and simulated
-parameters are presented in Fig. 7.
There is also a good agreement between the simulation and
measurement results. Fig. 7(a) indicates that the input signal is Fig. 7. Simulation and measurement results of S -parameters for the
almost equally divided and transmitted to the output ports both dual-frequency Wilkinson power divider operating at 1 and 4 GHz.
at 1 and 4 GHz. Fig. 7(b) shows that the power divider passes the (a) Magnitude of S . (b) Magnitude of S . (c) Magnitude of S .
(d) Magnitude of S .
signals at both frequencies very well. From these two figures, it
can be seen that good performances have also been shown at
1.5 and 3.5 GHz. Observed from the even- and odd-mode anal- divider depend only on the transmission lines. They are not de-
ysis, the forward transmission and input reflection of the power pendent on the connection between the two output ports. The
same feature is also shown by a conventional Wilkinson power
1ADS 2003C, Agilent Technol., Palo Alto, CA, 2003. divider. According to (1)–(3), the characteristic impedance and
284 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 54, NO. 1, JANUARY 2006
length of the two sections of transmission line of a dual-fre-
quency Wilkinson power divider operating at GHz and
GHz can be calculated with . They have the
same values as those of a dual-frequency Wilkinson power di-
vider operating at 1 and 4 GHz. Therefore, an equal power di-
vision and a good input matching have also been obtained at
1.5 GHz. The same is at 3.5 GHz. Furthermore, an interesting
deduction can be obtained. A larger frequency ratio requires
indeed a larger integer , but the dimension of a dual-frequency
Wilkinson power divider must not increase with it because
used in the denominator of (1), which is equal to , also
becomes larger with the increased and . A good isolation be-
tween ports 2 and 3 has been fulfilled at both 1 and at 4 GHz, as
shown in Fig. 7(c), whereas a impedance matching at the output
ports has also been realized at these two frequencies, as shown
in Fig. 7(d). The peaks of the curves are also slightly shifted
away here from 1 and 4 GHz because of the limited accuracy by
the experimental setup and the models of the real lumped com-
ponents and substrate used for the simulation.
IV. CONCLUSION
A novel and elementary dual-frequency Wilkinson power di-
vider has been presented, which fulfills an equal power split and
all the other features of a conventional Wilkinson power divider
simultaneously at two arbitrary different frequencies. The struc-
ture of this power divider and the formulas to determine its de-
sign parameters have been given and a good agreement between
the simulation and the measurement has been achieved.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The review of this paper was arranged by this
TRANSACTIONS’ Associate Editor Zoya B. Popović.
REFERENCES
[1] J. H. Sung, G. Y. Kim, S. H. Son, H. J. Lee, Y. J. Song, Y. W. Jeong, H.
S. Park, and D. Ahn, “Design method of a dual band balun and divider,”
in IEEE MTT-S Int. Microwave Symp. Dig., vol. 2, Jun. 2–7, 2002, pp.
1177–1180.
[2] K. L. Wan, Y. L. Chow, and K. M. Luk, “Simple design of dual-fre-
quency unequal power-divider,” Electron. Lett., vol. 37, no. 19, pp.
1171–1173, Sep. 2001.
[3] S. Avrillon, I. Pele, A. Chousseaud, and S. Toutain, “Dual-band power
divider based on semiloop stepped-impedance resonators,” IEEE Trans.
Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 51, no. 4, pp. 1269–1273, Apr. 2003.
[4] I. Lin, M. Vincentis, C. Caloz, and T. Itoh, “Arbitrary dual-band compo-
nents using composite right/left-hand transmission lines,” IEEE Trans.
Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 1142–1149, Apr. 2004.
[5] F. L. Wong and K. M. Cheng, “A novel planar branch-line coupler design
for dual-band applications,” IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 52,
no. 11, pp. 2458–2463, Nov. 2004.
[6] D. M. Pozar, Microwave Engineering, 2nd ed. New York: Wiley, 1998,
pp. 363–368.
[7] S. Srisathit, S. Virunphun, K. Bandudej, M. Chongcheawchamnan, and
A. Worapishet, “A dual-band 3-dB three-port power divider based on
a two-section transmission line transformer,” in IEEE MTT-S Int. Mi-
crowave Symp. Dig., vol. 1, Jun. 8–11, 2003, pp. 35–38.
[8] L. Wu, H. Yilmaz, T. Bitzer, A. Pascht, and M. Berroth, “A dual-fre-
quency Wilkinson power divider: For a frequency and its first harmonic,”
IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 107–109, Feb.
2005.
[9] C. Monzon, “A small dual-frequency transformer in two section,” IEEE
Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 51, no. 4, pp. 1157–1161, Apr. 2003.
Lei Wu was born in Shandong, China, in 1973. He re-
ceived the Dipl.-Ing. degree in electrical engineering
from the University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany,
in 2002, and is currently working toward the Ph.D.
degree at the University of Stuttgart
He is currently with the Institute of Electrical and
Optical Communication Engineering, University of
Stuttgart, where he is involved in microwave power
amplifier and CMOS circuit design.
Zengguang Sun was born in Heilongjiang, China,
in 1971. He received the B.S. degree from Liaoning
Technical University, Fuxin, China, in 1995, and is
currently working toward the Dipl.-Ing. degree in
electrical engineering at the University of Stuttgart,
Stuttgart, Germany.
He was with the Fuxin Development and Reform
Commission.
Hayattin Yilmaz was born in Çaykara/Trabzon,
Turkey, in 1974. He received the Dipl.-Ing. de-
gree in electrical engineering from the University
of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany, in 2001, and is
currently working toward the Ph.D. degree at the
University of Stuttgart.
He is currently with the Institute of Electrical and
Optical Communication Engineering, University
of Stuttgart. His research field is the phase and
amplitude adjustment of optically fed phased-array
antennas with liquid crystals.
Manfred Berroth (SM’03) was born in Oberson-
theim, Germany, in 1956. He received the Dipl.-Ing.
degree from the University of the Federal Armed
Forces, Munich, Germany, in 1979.
He then developed microprocessor systems and
dedicated image-processing software as a consultant.
In 1987, he joined the Institute for Applied Solid
State Physics, Freiburg, Germany, where he was
engaged in the development of circuit simulation
models for GaAs field-effect transistors, as well
as integrated-circuit design. Since 1996, he has
been a Professor with the Institute of Electrical and Optical Communication
Engineering, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany. His research interests
and activities are electronic and opto-electronic devices and circuits at high
frequencies.