2012 5th Global Symposium on Millimeter Waves (GSMM 2012) Harbin, China

An Ultra-Broadband 3-dB Power Divider

Fanghai Xu ; Gaofeng Guo ; En Li; Ju Wu;

School of Electronic Engineering
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Chengdu, China
Corresponding author: fanghai0520@126.co m

Abstract—An ultra-broadband power divider based on structure of Wilkinson power divider is shown in Figure 1. The
conventional Wilkinson power di vider which operates at 2GHz to structure is symmetrical.
8GHz is designed in this paper. HFSS is used to accelerate the
design process. Finally an ultra-broadband 3dB power divi der
with four impedance transformers is designed and manufactured,
¬
and its size is 31mm × 30mm ×0.5mm. The measured results =/ 3RUW
=LQ =
agree well with the electromagnetic simulation that proves the
feasibility of the proposed design.

Keywords- ultra-broadband; power divider; Wilkinson; HFSS;

3dB power divider. 3RUW = 5

I. INT RODUCTION
Ultra-Broadband technology has given rise to attention in =LQ =
designing wideband antennas and antenna arrays. The ultra- =/ 3RUW
Broadband power divider is so essential in the UWB antenna ¬
arrays under processing nowadays [1] [2]. As an important
passive component widely used in various microwave circuits,
the function of the 3dB power divider is dividing the input Figure 1. Structure of an equal-split Wilkinson power divider in microstrip
signal into two output ports equally [3]. form.
The Wilkinson power divider (WPD) was invented in 1960
The terminal load is defined as 50Ω in the existing
[4] and is one of the most commonly used components in
communication system, which means Z0 =ZL =50Ω in Figure1.
microwave and antenna applications due to its simp le design
and configuration. It has the advantage of being lossless when Z1 is the normalized characteristic impedance of λ/4 lines
the output ports are matched and has a good characteristic of and λ is the wavelength at the centre frequency.
phase and amplitude balance. Since the physical dimension of
the standard WPD is proportional to the guided wavelength of There will be no reflection in input port if all ports are
the central operating frequency. Consequently, when the power matched. Thus:
divider is incorporated into monolithic microwave integrated 1 1 1
circuits (MMICs), its size becomes extremely large and results  
in the large size and higher cost of MMIC chip. Therefore, it is Z 0 Z in 2 Z in 3 . (1)
necessary to reduce the size of Wilkinson power divider [5].
The impedance Zin2 is equal to the impedance which
This paper demonstrates the design of the Wilkinson power connect Z1 with ZL in series. So is Zin3 .
divider with ultra -broadband and small size. Mult istage λ/4
impedance transformers are used to broaden bandwidth. The Because of the symmetry of the structure,
key procedure is using EM full wave simulation software
HFSS to simulate the physical model to get a desirable result. Zin 2  Zin 3 . (2)
Considering the working frequency band, the power divider is
determined to use four impedance transformers to cover the According to the quarter-wave impedance transforming
ultra-broad frequency band. theory:

Z in 2  Z L  Z1 .
2
II. THERORETICAL ANALYSIS (3)
The Wilkinson power divider makes use of an isolation
Zin 3  Z L  Z1
2
resistance to realize the matching ports and improve isolation, . (4)
that is different from the conventional power divider. The
Program for New Century Excellent T alents in University (NCET).

978-1-4673-1305-6/12/$31.00 ©2012 IEEE 347 May 27-30, 2012

 Z1 is determined and expressed in (5) by solving (2), (3),
and (4): R1 2.0 5.32 8.0 9.64 8.85
R2 1.86 4.23 5.83 12. 32
Z1  2Z0 (5)
R3 2.14 3.45 8.92
R stands for the isolation resistance, and can be obtained by
even-odd mode analysis. That is R=2Z0 . R4 2.06 6.39
R5 4.96
R6 4.35
R7 2.59
III. DESIGN A ND SIMULATION
According to the theory of microstrip circuit and the
impedance transformer, the power divider is determined to use
four impedance transformers to cover the ultra-broad frequency
band. Table 1 has been given and the values of Z can be gotten
fro m it:
Z1 = 1.12; Z2 = 1.29;
Z3 = 1.54; Z4 = 1.79;
It is easy to get value of isolation resistances:
Figure 2. The power divider with t wo sections
R1 = 9.64; R2 = 5.83;
If the power divider has two sections , the isolation R3 = 3.45; R4 = 2.06;
resistances can be gotten by solving (6), (7), (8).
Here, the substrate is chosen as Rogers RT/duroid 5880, its
2 Z1 Z 2 thickness is 0.508mm. So the geometrical dimensions are
R2  (6)
Z1  Z 2 Z 2  Z1 cot2  
computed as:
W1 = 1.2849 mm; L1 = 11.014 mm;
2 R2 Z1  Z 2  W2 = 1.0007 mm; L2 = 11.102 mm;
R1  (7)
R2 Z1  Z 2   2Z 2 W3 = 0.7255 mm; L3 = 11.210 mm;
W4 = 0.5329 mm; L4 = 11.307 mm;
1 f 2 f1  1 
  1  (8) To decrease its dimension, the straight λ/4 lines are
2 2 f 2 f1  1
changed to curving lines. After the optimizing, Figure 3 shows
the simulation model. Its dimension is 16.06mmh30.96mm.
After normalizing all impedances to the characteristic
Figure 4 shows the simu lation results.
impedance Z0 , some conventional values of Z and R have been
given in TABLE I, Z is the value of impedance transformer and
M stands for the total section number of the power divider. [9]
TABLE I. Value of Z and R

M 1 2 3 4 7
Z1 1.41 1.20 1.15 1.12 1.13
Z2 1.67 1.41 1.29 1.21
Z3 1.74 1.54 1.30
Z4 1.79 1.41
Z5 1.54
Z6 1.66
Figure 3. Simulation model (unit: mm)
Z7 1.77

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 Fro m Figure 4 (a), it shows that insertion loss for the
working band between the input port and the output port is
more than -3.5dB. The divider also has a good isolation which
less than -22dB. Return loss between two output ports and
input port are shown in Figure 4 (b). Simu lation results of
VSWR(1), VSW R(2) and VSWR(3) are less than 1.25 over the
frequency range 2GHz – 8GHz. In conclusion, the simulation
model has a well agreement to the WPD.

S(2,1)
-10 S(3,2)
S(2,3)
S Parameter [dB]

-20 Figure 5. The fabricated Wilkinson power divider

However, it’s obvious that the measured results are worse

-30
than the electromagnetic simu lation results. The fabricated
technique when the divider is welded SMA adaptors and the
-40 isolation resistances may bring about the error and it is
inevitable. However, the variation trend is similar between the
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 simulation results and the measured results. It proves that the
Freq [GHz] design is feasible and the isolation is well improved by four
isolation resistances.

(a) 0

1.30 S(2,1)
-10 S(3,1)
S(2,3)
VSWR(1)
1.25
S Parameter [dB]

VSWR(2)
VSWR(3) -20

1.20

-30
VSWR

1.15

1.10 -40

1.05 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Freq [GHz]
1.00
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Freq [GHz]
(a)

1.30 VSWR(1,1)
VSWR(2,2)
(b) 1.25
VSWR(3,3)

Figure 4. Simulation results: (a)S Parameter (b)VSWR 1.20

VSWR

1.15
IV. M EASUREMENT S A ND DISCUSSIONS
1.10
Figure 5 shows the fabricated Wilkinson power divider
while Figure 6 shows the measured results. Insertion loss for
1.05
the working band between input port and two output ports is
more than -3.85dB. VSW R(1), VSW R(2) and VSWR(3) are 1.00
less than 1.3 cross band 2GHz – 8GHz. Even the isolation is 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Freq (GHz)
less than -20dB. The measured results agree well with the
electromagnetic simulation.
(b)

Figure 6. Results of measurement: (a) S Parameter (b) VSWR

349
 V. CONCLUSION
A novel 4-section Wilkinson power divider is designed and
fabricated in this paper. The d ivider features 0.82dB insertion
loss, well isolation although it has 4 sections and wide working
frequency band. The size of 31mm × 30mm ×0.5mm is
smaller than the traditional div ider. It is suitable for Ultra-
Broadband application.

A CKNOWLEDGMENT
This work is partly supported by Program for New
Century Excellent Talents in University.

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