Dual-band rat-race coupler design using where

tri-section branch-line 1
P ¼ ½f ðeÞ þ f ðeÞ
2
K.-K.M. Cheng and F.-L. Wong 1
Q ¼ ½f ðeÞ  f ðeÞ
2
The design of a novel rat-race coupler that can operate at two widely k tanðp=4Þð1 þ eÞ þ tanðp=2Þð1 þ eÞ
separated frequency bands is presented. The proposed circuit also features f ¼
compact size, planar structure without a via hole, and low insertion loss. 1  k tanðp=4Þð1 þ eÞ= tanðp=2Þð1 þ eÞ
For validation, both simulated and measured performance of a microstrip f  f1
e¼ 2
rat-race coupler operating at 2.45=5.8 GHz are shown. f2 þ f1

It should be pointed out that k is an extra design variable that, for a

Introduction: The rat-race coupler [1] is one of the passive components
given frequency ratio (f2=f1), offers some flexibility in the selection of
that are widely used for microwave and millimetre-wave applications. The
the line impedance.
conventional design offers both in-phase and anti-phase signals that are
present at the two designated outputs with equal power level. However,
owing to the inherent narrowband nature of the conventional structure
based on a simple transmission-line section, its application to wideband and
multiband systems is thus limited. In recent years, designs suitable for dual-
band application [2, 3] using semi-lumped-element and distributed topol-
ogies have been reported. The major drawbacks of the former design [2] are
large insertion loss at high gigahertz frequencies and non-planar structure.
The latter is constructed [3] using a branch-line of extended length (450
instead of 270
) with additional shunt stubs. In this Letter, a new dual-band
rat-race coupler is introduced, which uses branch-lines of standard length
and can operate at two widely separated frequency bands ( f2 > 2f1). More-
over, this design offers extra design variables for impedance optimisation,
simple and planar structure (no via hole) with low insertion loss.

Fig. 2 Return loss and port isolation

- - -e - - - S11 simulation
——r—— S11 measurement
——s—— S31 simulation
- - - d - - - S31 measurement

Fig. 1 Proposed dual-band rat-race coupler Fig. 3 Insertion loss (in-phase outputs)
——— S21 simulation
——u—— S21 measurement
Proposed dual-band coupler design: Fig. 1 shows the schematic - - - - - - - - S41 simulation
diagram of the proposed design in which the centre frequencies of ——e—— S41 measurement
the lower and upper operating bands are denoted as f1 and f2. In this
configuration, the electrical lengths of the longer and shorter arms are, Results and discussion: For verification, a rat-race coupler that
respectively, 270 and 90
evaluated at f0, where f0 is the average value operates at 2.45 and 5.8 GHz ISM bands was designed and charac-
of f1 and f2. Compared to the single-band design, there are three major terised. Using (1)–(4), the optimum values of ZA, ZC, Z1 and Z2 were
differences, namely: (a)pthe branch-line impedances (ZA, ZB, Z1 and found to be, respectively, 47.5, 86.1, 86.4 and 39.3 O. Figs. 2–5 show
Z2) are different from 2Z0; (b) the longer arm is split into three the simulated amplitude and phase responses of the proposed coupler
sections (Z1 and Z2); and (c) the insertion of two shunt stubs (open- (using ADS with ideal circuit elements) over the frequency range 1–
circuit) with characteristic impedance of ZC. By applying even- and 7 GHz. The operating bandwidth was found to be approximately
odd-mode analysis to the proposed circuit, the branch-line impedance 50 MHz based on the assumption of  0.3 dB of amplitude mismatch
can therefore be shown to be and  2
of phase imbalance. For experimental verification, the above-
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi mentioned coupler was fabricated using Duroid substrate with a
2 cos pe dielectric constant of 3.38 and thickness of 0.8 mm. Figs. 2–5 give
ZA ¼ ZB ¼ Z ð1Þ
cosðp=2Þe 0 the measured results (conducted using Agilent 8510C network analy-
p zer) in which the centre frequencies of the two operating bands were
Z1 ¼ ZA P cos e ð2Þ
2 found to be approximately 2.55 and 5.65 GHz. Return loss and port
Z1 isolation of better than 14 dB were attained with insertion loss of
Z2 ¼ ð3Þ
k 3.65 dB (ideal value ¼ 3 dB) including connector loss. The bandwidth
ZA p of the coupler was limited by its amplitude imbalance to roughly
ZC ¼ cot2 e ð4Þ
ðQ=PÞ cos ecðp=2Þe þ 1 2 40 MHz. It is believed that the small discrepancies between the

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 15th March 2007 Vol. 43 No. 6

simulated and measured performance were mainly caused by the
junction discontinuities and fabrication tolerances.
Fig. 4 Insertion loss (anti-phase outputs)
——— S23 simulation
——u—— S23 measurement
- - - - - - - - S43 simulation
——e—— S41 measurement
Fig. 5 Phase response
- - - e - - - in-phase response simulation
——r—— in-phase response measurement
- - - s - - - anti-phase response simulation
——d—— anti-phase response measurement
ELECTRONICS LETTERS 15th March 2007 Vol. 43 No. 6
Conclusions: A novel dual-band rat-race coupler design with reduced
size structure has been described. It can be constructed using closed-
form formulas and practical impedance range. A 2.45=5.8 GHz
microstrip coupler has been demonstrated with good agreement
between the simulated and measured results.
Acknowledgment: This work was fully supported by a grant
(CUHK411305=[2006]) from the RGC of HKSAR.
# The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2007
4 January 2007
Electronics Letters online no: 20070018
doi: 10.1049/el:20070018
K.-K.M. Cheng and F.-L. Wong (Department of Electronic Engineer-
ing, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong,
People’s Republic of China)
E-mail: kkcheng@ee.cuhk.edu.hk
References
1 Kim, D., and Naito, Y.: ‘Broad-band design of improved hybrid-ring 3 dB
directional coupler’, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., 1982, 82, (11),
pp. 2040–2046
2 Lin, I.H., DeVincentis, M., Caloz, C., and Itoh, T.: ‘Arbitrary dual-band
components using composite right= left-handed transmission lines’, IEEE
Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., 2004, 52, (4), pp. 1142–1149
3 Cheng, K.K.M., and Wong, F.L.: ‘A novel rat-race coupler design for
dual-band applications’, IEEE Microw. Wirel. Compon. Lett., 2005, 15,
(8), pp. 521–523