Frequenz 2023; 77(1–2): 23–27

Maryam Shirzadian Gilan* and Farhad Gholami

Design and fabrication of an ultra compact Gysel

power divider with harmonic suppression by
using U shaped resonators
https://doi.org/10.1515/freq-2021-0207 the E-plane, H-plane and T-junction waveguides. After that,
Received September 9, 2021; accepted August 12, 2022; by inventing strip line and Microstrip lines, they were used
published online August 23, 2022
in the redesign of power dividers because of their cheap
properties and surface structure [1].
Abstract: In this paper, a new design of Gysel power
Two typical categories of power dividers are Wilkinson
divider with good performance and very compact size is
and Gysel power dividers. Gysel power dividers have large
presented. In this design, rectangular resonators and U
size and some merits compared with Wilkinson types [1–3].
shaped transmission lines are used. Operating frequency
So, due to have some merits, efforts for reducing the size of
that is considered is 580 MHZ. The proposed power divider
Gysel power divider are important. Both of them suffer from
only takes 15.83% of the area of the corresponding con-
harmonics. Therefore, getting a compact power divider
ventional Gysel power divider. Proposed equal low pass
with harmonic suppression and high performance simul-
filters are replaced with transmission lines and the har-
taneously is still an ongoing challenge. Many studies about
monics suppression is also improved. In this design, 10
miniaturization and harmonic suppression on the power
harmonics are suppressed. Finally, the proposed power
dividers have been done [4–9]. In this article, a very
divider is fabricated and a good match is found between
compact Gysel power divider that reduces occupied area to
the simulation and measurement results.
approximately 85% with suppression of 10 harmonics is
Keywords: Gysel power divider; harmonic suppression; presented.
low pass filter; miniaturization.

2 Low pass filter design

1 Introduction
Filters can be used to optimize the Gysel power divider
The power dividers are important three ports elements for [1–5]. In this paper, instead of the 70.7Ω lines in the Gysel
working in microwave devices and antenna systems. As
power divider, equal low pass filters with proper features
their name suggests, they are responsible for power split-
are used, Which will eliminate the harmonics and will
ting, when their input port is triggered. Furthermore, they
minimize it. The proposed filter is shown in Figure 4 with
are used for mixing the power in the opposite direction [1].
w17 = 5.2 mm, w18 = 2.55, w19 = 5.1 mm, w20 = 4.6 mm,
So, a power divider is a critical component in microwave
w21 = 4.1 mm [12–16]. For determining the design param-
communication systems. Power dividers are used as basic
eters of filter, first the LC equivalent circuit related to the
parts in microwave systems. They can be used as feeding
resonators and the values related to the inductors and ca-
networks for an antenna array, power amplifier and mixer
pacitors of the LC equivalent circuit are obtained by the
[2]. For example, Figure 1 shows a phased array antenna
method described in references 12 and 14. Finally, by
that uses power divider.
obtaining the values of inductors and equivalent circuit
Many types of power dividers/combinators were
capacitors, the dimensions of each resonator are calculated
invented in the MIT Radiation Laboratory in 1940, including
[12, 14].
The values of capacitances (Cx) and inductances (Lx)
are computed using open ends and high-low impedance
lossless lines formulas, [14]. Equations (1) and (2) express
*Corresponding author: Maryam Shirzadian Gilan, Department of
these formulas, where Zs is the characteristic impedance of
Electrical Engineering, Kermanshah Branch, Islamic Azad University,
Kermanshah, Iran, E-mail: maryam.shirzadian@gmail.com
the lines and λg in Equations (1) and (2) is calculated by the
Farhad Gholami, Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of width of lines [14] (λg is the calculated guided wavelength
Engineering, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran at operating frequency).
24 M. Shirzadian Gilan and F. Gholami: Ultra compact Gysel power divider by U shaped resonator

Figure 1: Phased array antenna with 4 elements including three

power dividers.

1 2π
Lx = × Z s × sin( L) (1)
ω λg

1 1 π
Cx = × × tan( L) (2)
ω Zs λg

The design procedure is such that a simple resonator is

first introduced and reduced by Minimization methods.
The final filter will be designed by combining the resona-
tors together. Finally, these resonators are combined and a
power divider is designed.
In the first step, resonator 1 was designed. This reso-
nator consists of placing a step impedance resonator on a
straight high impedance line. This resonator produces a
transmission zero at a frequency of 1.513 GHz. This trans-
mission zero results in a cut off frequency at 1.14 GHz
(Figure 2). It was observed that this resonator does not have
a suitable bandwidth and acceptable sharpness. For this
reason, other resonators were used to improve response
and increase cut off bandwidth and sharpness. Spiral or U
shaped resonators have been used to reduce the filter size
and so the power divider size.
In the second step, suitable attenuation units were
considered to produce transmission zero in the cut-off band.
Rectangular resonators were selected for this purpose
(Figure 3).
It is observed that the added rectangular structures
produce a strong transmission zero at a frequency of
4.19 GHz. Due to the power of this transmission zero, the
cut-off bandwidth of the filter increases up to 4 GHz. These
resonators also shift the first transmission zero to lower
frequencies, resulting in increased sharpness. As the first
transmission zero, which was in the first step at 1.513 GHz,
has shifted to 1.413 GHz. It was observed that at this stage,
Figure 2: (a) Resonator 1 structure (b) frequency response.
the cut-off bandwidth of the filter is 4 GHz. But to remove the
harmonics in the final power divider, a suitable bandwidth
(at least up to 5 GHz) is required in the filter structure. So, in
the third step another structure was designed to improve this
factor (Figure 4). In this step, two resonators consisting of
microstrip lines of different lengths are added to the struc-
ture. So, the cut-off bandwidth has been upgraded.
In this filter, the cutoff band is up to 5.66 GHZ with an
attenuation level of more than 20 dB. Meanwhile, the
bandwidth of the filter transition (sharpness) is 240 MHz,
which is suitable for replacement in a divider (Figure 4). So,
it was observed that the desired specifications of a filter
were improved step by step.
3 Gysel power divider
The conventional Gysel power divider is depicted in Figure 5
[10]. This structure consists of 70.7 Ω lines and 90° angle.
Also, there are two 100 Ω resistors for isolation between the
λ
output ports. In the power divider structure, the 4
 M. Shirzadian Gilan and F. Gholami: Ultra compact Gysel power divider by U shaped resonator 25

Figure 4: (a) proposed filter (b) frequency response.

Figure 3: (a) Resonator 2 structure (b) frequency response.

√̅
transmission lines have an impedance equal to 2 Z 0 , which
is equivalent to 70.7 Ω and an electrical length of 90°. So,
designed low-pass filter is used instead of 4λ transmission
lines. This structure will improve the efficiency of this power
divider in terms of size reduction, elimination of unwanted
harmonics, increase of bandwidth and wide stop band. The
filter removes the harmonics.
Figure 6 shows proposed Gysel power divider by using
designed low pass filter with w22 = 6.46, w23 = 1,
w24 = 1.84, w25 = 3.8, w26 = 4.4, w27 = 7 [12–16].
The structure is simulated with ADS simulator and for
verification, this power divider is fabricated on Rogers
4003 PCB with a relative permittivity of 3.38 and a 31 mm-
thick substrate. In Figure 7, fabricated power divider is
shown. Results of simulation and fabrication for proposed
power divider are shown in Figures 8 and 9. Figure 5: The conventional Gysel power divider [10].
26 M. Shirzadian Gilan and F. Gholami: Ultra compact Gysel power divider by U shaped resonator
Figure 6: proposed Gysel power divider.
Figure 7: Fabricated Gysel power divider.
Figure 8: Frequency response of s11 and s21.
Figure 9: Frequency response of s22 and s23.
The considered operating frequency is 580 MHz. In
addition, the bandwidth of proposed power divider is equal
to 22% (470–680 MHz). In operating frequency, losses of
port 1 and port 2, isolation, and transmission losses are
S11 = 17 dB, s22 = 37 dB, s23 = 34 dB, s21 = 3.09 dB. The
physical size of the circuit is 34.5 × 63 mm, which is equal to
the electrical size 0.200λg × 0.109 λg, where λg is the guided
wavelength at the operating frequency. By regard to the
size of a typical Gysel power divider at 580 MHz, the ob-
tained size of proposed power divider is equal to 15.83% of
the size of a typical Gysel power divider at this frequency.
The proposed power divider operates in the same way as
the conventional one [10], but effectively rejects the second
to tenth (2–10) spurious harmonics by 16, 27, 24, 61, 60, 70,
 M. Shirzadian Gilan and F. Gholami: Ultra compact Gysel power divider by U shaped resonator 27

Table : Performance comparisons among published Gysel power dividers and the presented one.

Ref. Relative area (%) Harmonic Suppression (dB)

nd rd th th th th th th th

Conv.  – – – – – – – – –
[]    – – – – – – –
[]  – . –  – – – – –
[]    – – – – – – –
[]  . . .  . . . – –
This work .         

48, 35 and 19 dB, respectively. As shown in Figures 8 and 9.
It is evident from the Table 1 that the proposed power
divider has good features among the other power dividers.
4 Conclusions
In this research, a novel design for compact Gysel power
divider with higher order harmonic rejection has been
described using a new low pass filter. The proposed power
divider operates at 580 MHz and it has been simulated,
fabricated and measured. Moreover, the results show that
the proposed structure is more compact than other pub-
lished power dividers and it can suppress more harmonics
than others that these are good results for this power
divider. So, the proposed power divider is suitable to be
applied in small size circuits with higher order harmonic
suppression.
Author contributions: All the authors have accepted
responsibility for the entire content of this submitted
manuscript and approved submission.
Research funding: None declared.
Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no
conflicts of interest regarding this article.
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