NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering

DESIGN AND INNOVATION PROJECT

DESIGN OF NARROWBAND AND BROADBAND WILKINSON POWER DIVIDER

Group Number: Supervisor Name: Student Name: Date:

07 Dr. Jeffrey Fu Dr. Lee Ching Kwang Huang Guangpu Qing Songlin 31 May, 2006

Table of Contents
Table of Contents.....................................................................................................................3 Abstract.....................................................................................................................................4 1 Introduction.......................................................................................................................5 2 Design Method..................................................................................................................6 3 Calculations.......................................................................................................................8 4 Evaluation by Simulations..............................................................................................10 4.1 Sigle-section Wilkinson power divider...................................................................10 4.2 Multi-section power divider.....................................................................................13 5 Discussion and Recommendations.................................................................................16 6 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................18 7 Reference List.................................................................................................................19

Abstract
Wilkinson power divider is a lossless, 100% efficient, three port network with matched outputs. It splits an input signal into two equal phase output signals. Two sorts of Wilkinson power dividers were investigated in our project: narrowband Wilkinson in phase 3dB power divider (11.5-12.5 GHz), and broadband Wilkinson in phase 3dB power divider (6-18 GHz). The broadband Wilkinson power dividers were designed on the basis of the single-section circuit with more than two sections employed. It was found that the Wilkinson power dividers cannot perform well with theoretical values. However, this problem could be solved by fine tuning.

Introduction

Power divider/splitter is a passive microwave component used for power division or power combining. One major type, known as Wilkinson power divider, is a lossless three port network with one input port and two output ports, where the output ports are simultaneously isolated and matched [4]. It could be applied to balance amplifiers, highpower transmitters, and antenna array feed networks [1]. There are two types of Wilkinson power divider, namely equal power divider and unequal power divider. In our investigation equal power divider, which splits an input signal into two equal phase output signals, was designed and applied accordingly. Moreover, singlesection and multi-section Wilkinson power dividers were constructed to operate in narrowband (11.5-12.5GHz) and broadband (6-18 GHz) regions respectively [2]. In this report, method of schematic design, graphic design, layout design, and Gerber design for fabrications will firstly be introduced, followed by evaluation through simulations. Then related discussions and further recommendations will be presented and conclusion will be drawn.

Design Method

Power divider usually employs quarterwave transmission line sections at the design center frequency, and Wilkinson power consists of two quarterwave line segmetns at the center frequency f0 with characteristic impedance 2Z0, and a 2Z0 lumped resistor connected between the output ports [2]. Such is the design of Wilkinson power divider that it provides low loss, equal-split (ideally 3 dB) matching at all ports and high isolation between output ports (figure 1) [4].

Figure 1 Wilkinson equal power divider

As shown in the figure above, there are four different sections [2]. 1. Input port 2. Quarter-wave transformer 3. Isolation resistors 4. Output ports Input and output ports are identical with impedance value Z0 [2] . Quarter-wave transformer parts are characterized by the length of these parts, which are equal to one fourth of the wavelength of the electromagnetic wave, which is propagating in this three port network. This length is also related to the operation frequency g [5]. Nominal Wavelength 0 * Centre frequency f = Phase velocity V0

Operation wavelength g =

no min al _ wavelength 0

The quarter-wave transformers are used in the circuit since they lead to the matched ports. Matching of the output ports is necessary for better power transfer from input to output, because if the output ports are matched, the reflected power from the network when we input some amount of power is zero. This means, there is no reflection from the outputs and all of the power is transmitted to the output ports [3]. Isolation resistor is to isolate the output ports. If there is a coupling effect between output ports, in other words, the power comes from one output port has an effect on the other output port, the perfect division of the power would be impossible. This isolation resistor avoids the coupling effects of the output ports [2]. Output ports are the terminals that divided power comes out. These ports have the same impedance value Z0 as the input port [2].

Calculations

As provided, the micro strip circuit was constructed on a substrate with Er = ErNorm = 2.5 and h=0.75mm. There are two ways to determine the width of the quarter-wave transformer. First method is the graph method, where from the figure below (figure 2), width-height ratio could be figured out to be 2.8, therefore w = 2.8*0.75 = 2.1mm.

Figure 2 Microstrip characteristic impedance as a function of w/h and r And the width could be also determined by calculation method using the following equations. For w/h < 1

eff =

( + 1) ( 1) h w + (1 + 12 ) 0.5 + 0.04(1 ) 2 2 2 w h

For w/h > 1 8

 eff =

( + 1) ( 1) h + (1 + 12 ) 0.5 2 2 w

Applying the above equations to verify the value obtained through graph method: w=2.08mm, which is very close to 2.1. Therefore, w=2.1mm. As mentioned in the design method section, input and output impedances are of the same impedance of the isolation resistor Z0 = 50, where the quarter wave length transformer maintain the impedance of 2 Zo = 70.7 . Nominal Wavelength 0 * Centre frequency f = Phase velocity V0 Or 0 = v0 3 * 10^8 = = 25mm f 0 12 * 10^10 no min al _ wavelength 0 = 25 2.5 = 15.81mm

Operation wavelength g =

Then the length of quarter-wave transformer is 3.95mm.

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4.1

Evaluation by Simulations
Sigle-section Wilkinson power divider

Based on the calculations shown above, the first phase design of narrow-band Wilkinson power divider was constructed on a substrate with Er=2.5 and H=0.75 mm(figure 3). The first design made use of the existing Wilkinson power divider model in Micro-Wave Office database by applying the calculated values.

Figure 3 Schematic representation of narrowband Wilkinson power divider (first phase design) However, the first phase design was not ready for fabrication; more detailed circuit should be designed. By adding bends and junctions and carefully adjusting the values, a secondphased design of narrowband Wilkinson power divider was constructed (figure 4).

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Figure 4 Schematic representation of single-section Wilkinson power divider (first design) From narrow-band power divider second phase design, the following optimied result could be obtained (Graph5).

Figure 5 Schematic illustration of performance of Narrow-band Wilkinson power divider design 11

In the figure above, S21, S31 are the voltage ratios from the output ports to input port. Theoretically, power ratio of equal three-port Wilkinson power divider is 0.5 since the input signal is equally divided into two parts. Therefore, voltage ratios

S21, S31 =

P2 = P1

1 = 0.707 and S21, S31 = 20log0.707 = -3dB [4]. 2

From the figure above, it could be observed that an upward parabolic curve with a peak value of -3.1559dB at the central frequency, approximately the ideal value -3dB; the voltage gain at Frequency 11.5 GHz and 12.5 GHz are -3.2543dB and -3.2333 dB respectively, which are within the range of +/-0.1 dB with respect to the centre frequency gain. Applying larger scale on y-axis, voltage gain, we are able to get a flat top with -3 dB gain value in the narrow band region, 11.5~12.5 GHz. The result is of satisfaction considering the acceptable errors and defects in the design. Moreover, curves of S21, S31 overlap together, indicating a good equal division of the input signal [6]. The layout of the narrow-band Wilkinson power divider second phase design is shown below (figure 6). The green rectangle is the resisitor.

Figure 6 Layout of narrow-band Wilkinson power divider (left:2D right: 3D)

The dimension of the narrow-band Wilkinson power divider is 20.26 mm*14.13mm, so the whole micro stripe circuit can be confined within a 1 inch* 1 inch substrate. The size of the resistor is 1.3mm* 2.0mm. 12

The design shown above could effectively split input power into two equal phase output signals in narrowband region 11.5~12.5 GHz. However, its performance is poor for broadband frequency signals. In fact, broadband matching could be achieved through multi-stage imposition of single stage equal power dividers.

4.2

Multi-section power divider

Multi-section power divider is approached upon the basis of narrow-band Wilkinson 3 dB power divider (figure 7). With more isolation from the resistor in each stage, better performance is expected from the design [3].

Figure 7 Schematic representation of broadband Wilkinson power divider Multi-section power divider was also designed on the basis of the same substrate with Er=2.5 and H=0.75 mm.

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From broad-band power divider design, the following optimized result could be obtained (figure 8).

Figure 8 Schematic illustration of performance of Broad-band Wilkinson power divider design As mentioned previously, S21, S31 are the voltage ratios from the output ports to input port and S21, S31 = 20log0.707 = -3dB. From the figure above, we can observe an oscillating curve with a central peak of -3.109dB. And the values of other peaks except the last one are also close to -3.109dB. The value at the centre frequency 12GHz is -3.16dB, approximately the ideal value -3dB; the voltage gain at Frequency 6GHz and 18GHz are -3.359dB and -4.839dB respectively. Applying larger scale on y-axis, voltage gain, we are able to get a flat top with -3 dB gain value in the region from 6GHz to 17GHz. However, the ratio declines sharply after 17GHz due to elementary limitation of the micro-stripe circuit. The layout of the broad-band Wilkinson power divider is shown below (figure9).

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Figure 9 Layout of broad-band Wilkinson power divider (left:2D right:3D)

Figure 11 Layout of broad-band Wilkinson power divider-3D The dimension of the broad-band Wilkinson power divider is 25 mm*14 mm, so the whole micro stripe circuit can be confined within a 1 inch* 1 inch substrate. The size of the resistor is 1.3mm* 2.0mm.

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Discussion and Recommendations

Parameter ajustment:

It was found that both the narrowband and broadband Wilkinson power dividers cannot perform well with the theoretical values after adding the junctions and bends. For simplicity, only narrowband Wilkinson power divider is taken out for illustration. Although our first phase design (figure 3) which made use of the model in MWO database could effectively divide the input signal into two equal output signals, the second design which includes bends and junctions could not perform well. Therefore, it is necessary to tune the values. For single-section Wilkinson power divider, the values to be adjusted are shown below (figure 10).

Figure 10 Notation of parameters in single-section Wilkinson power divider As observed, the center of curves for S21, S31 shifted to the left of 12GHz after adding the bends and junctions. To increase the center frequency, lengths of the transformers should be decreased. Moreover, in order to keep curves of S21 and S31 overlapping, symmetric lengths were adjusted to a same value (eg. L2 and L3, L4 and L5).

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It was found that values of L1, L10 and L11 did not affect the output much. And so was R1, where the reason might be that no current flows through the resistor in equal Wilkinson power divider. Other lengths (from L2 to L9) were carefully adjusted to get the optimized result (figure 3). Generally, except L4 and L5 were increased a bit, other lengths were all decreased (chart 1).
Name Value(mm) Name Value(mm) L1 5.9 L7 0.4 L2 3.5 L8 0.4 L3 3.5 L9 2.05 L4 4.3 L10 5.9 L5 4.3 L11 5.9 L6 2.05 R1 100

Chart 1 Parameters of narrowband Wilkinson power divider 2 Error analysis: Refer to figure 5 and 8; For narrow band power divider design, the

value at the centre frequency 12GHz is -3.1599dB, approximately the ideal value -3dB, (3.1599-3)/3=5.33% 5% ; the voltage gain at Frequency 11.5 GHz and 12.5 GHz are -3.2543dB and -3.2333 dB respectively, (3.2543-3)/3=8.48% 10% (3.2333-3)/3=7.78%
10 %. Therefore, the graph is within the desired range, and it would be approximately

ideal. For broadband power divider design, at the centre frequency 12GHz is -3.16dB; the voltage gain at Frequency 6GHz and 18GHz are -3.359dB and -4.839dB respectively. (3.16-3)/3=5.33% 10% (3.359-3)/3=11.97% 15% (4.839-3)/3=61.3% 65% Design defect: By choosing different micro-stripe elements, e.g. MBEND90X Mitered 90deg (EM Based) and MCURVE function differently as they work most effectively in different frequency range. In actual design, MCURVE adds to the transformer wavelength extra length, which affects the frequency response of the divider, while MBEDN90X does not contribute any extra length due to geometrical property. Recommendation: The performance of 3-dB Wilkinson Power Divider could be effectively improved by fine-tuning and layout adjustment. Tuning process takes place among the symmetrical micro-stripe length in the schematic circuit e.g. L6 and L9 (Figure10) should maintain the same value in order to keep output voltage ratio in phase.

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Conclusion

Wilkinson equal power divider is a passive microwave component which could effectively divide input power into two identical output parts without any power loss, power gain ratio -3 Db. It basically contains four parts: one input port, quarter-wave transformers, isolation resistor and two output ports. In this report, 3 dB Wilkinson Power Divider design, singlestage and multi-stage, were approached based on related theories and calculation. It was found that the isolated resistor absorbs no power, and the quarter-wave transformers length affects the output ports power gain and phase difference. Single section Wilkinson power divider splits input power with frequency range 11.5-12.5 GHz, and the narrowband design could be extended to broadband design applying three single stages together. Possible errors and defects of both single-stage and multi-stage Wilkinson power dividers were investigated to optimize the result in the design.

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[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Reference List
Brady Dana, The design, fabrication and measurement of microstrip filter and coupler circuits, High Frequency Electronics., Jul 2002. I. KASA, Microwave Integrated Circuits, Elsevier, 1991. Mitsuyoshi Kishihara et al., A Design of Multi-Stage, Multi-Way Microstrip Power Dividers with Broadband Properties IEEE MTT-S Digest, 2004. Howe, Stripline Circuit Design, Artech House, 1974. Helszajn, Microwave Planar Passive Circuits and Filters, Wilery, 1994. Internet Source: http://www.microwaves101.com/encyclopedia/Wilkinson_splitters.cfm

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