Microwave Circuits for laboratory practices

Abstract

The Wilkinson power divider is one of the fundamental device in the RF/microwave community used for splitting or combining signals. It is 3-port device that divides and/or combines power with isolation between the ports. It is composed of simple transmission lines and a resistor, and takes advantage of the properties of quarter-wavelength transmission line sections to provide ideal power divider characteristics.Branch-line coupler is a well known component in RF/microwave front-end systems. It is a 4-port device that divides and/or combines powersimultaneously with port-to-port isolation and 90∘ phase shift. These features make the branch-line coupler extremely useful in various applications such as antenna feeding network, phase shifter, balanced amplifier, and mixer. The bandwidth of the Wilkinson power divider and Branch-line coupler can be enhanced by increasing the number of sections, but the size willbe increased.