Dual‐band branch‐line hybrid with distinct power division ratio over the two bands

This article presents a novel methodology for the design of transmission line‐based dual‐band branch‐line hybrid with distinct power division over any two specified frequencies. These distinct power divisions at specified frequencies are achieved while keeping the quadrature relation intact at both the frequencies. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique, a prototype of dual‐band uneven branch‐line hybrid operating at 1960 and 3500 MHz has been designed for use in Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) applications. The designed hybrid possesses equal power division in the WCDMA band and 3‐dB unequal power division in the WiMax band. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2013.     

Analytical method for optimal design of RF dual‐band rat‐race couplers for arbitrary frequency ratios

This article presents an analytical method to design a hybrid structure dual‐band rat‐race coupler at microwave frequencies. The proposed structure uses six identical cells of which each is engineered to work as a quarter wavelength transmission line with proper characteristic impedance at two distinct frequencies having arbitrary frequency ratio. The performances of the π‐ and T‐cells are studied to assess their ability to provide the required electrical parameters for dual‐band operation. It is demonstrated that the single‐section π‐topology can only lead to a suboptimal design for a dual‐band rat‐race cell at two nonharmonic frequencies. In contrast, the proposed double‐section π‐cell structure allows achieving an optimal dual‐band cell design. A dual‐band rat‐race coupler designed at 2.14 and 3.6 GHz has been simulated and fabricated in hybrid microstrip technology. Measurement results agree well with analytically based simulation results, which demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed structure for dual‐band operation. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 22: 690–700, 2012.     

Novel compact dual‐narrow/wideband branch‐line couplers using T‐Shaped stepped‐impedance‐stub lines

This article presents a compact model to reduce the physical size and increase the frequency ratio between the second and first resonance frequencies of a dual‐function stepped‐impedance‐stub (SIS) line, which was subsequently employed in the realization of dual‐band branch‐line couplers. The proposed model comprises of a loaded spiral T‐shaped SIS that reduces the size of a conventional SIS line as well as improving its frequency ratio. The proposed model behaves exactly similar to the recently developed dual‐band resonators with the advantage of size reduction of ～35% as well as having a wide range of realizable frequency ratios between 1.4 and 3.7 compared to 1.7–2.7 and 1.8–2.3 for the conventional SIS and T‐shaped transmission‐lines, respectively. Dual‐narrowband and wideband branch‐line couplers were developed based on the spiral T‐shaped SIS lines. The dual‐wideband device's bandwidth was enhanced by 2.7% accompanied by a size reduction of 58.6% in comparison with the conventional dual‐wideband couplers operating at the same frequencies. The theoretical results were verified by measurement. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2011.     

Dual‐band artificial transmission lines branch‐line coupler

By using short‐circuited Composite Right/Left‐Handed Transmission Lines as loading stubs, and Purely Right‐Handed Artificial Transmission Lines, a Dual‐Band Branch‐Line coupler is presented. The adoption of such technologies adds degrees of freedom with respect to other already proposed design techniques, thus allowing the development of a very compact device, and a larger flexibility in the choice of the two operating frequencies and corresponding bandwidths. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2008.     

Miniaturized wide‐band rat‐race coupler

New designs of wide‐band rat‐race couplers are proposed. The wide‐band operation is achieved with the use of the microstrip nonuniform transmission line sections for the branches of the conventional rat‐race coupler. The design formulas are developed using ABCD matrix and the even‐ and odd‐mode analysis. The theoretical analysis has been verified by measurements of the two manufactured wideband rat‐race couplers, one operate within 0.85–1.92 GHz and other within 1.55–3.55 GHz frequency range with the equal normalized characteristic impedance functions. For both fabricated couplers, the isolation parameter is better than 15 dB over a 77% relative bandwidth. Also, it is shown that the designed wide‐band rat‐race coupler can be realized in higher frequency bands with the fixed fractional bandwidth. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 23: 675–681, 2013.     

Multisection branch line couplers as dual‐band crossovers using coupled lines for wideband applications

This article presents multisection branch line couplers as dual‐band crossovers using coupled lines (CLs) for wide bandwidth (BW) applications. The efficiency of the CL as a dual‐band impedance transformer and its closed form design equations has also been explored. Specifically, dual‐band crossovers having three and four sections have been designed using the advanced design system software and then implemented on a Rogers 5870 substrate with a dielectric constant of 2.33 and thickness of 0.787 mm. The designs have been developed for 1 and 2.6 GHz operating frequency bands. A much wider BW and interband suppression, of 225/218 MHz and 86.45% for the three‐section prototype and 269/260 MHz and 85% for the four‐section prototype respectively, have been achieved. It is concluded that the proposed crossovers exhibited a much wider BW as compared to the existing dual‐band crossovers.     

Fast simulation‐driven feature‐based design optimization of compact dual‐band microstrip branch‐line coupler

Design of miniaturized microwave components is a challenging task. On one hand, due to considerable electromagnetic (EM) cross‐couplings in highly compressed layouts full‐wave EM analysis is necessary for accurate evaluation of the structure performance. Conversely, high‐fidelity EM simulation is computationally expensive so that automated determination of the structure dimensions may be prohibitive when using conventional numerical optimization routines. In this article, computationally efficient simulation‐driven design of a miniaturized dual‐band microstrip branch‐line coupler is presented. The optimization methodology relies on suitably extracted features of a highly nonlinear response of the coupler structure under design. The design objectives are formulated in terms of the feature point locations, and the optimization is carried out iteratively with the linear model of the features utilized as a fast predictor. The entire process is embedded in the trust‐region framework as convergence safeguard. Owing to only slightly nonlinear dependence of the features on the geometry parameters of the circuit at hand, the optimized design satisfying prescribed performance requirements is obtained at the low computational cost of only 24 high‐fidelity EM simulations of the structure. Experimental validation of the fabricated coupler prototype is also provided. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 26:13–20, 2016.     

An efficient method of designing dual‐ and wide‐band power dividers with arbitrary power division

Capability of microstrip nonuniform transmission lines (MNTLs) for construction of dual‐band and broadband unequal Wilkinson power dividers with arbitrary‐way, arbitrary frequency band operations, and arbitrary power divisions is evaluated. Also, the MNTL transformers are introduced for dual‐band/broadband matching of the unequal output impedances of the MNTL power divider with arbitrary output terminal impedances. The strip width of MNTLs is considered variable and is written as a truncated Fourier series expansion. To show the validity of the design procedure, three experimental MNTL Wilkinson power dividers, which are dual‐band two‐ and three‐way power dividers with different power divisions working at 1 and 3.4 GHz and one broadband equal power divider working from 0.4 to 1.8 GHz, have been designed and fabricated. In the first ones with power division of 1.5, outputs isolation and ports matching of less than ?30 dB are achieved. Next, an extended recombinant structure is presented for achieving three‐way MNTL power dividers with dual‐band operation. The measured isolation between outputs and ports matching are better than 30 dB and measured forward transmissions are between ?4.87 and ?5.45 in two passbands of the divider. Also, for the proposed broadband divider, the measured isolation between the outputs is better than 13 dB in 127% desired bandwidth. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2013.     

Multiple design approach of dual‐band Wilkinson power divider with arbitrary transmission line ratio

A dual‐band (DB) Wilkinson power divider with multiple design approach is proposed in this article, which consists of two‐section transmission lines (TLs) with arbitrary length ratio, one parallel LC circuit, and one resistor. Compared with the former works with equal physical lengths, the total physical size of the two‐section TLs can be decreased effectively. For a given DB frequency ratio, the maximum size reduction can be newly summarized as (n‐1)/(2n), where n indicates the length ratio of two‐section TLs. From the close‐formed design equations, multiple solutions of circuit parameters are newly summarized for DB operation, thus circuit design could be much more flexible and more efficient. Furthermore, in order to compact the proposed circuit size, compensation technology for two coupled‐line sections is also considered in circuit fabrication. Finally, design charts and an experimental circuit show good agreement with the theoretical simulation. Compared with the former work under the same design conditions: f₂/f₁ = 3.2, f₁ = 1 GHz and f₂ = 3.2 GHz, the proposed work provides compact circuit size and the size reduction is 25% with n = 2, m = 1.     

Miniaturized dual‐band metamaterial inspired antenna with modified SRR loading

A miniaturized dual‐band CPW‐fed Metamaterial antenna with modified split ring resonator (SRR) loading has been presented in this paper. Proposed antenna comprises a tapered rectangular patch with a slot in which an elliptically SRR has been loaded to achieve miniaturization. Proposed antenna shows dual band operations in the operating band 3.25‐3.42 and 3.83‐6.63 GHz, respectively. It has been observed that lower mode (at 3.36 GHz) is originated by means of modified SRR. SRR is being modified by small meandered line inductor which is placed instead of strip. This provides an extra inductance to SRR resulting miniaturization. Overall electrical size of the proposed antenna is 0.222 × 0.277 × 0.017 λ₀ at 3.36 GHz. Second band is due to coupling between feed and ground planes. The antenna offers an average peak gain of 1.72 and 3.41 dB throughout the first and second band respectively. In addition to that this antenna exhibits perfect omnidirectional and dipolar radiation patterns at xz‐ and yz‐ plane respectively. Due to consistent radiation pattern, ease of fabrication, and compact nature this antenna can be used for wireless applications such as worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX), industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band, WLAN/Wi‐Fi bands.     

Complementary metamaterial transmission line for monoband and dual‐band bandpass filters application

A novel composite right‐/left‐handed transmission line (CRLH TL) and its equivalent circuit model are proposed based on cascaded complementary single split ring resonator (CCSSRR). It features an intrinsically balanced wider band and an additional transmission zero above the right‐handed band relative to CRLH TL using complementary single split ring resonator and complementary split ring resonators. Moreover, two single negative (SN) metamaterial (MTM) TLs constructed by using complementary electric inductive‐capacitive resonator on the conductor strip and on the ground, respectively, are researched. Both SN MTM TLs exhibit electric resonance above the fundamental magnetic resonance. For application, a monoband (MB) bandpass filter (BPF) covered WLAN band, and a dual‐band (DB) BPF covered satellite DMB band and WiMAX band are designed, fabricated, and measured. The SN MTM TLs are adopted for the sake of deep and wide out‐of‐band suppression while CRLH MTM TLs using square‐shaped and Sierpinski‐shaped CCSSRR are critical factors of the MB and DB behavior. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2012.     

Design of dual‐band microstrip patch antenna with right‐angle triangular aperture slot for energy transfer application

This work focusing on the dual‐band antenna design with rectifying circuit for energy transfer system technology for enhancement gain performance. The air gap technique is applied on this microstrip antenna design work to enhance the antenna gain. The work begins with designing and analyzing the antenna via the CST Microwave Studio software. After validation on acceptable performance in simulation side is obtained, the return loss, S₁₁ of the antenna is measured using vector network analyzer equipment. The rectifier circuit is used to convert the captured signal to DC voltage. This projected dual‐band antenna has successfully accomplished the target on return loss of ?44.707 dB and ?32.163 dB at dual resonant frequencies for 1.8 GHz and 2.4 GHz, respectively. This proposed antenna design benefits in low cost fabrication and has achieved high gain of 6.31 dBi and 7.82 dBi for dual‐band functioning frequencies.