A planar ultra‐wide band asymmetric rat‐race hybrid coupler

In this article, an asymmetric ultra‐wideband rat‐race hybrid coupler with 180° phase shift is proposed. The primary goal of this work is to design a planar ultra‐wideband hybrid coupler with a microstrip structure by avoiding via holes and multi‐layer design. The bandwidth of an asymmetric ring hybrid is enhanced using shorted coupled lines, perturbation impedance techniques, and matching stubs. This hybrid coupler was designed and fabricated using Taconic TLX‐8 substrate with a thickness of 0.5 mm. The results of the simulation and measurement are promising and meet the desired specifications. This hybrid coupler yields a fractional bandwidth of 56% at the center frequency of 5.95 GHz based on ±1 amplitude imbalance between two output ports.     

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.     

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.     

Design of compact rat‐race couplers with enhanced bandwidth

This article presents a method to design compact rat race couplers with improved bandwidth values. The coupler consists of three coupled‐line sections of different electrical lengths and characteristic impedances. First, design equations are obtained by imposing the coupler conditions using a lossless transmission line model. Input impedance matching, isolation, phase, and amplitude imbalances, all four conditions for both the sum and the difference port excitations are considered for bandwidth calculations. Then, an algorithm is developed to solve for the coupled‐line parameters. Considering the limitations of fabrication, guidelines are provided for selecting the right physical parameters according to bandwidth requirement. As an example, a rat race coupler is fabricated that occupies 10% area of a conventional coupler without compromising the bandwidth values. Measurement results shows that the coupler provides 50% of 15 dB return loss bandwidth, 41.7% of 20 dB isolation bandwidth, 15% of ±5° phase imbalance bandwidth, and 62.5% of ±0.5 dB amplitude imbalance bandwidth which are more than those of a conventional 3λ/2 rat race coupler.     

Design of an efficiency‐enhanced Greinacher rectifier operating in the GSM 1800 band by using rat‐race coupler for RF energy harvesting applications

Radio frequency energy harvesting (RFEH) circuits can convert the power of communication signals from radio frequencies (RF) in the environment into direct current and voltage (DC power). In this study, the Greinacher full‐wave rectifier circuit topology was combined with a 180° hybrid ring (rat‐race) coupler which was a passive RF/microwave circuit. Thus, higher RF‐DC conversion efficiency was obtained. First, using the Greinacher rectifier topology, RFEH circuit operating at the center frequency of 1850 MHz was designed. Then, at this frequency, designing of the rat‐race coupler having 1000 MHz bandwidth was made. The S‐parameter measurements and simulation data of the designed coupler circuit were compared. Finally, the high efficiency rectifier circuit where these two circuits were used together was designed. The proposed rectifier circuit was constructed on 70 × 70 × 1.6 mm³ FR4 substrate material with a permittivity of 4.3 (ε_r = 4.3). The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the rectifier circuit, which had 125 MHz bandwidth at the center frequency of 1850 MHz and was developed with rat‐race coupler, was calculated as 71% at 4.7 dBm input power. In addition, with this study, at ?15 dBm input power, which was a relatively low power level, 40% PCE value was obtained.     

Compact reconfigurable rat‐race coupler with tunable frequency and tunable power dividing ratio

A compact reconfigurable rat‐race coupler with tunable frequency and tunable power dividing ratio is proposed for the first time. Varactors and two single control voltages are used to obtain both the tunable frequency and the tunable power dividing ratio in this article. The structure of the rat‐race coupler involves 50 Ω parallel‐strip lines only and a phase inverter is used for size reduction. Theoretical equations for the relationship among S‐parameters and the capacitance of varactors are derived. The graphic method is used to choose capacitance for the desired operation frequency and the desired power dividing ratio. For demonstration, a prototype is designed and fabricated. The measured results show that the rat‐race coupler's frequency and the power dividing ratio can be effectively tuned in 0.69 GHz ～ 0.81 GHz and 3 dB ～ 14 dB, respectively with isolation better than 20 dB, phase difference less than 7°and return loss better than 20 dB. The theoretical simulation, electromagnetic simulation, and measured results show good agreement in this design.     

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.     

Bandwidth improvement of rat‐race couplers having left‐handed transmission‐line sections

A novel broadband rat‐race coupler has been investigated. The coupler utilizes an artificial left‐handed transmission line section for broadband phase response realization. Moreover, a narrowband model of left‐handed section has been shown to prove the couplers equivalent circuit at the center frequency. To broaden the operational bandwidth multisection quarter‐wave transformers have been proposed. The exemplary rat‐race coupler with two‐section impedance transformers has been designed and manufactured. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 24:341–347, 2014.     

Analysis of frequency‐selective impedance loading of transmission lines for dual‐band couplers

This article proposes an analytical design methodology for dual‐band hybrid couplers and baluns structures for any arbitrary frequency ratio using a stub‐loaded transmission line. An analysis of changing the impedance behavior of the stub, is carried out for the two bands of operation, which along with a dispersive analysis, emphasizes certain conditions where the existing methodology is not applicable. In addition, an extra degree of freedom has been included to increase the solutions for a given frequency ratio, thus providing greater flexibility and feasibility of the proposed structure. The design methodology is experimentally validated with the design and fabrication of dual‐band branch‐line and rat‐race couplers for various commercial frequency bands. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE , 2011.     

Cost‐efficient design methodology for compact rat‐race couplers

In this article, a reliable and low‐cost design methodology for simulation‐driven optimization of miniaturized rat‐race couplers (RRCs) is presented. We exploit a two‐stage design approach, where a composite structure (a basic building block of the RRC structure) is first optimized using a pattern search algorithm, and, subsequently, the entire coupler is tuned by means of surrogate‐based optimization (SBO) procedure. SBO is executed with the underlying low‐fidelity model implemented as cascaded response surface approximations (RSAs) of the composite structure. Full‐wave analysis of the entire coupler is required at the tuning stage only. By combining SBO with coupler decomposition and RSA surrogates, the overall cost of the design process corresponds (in terms of CPU time) to less than three electromagnetic simulations of the compact RRC, and results in highly miniaturized structure (82% footprint reduction compared to conventional coupler) that exhibits perfect return loss and isolation (almost ?60 dB at the operating frequency), as well as a strong harmonic and spurious suppression (below ?20 dB) in, approximately, 3–9.5 GHz frequency band. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 25:236–242, 2015.     

A novel dual‐band ring coupler based on dual‐band phase inverter

A novel dual‐band ring coupler based on dual‐band phase inverter is proposed. And two types of dual‐band phase inverters (Type I and Type II) are designed in this article. The design method of dual‐band ring coupler is simpler than the traditional ways like replace the single‐band λ/4 transmission line with dual‐band λ/4 transmission line. Its main idea is replacing the wide‐band phase inverter with dual‐band phase inverter. Two dual‐band ring couplers (0.9/2.88 and 0.9/2.43 GHz) using the two types of dual‐band phase inverter, respectively, are simulated and measured. The measured results validate the proposed method.     

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.     

Miniaturized dual‐band dielectric resonator antenna for IEEE 802.16d fixed WiMAX applications

A miniaturized dual‐band C‐shaped dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) with partial ground plane is presented for IEEE 802.16d fixed WiMAX applications at 3.5 and 5.8 GHz. The design starts with dimensioning a single band cylindrical DRA, which has been transferred to get a dual‐band ring‐shaped DRA. One portion of the ring‐shaped DRA is removed for forming a C‐shaped DRA to get a more compact antenna. For easy fabrication, the compact DRA dimensioned as 60 × 50 × 6.6 mm³ is excited by a microstrip line feeding. The design parameters are inner and outer radii of the C‐shaped antenna and air gap (between DR and ground) to control both the resonating frequency and the quality factor. The result shows peak gain around 3.26 and 5.55 dBi at 3.5 and 5.8 GHz, respectively. The obtained results indicate very good agreement between the simulated and measured results. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 22: 682–689, 2012.     

A compact wide‐band antipodal Vivaldi antenna design

A compact wide‐band antipodal Vivaldi antenna (AVA) is designed in this work. First, the traditional exponentially tapered edge of the radiator is replaced by an arc curve that makes the AVA compact. Second, the AVA is loaded with a “director” and a “convex lens” that improve its high‐frequency performance. The proposed antenna is fabricated and its dimensions measured. It occupies a small volume of 34 × 16 × 0.8 mm³ and provides an operating frequency range from 3.01 to 10.6 GHz with a higher gain in the low frequency region than that of reference antennas. The measured results perfectly coincide with the simulated ones, which demonstrates the feasibility of the novel AVA design.     

Microstrip dual‐band bandpass filters using parallel‐connected open‐loop ring resonators

This article proposes a microstrip dual‐band bandpass filter that uses parallel‐connected open‐loop ring resonators. Compared to many microstrip dual‐band filters, the advantages of using microstrip open‐loop ring resonators are easy calculation (half‐guided‐wavelength), easy fabrication (equal width for all 50‐Ω lines and without grounding holes), and direct connection to external feed lines (reducing insertion loss caused by gap couplings). Another advantage of the filter is an asymmetrical feed on the ring resonator that provides sharp rejections at its adjacent bands. The input and output matches of resonators to the external feed lines are derived using a simple transmission‐line theory. The results of the derivation provide a simple design rule for filter designers. Simulated and measured results are presented with good agreement. The filter has minimum insertion loss of 1.25 dB at 1.85 GHz and 1.6 dB at 2.33 GHz. The 3‐dB fractional bandwidths are 5.9% for the 1.9‐GHz bandpass filter and 4.7% for the 2.4‐GHz bandpass filter, respectively. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2008.     

Compact cell topology selection for size‐reduction‐oriented design of microstrip rat‐race couplers

In this work, we address the problem of compact cell topology selection for miniaturization of rat‐race couplers. The principal objective of the design process is to achieve the smallest possible footprint of the coupler, while maintaining the required levels of electrical parameters imposed on its components. Our approach permits identification of the minimum achievable coupler area, provided that the circuit is composed of a given compact cell and folded lines. This allows for the quantitative assessment of a set of considered cells with respect to the miniaturization capabilities they exhibit under certain design specifications. The proposed method is validated using 6 different cells with unified parameterization to identify the smallest rectangular‐like rat‐race coupler described by 2 design specifications. The obtained results attest that circuit topology and electrical parameters of the reference design are critical factors determining the final miniaturization rate. The proof‐of‐concept prototype devices occupy merely 8% of the conventional coupler area, while preserving fractional bandwidths (20% and 13.5%) of their conventional counterparts. The experimental results confirm the claims inferred from the numerical data.     

Miniaturized dual‐band slot antenna design for GPS,amateur radio and WLAN applications

In this article, miniaturization of dual‐band slot antenna design for GPS, WLAN and amateur radio applications is presented. The proposed dual‐band miniaturized antenna is achieved using slits, rectangular split ring and metallic strips fed by 50 Ω microstrip feed. The first resonant frequency is achieved by loading reference antenna with eight slits that is antenna 1 and the second resonant frequency is achieved by loading with one center slits and rectangular split ring that is antenna 2. Dual‐band antenna is achieved by loading reference slot antenna with nine slits and rectangular split ring which resonates at frequency of 1.52 and 3.03 GHz respectively. As a result, it is achieved 53.79% reduction in first band resonant frequency with 76.07% improvement in ?10 dB bandwidth and 7.90% reduction in second band resonant frequency compared to reference slot antenna. Further, this dual‐band antenna is miniaturized by metallic strips which are placed on the bottom of the substrate. This results in 61.39% reduction in first band resonant frequency with 32.07% improvement in ?10 dB bandwidth and 26.13% reduction in second band resonant frequency in comparison with reference slot antenna topology.     

Inverse modeling for fast design optimization of small‐size rat‐race couplers incorporating compact cells

In the paper, a framework for computationally‐efficient design optimization of compact rat‐race couplers (RRCs) is discussed. A class of hybrid RRCs with variable operating conditions is investigated, whose size reduction is obtained by replacing ordinary transmission lines with compact microstrip resonant cells (CMRCs). Our approach employs a bottom‐up design strategy leading to the development of compact RRCs through rapid design optimization of its building blocks and a subsequent fine tuning to account for parasitic cross‐coupling effects. The fundamental component of the proposed method is an inverse CMRC surrogate model, covering a wide range of cell electrical parameters, and enabling a convenient adjustment of coupler bandwidth. Having the surrogate model established, it is possible to produce close‐to‐optimum CMRC dimensions at a negligible computational cost. The subsequent correction step requires only up to two electromagnetic simulations of the CMRC. The proposed method is demonstrated by designing an RRC for several operational bandwidths. Experimental results are also provided.     

A novel triple notch‐bands ultra wide‐band band‐pass filters using parallel multi‐mode resonators and CSRRs

This article discusses a technique based on combination of multimode resonators (MMR) and complementary split ring resonators (CSRR) to design multi notch‐bands ultra wide‐band (UWB) band‐pass filters (BPF). The proposed structure consists of two parallel multimode resonators, resulting in a dual notch‐band UWB BPF, integrated with a single cell of CSRR to realize the third notch‐band. The mechanism of realizing the notch‐bands is mathematically presented and a triple notch‐bands UWB BPF is designed, simulated and fabricated. The overall size of the proposed filter is reported to be around 36 × 7.7 mm² where a size reduction of around 35% is demonstrated in comparison to the conventional filter. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 24:375–381, 2014.     

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.