Ultra-wideband Power Dividers for Emerging Beamforming System

Abstract

In this paper, a compact and ultra-wideband power divider (PD) is presented based on vertically installed planar (VIP) structure. Tight coupling can be realized in compact size by vertically installing a substrate onto a horizontal one, which can easily generate ultra-wideband performance. For validation, two-way and four-way VIP PDs are designed, fabricated and measured. The operating bands defined by 10-dB return loss and isolations are realized from 1.16 GHz to 3.62 GHz and 1.24 GHz to 3.58 GHz respectively. Excellent performance with low amplitude and phase difference imbalances within 0.42-dB and ±20 can be achieved with circuit sizes of 0.53×0.15×0.05 Al and 1.08 × 0.29 × 0.05 Al. To further highlight the ultra-wideband ability, the four-way ultra-wideband PD is employed to feed a rectangular aperture antenna array. The stable radiation pattern and a simulated bandwidth of 97.6% demonstrate the outstanding ultra-wideband performance of the beamforming system.