Hindawi Publishing Corporation

International Journal of Antennas and Propagation

Volume 2015, Article ID 658102, 7 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/658102

Research Article
Compact Unequal Power Divider with Filtering Response

Wei-Qiang Pan,1 Jin-Xu Xu,2 Kai Xu Wang,2 and Xiao Lan Zhao2
1
Information Network Engineering Research Center, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China
2
School of Electronic and Information Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China

Correspondence should be addressed to Jin-Xu Xu; xjinxu@126.com

Received 16 November 2014; Accepted 30 December 2014

Academic Editor: Nima Chamanara

Copyright © 2015 Wei-Qiang Pan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

We present a novel unequal power divider with bandpass responses. The proposed power divider consists of five resonators and a
resistor. The power division ratio is controlled by altering the coupling strength among the resonators. The output ports have the
characteristic impedance of 50 Ω and impedance transformers in classical Wilkinson power dividers are not required in this design.
Use of resonators enables the filtering function of the power divider. Two transmission zeros are generated near the passband edges,
resulting in quasielliptic bandpass responses. For validation, a 2 : 1 filtering power divider is implemented. The fabricated circuit
size is 0.22 𝜆 g × 0.08 𝜆 g , featuring compact size for unequal filtering power dividers, which is suitable for the feeding networks of
antenna arrays.

1. Introduction designs needs to be reduced. For miniaturization, the filtering

and power splitting circuits can be highly integrated together
Power dividers are widely used in radio frequency (RF) front- [15–18]. However, this method has not been applied to
ends, such as in power combining networks and antenna unequal filtering power divider designs.
arrays [1, 2]. The power ratio of the conventional Wilkinson
In this paper, a novel unequal power divider with fil-
power divider is controlled by adjusting the characteristic
tering responses is proposed. The circuit consists of a
impedance of the branch lines. Impedance transformers are
half-wavelength resonator and four quarter-wavelength res-
required at the two output ports in unequal power divider
onators as well as an isolation resistor. By adjusting the cou-
designs [3]. Based on the schematic of the classical Wilkinson
power divider shown in Figure 1, lots of power dividers have pling strength among the resonators, unequal power division
been designed in recent years, including the high power ratios can be obtained. All the ports have the impedance of
division ratio dividers [4], the arbitrary power division ratio 50 Ω and the impedance transformers are not required at
ones [5], out-of-phase ones [6], dual-band ones [7, 8], and the output ports. The quasielliptic bandpass responses are
spurious-suppressed ones [9, 10]. obtained by using cross coupling. Based on the proposed
Apart from power dividers, bandpass filters (BPFs) are idea, an example circuit is designed with the compact size
also essential parts in many RF front-ends. The two kinds of 0.22 𝜆 𝑔 × 0.08 𝜆 𝑔 , where 𝜆 𝑔 is the guided wavelength at
of passive components consume a large area. To reduce the the operating frequency. Good power division and bandpass
size, they can be integrated [11–18]. In [11, 12], the quarter- responses are observed in the experiment.
wavelength transformers in Wilkinson power dividers are
replaced by BPFs. This method can also be used to design 2. Analysis and Design of the Proposed
unequal power dividers [13]. The filtering circuits can also Filtering Unequal Power Divider
be used to replace the impedance transformers at the output
ports of unequal power dividers, resulting in dual functions Figure 2 shows the schematic diagram of the proposed
[14]. However, the circuit size of the above two unequal filtering power divider with the port impedance of 50 Ω. The
2 International Journal of Antennas and Propagation

Z1 Port 2

Port 1
R Impedance
transformers

Z2

Port 3

Figure 1: Schematic of the classical Wilkinson power divider.

Resonator 2
Port 2
k23 (50 Ω)
k12

Resonator 3
Resonator 1 k13

R
Port 1
(50 Ω) k13󳰀
Resonator 3󳰀

k12󳰀 k2 󳰀 3 󳰀
Port 3
Resonator 2󳰀 (50 Ω)

Figure 2: The schematic diagram of the proposed filtering power divider.

circuit consists of five resonators and a resistor. Ports 1, 2, to calculate the resistance. Herein, we use the simulation to
and 3 are connected to resonators 1, 2, and 2󸀠 . Resonators choose the resistance for good matching and high isolation
2 and 3, 2󸀠 and 3󸀠 are coupled to resonator 1. This is the between ports 2 and 3. As shown in Figure 4, various kinds of
same as the equal filtering power divider design in [17]. resistance result in different matching status at ports 2 and 3 as
However, the coupling strengths are different in this design well as different isolation effect between ports 2 and 3. Taking
to obtain an unequal power ratio. If the coupling strength into account the port matching and isolation, the resistance
among resonator 1 and resonators 2 and 3 is different from is chosen as 6.8 kΩ.
that among resonator 1 and resonators 2󸀠 and 3󸀠 , the power As for the filtering responses, resonators 1, 2, and 3 as
injected to resonator 1 will be unequally split. Thus, the well as resonators 1, 2󸀠 , and 3󸀠 form two filtering networks
unequal power division ratio can be realized by altering the and thus bandpass responses can be realized, which is similar
coupling strength, which is different from classical unequal to the design in [17]. Figure 5(a) shows the filtering network
Wilkinson power dividers as shown in Figure 1. Moreover, between port 1 and port 2 (or port 3). It consists of three
the port impedance is 50 Ω and the impedance transformers resonators. The solid and dash lines denote the electrical
at the output ports in Figure 1 are not required, resulting in and magnetic couplings, respectively. Figure 5(b) shows the
compact size. In order to realize good matching and high bandpass response of the filtering network. Two transmission
isolation between ports 2 and 3, a resistor is added between zeros are generated at both sides of the passband by crossing
resonators 3 and 3󸀠 . coupling, resulting in high selectivity.
The circuit can be analyzed by the even-odd-mode Based on the above schematic, a filtering power divider
method. When even-mode excitation is applied at ports 2 is designed with the 2 : 1 power ratio. Figure 6 shows the
and 3, the voltages at both sides of isolation resistor are microstrip configuration of the proposed circuit. Resonator
equal to ensure that there is no current flowing through 1 is a half-wavelength one and the others are quarter-
the isolation resistor. Thus, the resistor can be eliminated, wavelength ones. To realize the required unequal power ratio
resulting in the circuit shown in Figure 3(a). For odd-mode and obtain good filtering performance, the coupling strengths
excitation, opposite polarity voltages are applied to ports 2 among the resonators are determined as follows: 𝑘12 = 0.08,
and 3. Then the overall structure can be divided into simple 𝑘13 = 0.31, 𝑘23 = 0.1, 𝑘12󸀠 = 0.01, 𝑘13󸀠 = 0.2, and 𝑘2󸀠 3󸀠 = 0.04.
circuits as shown in Figures 3(b) and 3(c). However, due The coupling strengths among resonator 1 and resonators
to the existence of the coupling in the circuit, it is difficult 2 and 3 are stronger than the corresponding ones among
International Journal of Antennas and Propagation 3

Resonator 2
Port 2

Resonator 3
Resonator 1

Port 1
Resonator 3󳰀

Resonator 2󳰀

Port 3
(a)

Resonator 2
Port 2

Resonator 3
Port 1 Resonator 1

R/3

(b)

Resonator 1 2R/3

Port 1
Resonator 3󳰀

Port 3
Resonator 2󳰀

(c)

Figure 3: (a) The schematic diagram of the even-mode circuit; (b), (c) the schematic diagram of the odd-mode circuit.

resonators 1, 2󸀠 , and 3󸀠 . Thus more power is coupled to port 2, 3. Experiment

resulting in the 2 : 1 power division ratio.
The proposed filtering unequal power divider can be For demonstration, a 2 : 1 filtering power divider is imple-
designed as follows. Firstly, the desired passband frequency mented. The substrate used in this design has a relative
can be obtained by controlling the length of the resonators dielectric constant of 3.38, a thickness of 0.81 mm, and a loss
to be half or quarter guided wavelength. Secondly, the tangent of 0.0027. The dimensions are chosen as follows: 𝑊 =
resonators are combined using the configuration in Figure 3 0.5 mm, 𝐿 1 = 7 mm, 𝐿 2 = 3.5 mm, 𝐿 3 = 3.5 mm, 𝐿 4 = 18.7 mm,
and the coupling strengths are tuned to realize the power 𝐿 5 = 9 mm, 𝐿 6 = 3.9 mm, 𝐿 7 = 0.8 mm, 𝐿 8 = 23.3 mm, 𝐿 9 =
ratio and bandpass responses. The third step is to adjust the 0.8 mm, 𝐿 10 = 8.2 mm, 𝐿 11 = 20.3 mm, 𝐿 12 = 3.3 mm, 𝐿 13 =
resistance to obtain the good isolation and port matching. 7.8 mm, 𝐿 14 = 0.7 mm, 𝐿 15 = 1.9 mm, 𝐿 16 = 12.9 mm, 𝐿 17 =
4 International Journal of Antennas and Propagation

0 0

−5 −5

−10
−10

|S33 |
|S22 |

−15
−15
−20

−20
−25

−30 −25
0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4
Frequency (GHz) Frequency (GHz)
(a) (b)
0

−10

−20
|S23 | (dB)

−30

−40

−50

−60

0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5

Frequency (GHz)

R = 100 Ohm R = 6800 Ohm

R = 2000 Ohm R = 20000 Ohm
(c)

Figure 4: Various values of the isolation resistance for (a) 𝑆22 , (b) 𝑆33 , and (c) 𝑆23 .

1.7 mm, 𝐿 18 = 20.9 mm, 𝐿 19 = 4.8 mm, 𝐿 20 = 1.8 mm, 𝐿 21 = generated at 0.75 GHz and 1.2 GHz, resulting in quasielliptic
4 mm, 𝐿 22 = 25.3 mm, 𝐿 23 = 7.4 mm, 𝐿 24 = 2.7 mm, 𝐿 25 = bandpass responses. The comparison with other works is
27.3 mm, 𝐿 26 = 4.9 mm, 𝑔1 = 0.15 mm, 𝑔2 = 0.15 mm, 𝑔3 = tabulated in Table 1. It is seen that the proposed circuit has
0.3 mm, 𝑔4 = 0.25 mm, and 𝑅 = 6.8 kΩ. The overall size of the a small size and a relative high isolation in a wide frequency
fabricated filter is 44.1 mm × 17.2 mm (or 0.22 𝜆 𝑔 × 0.08 𝜆 𝑔 ). range up to 2𝑓0 .
The photograph of the fabricated filter is shown in Figure 7.
The simulation is carried out using IE3D and the results
are measured on the network analyzer Agilent E5071C. 4. Conclusion
As shown in Figure 8, the measured center frequency 𝑓0
is 920 MHz, with the fractional bandwidth of 6.5%. The This paper has presented a compact unequal power divider
measured 𝑆21 and 𝑆31 are −2.76 dB and −5.78 dB, respectively. with quasielliptic bandpass responses. A new method has
Since the ideal 𝑆21 and 𝑆31 are −1.7 dB and −4.7 dB for 2 : 1 been proposed to design the unequal power dividers by
unequal power divider, it indicates that the proposed design altering the coupling strength among the resonators. No
obtains 2 : 1 power ratio with the insertion loss of 1.1 dB and impedance transformer is required at the two output ports.
magnitude imbalance of less than 0.1 dB. It is noted that both The design methodology and experimental results have been
the filtering and power division functions are integrated and presented. Good performance has been obtained together
the loss can be considered low. The passband return loss of with the compactness. The unequal filtering power division
𝑆11 , 𝑆22 , and 𝑆33 is greater than 20 dB. The isolation is higher responses and compact circuit size make the proposed circuit
than 17 dB from DC to 2.6𝑓0 . Two transmission zeros are useful for feeding networks of antenna arrays.
International Journal of Antennas and Propagation 5

−10

Resonator 3
−20

Magnitude (dB)
Resonator 1󳰀󳰀 Resonator 2 −30
Port 1 Port 2
(or port 3)
−40

−50
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
Frequency (GHz)

|S21 |
|S11 |

(a) (b)

Figure 5: (a) The filter network between port 1 and port 2 (or port 3); (b) bandpass response of the filtering network.

Port 2
L2
L4 L5

g1
L8
L1 Via
g2
L6

L9 L 11 L 14 L7
W L3
L 10 L 12
L 13
Port 1
R
L 16
L 15
L 19 L 18 L 17
L 23
L 20
g3

L 26 g4 L 22 L 21

L 25 L 24

Port 3

Figure 6: Configuration of the microstrip filtering unequal power divider.

Table 1: Comparison with previous work.

𝑓0 (GHz) In-band isolation (dB) Isolation up to 2𝑓0 Size (𝜆 𝑔 2 ) Bandpass response

[10] 2.65 >22 >5 0.009 No
[11] 2.4 >15 >5 0.174 Yes
[16] 2.05 >20 >10 0.125 Yes
[17] 0.92 >20 >20 0.021 Yes
This work 0.92 >17 >17 0.018 Yes
6 International Journal of Antennas and Propagation

Figure 7: The photograph of the fabricated filter.

0 0
−5 |S11 | |S22 | and |S33 |
|S21 | −10
−10
−15 Magnitude (dB) −20
Magnitude (dB)

−20 −30
−25 |S31 | |S23 |
−40
−30
−35 −50
−40
−60
−45
−50 −70
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
Frequency (GHz) Frequency (GHz)

Simulated Simulated
Measured Measured
(a) (b)

Figure 8: Simulated and measured results of the filtering power divider.

Conflict of Interests International Journal of Antennas and Propagation, vol. 2009,

Article ID 830931, 8 pages, 2009.
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests
[3] Y. Wu, Y. Liu, S. Li, and C. Yu, “Extremely unequal Wilkinson
regarding the publication of this paper. power divider with dual transmission lines,” Electronics Letters,
vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 90–91, 2010.
Acknowledgments [4] Z. Zhang, Y.-C. Jiao, S. Tu, S.-M. Ning, and S.-F. Cao, “A
miniaturized broadband 4 : 1 unequal wilkinson power divider,”
This work is supported by NSFC under Grant no. 61271060 Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications, vol. 24, no.
and by Guangdong Natural Science Funds under Grant 4, pp. 505–511, 2010.
S2012010008742. [5] J.-L. Li and B.-Z. Wang, “Novel design of wilkinson power
dividers with arbitrary power division ratios,” IEEE Transac-
tions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 58, no. 6, pp. 2541–2546, 2011.
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