International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume 9 Number 7 - Mar 2014

Design and Implementation of Coupled-Line

Wilkinson Power Dividers Using Alumina Substrate
Taufiqqurrachman, Hana Arisesa, I Dewa Putu Hernida, Deni Permana#1
#
The First Reseacher, Research Center for Electronics and Telecomunication - Indonesian Institute of Sciences (PPET-LIPI),
LIPI Campuss, Sangkuriang Street, Building 20 - 4th floors, Cisitu, Bandung - Indonesia

Abstract— This paper presents design and implementation of unequal Wilkinson power divider based on asymmetrical
coupled-line Wilkinson power dividers at frequency 2.4GHz using coupled line section is presented in center frequency at 2GHz.
alumina substrate. This design using Wilkinson power dividers In this paper, two-way Wilkinson power dividers used
method where consist of two  impedance in the form of coupled lines has been designed and fabricated on Alumina.
coupled lines on microstrip and one resistor is connected on the
The simulation and measurement result of insertion loss,
both of output ports. Design parameters used in the design of
coupled lines dividers are input and output matching, insertion
return loss/VSWR, and isolation is provided.
loss and isolation between the both output ports. The design
parameters presented in graph on the simulation result from
II. DESIGN METHODOLOGY
ADS2011.10 software simulation and the measurement result In Figure 1 shown the proposed design of Wilkinson power
from vector network analyzer (VNA) R3770 from Advantest. divider using coupled lines layout. The two quarter-
The simulation and measurement results show almost the same wavelength transformer are designed as the symmetrical
results where the return loss is less than -15dB, insertion loss is coupled lines section.
about -3dB and isolation between the output ports is more than -
12dB.

Keywords— Alumina, Coupled-Lines, Wilkinson Power Divider.

I. INTRODUCTION
Power Divider is one of microwave component has commonly
used in communication system. This component used for
splitter power input into a several output with the same
amplitude. The most common method used in the design of
power divider is to use the method Wilkinson power dividers.
The Wilkinson power dividers employing impedance
Fig 1. The proposed design of coupled lines layout.
transformers with a characteristic impedance of and a
lumped isolation resistor of where good matching for all The impedance of input and output ports are 50 ohm,
three ports and high isolation between the output ports can be denoted as Zo. And the quarter-wavelength transformer
achieved. For high frequency applications, chip resistors with influenced by the even and odd mode impedance (Zoe and Zoo)
small dimensions are usually chosen for the isolation resistors where the value is 70.71 ohm. The different of Zoe and Zoo will
[1]. be varying the widths of and spacing between of the coupled
Research on 2-Way Wilkinson power dividers have been lines. To obtain a perfect input matching, we must select Zoe
done before by various methods. Analysis and design of to be and three S-parameters (S11, S21 and S31) are fixed.
compact two-way Wilkinson power dividers using coupled While Zoo influences the output ports matching and isolation
lines and fabricated on duroid 5870 substrate has been [1].
presented in [1]. The coupled lines design has shown the
measurement results better than the conventional design and III. SIMULATION AND MEASUREMENT RESULT
more compact with a reduction in size of more than 50% The coupled lines Wilkinson power divider has designed at
compared to the conventional design. An equal split
2.4GHz center frequencies and used alumina (Er=9.6,
Wilkinson power divider with center frequency of 1.2GHz
H=0.508mm) as the substrate. Figure 2 shows the schematic
was designed, analysis and fabricated on duroid 5880 diagram of the proposed design where physical dimension of
substrate [2]. In [3], 2-Way Wilkinson power dividers at
the proposed design depicted in Figure 3.
frequency 2400MHz has been designed and realization on
In ADS 2011.10 Software, the physical dimension or
duroid 5880 substrates. The Wilkinson power dividers has layout of the proposed design has simulated in
designed use conventional design and good measurement electromagnetic simulation using Method of Moments (MoM).
result on insertion loss, return loss and isolation. In [4], a
Afterwards, the physical dimension of the proposed design is

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 International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume 9 Number 7 - Mar 2014

combined with the resistor isolation as about 100 ohm in

schematic window to simulate the power divider performance.

Fig 2. Schematic diagram of the proposed design.

Fig 4. Simulation result of the proposed design

The photograph of fabricated of the proposed design on

Alumina substrate is shown in Figure 5. The area of the
coupled line dividers and the all areas of the proposed design
are 1.2 cm2 and 2.3 cm2, respectively.

Fig 3. Physical dimension of the proposed design

The simulation result of the proposed design depicted of

S-Parameter about insertion loss (denoted as S12 or S21), return
loss/VSWR (denoted as S11, S22 and S33) and isolation Fig 5. Fabricated of the proposed design
(denoted as S32 or S23) shown in Figure 4. Return loss of the
proposed design is shown a good matching between input and The measurement result of the proposed design from
output ports where input ports matching (S11) is about -34.7dB VNA Advantest R3770 was shown in Figure 6-8.
and output ports matching (S22 and S33) is about -39.9dB.
The power division of the proposed design (denoted as
S12 or S21) was very good because insertion loss at the center
frequency is equal -3.03dB which close to ideal -3.01dB. And
the isolation result (denoted as S23) between the both output
ports is better than -35.76dB.

(a).

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 International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume 9 Number 7 - Mar 2014

(b). Fig 8. Measurement result of isolation (S32)

Measurement result of isolation between the both output

ports is shown in Figure 8. The isolation at the center
frequency is around -12.157 dB where its more different with
simulation results. This caused by the final fabrication of the
proposed design fared slightly worse where the physical
dimensions of the microstrip line not smooth so causes
changes in the value of the impedance as well. Overall the
performance of the coupled-lines Wilkinson power divider is
fairly good can be applied to supporting our RADAR research.

IV. CONCLUSIONS
The coupled-lines Wilkinson power divider has been
designed, simulated and fabricated on Alumina substrate.
(c).
Simulations and measurements show comparable results for
Fig 6. Measurement result of VSWR
the coupled-lines Wilkinson power divider. Insertion loss for
(a). S11 (b). S22 (c). S33
the coupled-lines design was achieved -3.084dB, return loss is
In Figure 6, measurement result of VSWR for the around -34dB (for input ports matching) and -15.56dB (for
proposed design where input port matching (S11) is about output ports matching), and isolation between the both output
1.04 (or return loss about -34.15dB) and output port matching ports is better than -12dB.
(S22 and S33) is about 1.494 and 1.404 (or return loss are
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
about -14.06dB and -15.49dB), respectively.
This project was funded by KOMPETITIF - LIPI for
supporting RADAR project on Research Center for
Electronics and Telecommunication - Indonesian Institute of
Sciences (PPET-LIPI).

REFERENCES
[1] Tang Xinyi, Koen Mouthaan, "Analysis and Design of
Compact Two-Way Wilkinson Power Dividers Using
Coupled Lines", Microwave Conference - APMC 2009
pages 1319-1322.
[2]. Bobba Bajee, Labanowski Dominic, Zajdel Tom, Zeeb
Cameron, "Design and Analysis of an Equal Split
Wilkinson Power Divider', Proposal Design on Jan 11,
2010.
[3]. Taufiqqurrachman, Deni Permana Kurniadi, "Design and
Realization Wilkinson Power Divider at Frequency
Fig 7. Measurement result of insertion loss (S12) 2400MHz for Radar S-band", IOSR Journal of
Electronics and Communication Engineering (IOSR-
Figure 7 shows measurement result of insertion loss of JECE), Vol. X, Issue X (Nov-Dec 2012).
the proposed design where the power division result was fairly [4]. Y. Wu and Y. Liu, "A Unequal Coupled-Line Wilkinson
good at the center frequency about -3.084dB. This indicates Power Divider For Arbitrary Terminated Impedances",
that the distribution of power in the both output ports are at Progress In Electromagnetics Research, Vol. 117,
around -3dB from input power and occurs only a very small page 181-194, 2011.
loss on each output ports.

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