Broadband Modified Wilkinson Power Divider Fed

Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna Array

K.P.Ray, K.Nirmala, S.S.Kakatkar, N.S.Madaka and C.P rince

SAMEER, Mumbai., India, 400076, Email: [email protected]

Ahstract-A broadband modified Wilkinson power divider feed Finally, Wilkinson power divider with radial stubs feeding
network for a 4 element antipodal Vivaldi antenna array in the network (referred to as Type 2) having very good return loss
frequency range of 2-6 GHz is presented. A modified Wilkinson
was developed in such a way that power divider feeding a
power divider formed by implementing one radial stub on each
stacked four element planar antenna array shows acceptable
branch is designed to meet the antenna specifications. Measured
results are shown to meet the array specifications. This wideband VSWR. The design as well as measured results for the power
array is useful in applications such as electronic warfare. divider along with Vivaldi antenna array are presented in the
next sections.
Index Terms-Wilkinson Power divider, Antipodal Vivaldi,
wideband array, electronic warfare

II. ANTIPODAL VIVALDI ANTENNA

I. INTRODUCTION
Antipodal Vivaldi antenna design comprises of two main
The Wilkinson power divider/combiner is one of the basic
parts: tapered slot line radiator and feeding transition, which
components in microwave communication systems including
are usually printed on a piece of PCB. The tapered slot
power amplifiers, mixers and phased-array antennas. It has
line radiator is configured by two conducting arms which
matched output ports with high isolation between them [1].
are printed symmetrically on opposite sides of a substrate.
The bandwidth can be increased by adding open stubs[2] or
The flare radiates at different points along its length for
by increasing the number of sections [3]. Several designs have
different frequencies, determined by the flare width [8]. A
been introduced to increase the bandwidth of the traditional
design based on [9] has been considered initially. The choice
Wilkinson power divider [4], [5]. This paper discusses a
of dielectric substrate plays an important role in the design and
modified four-way Wilkinson power divider with equal power
simulation of printed antennas. The substrate choice depends
split, good insertion loss and better return loss on all ports and
upon permittivity, dielectric loss tangent, thermal expansion
satisfactory isolation performance within the whole frequency
and conductivity, cost and manufacturability. The initial width
range (2 to 6 GHz). The designed power divider meets
of the feeding strip and length of balun were modified from
the design specifications when loaded with array elements.
that in [9] to maintain a SO [2 input impedance as well
Measured results have been presented and are shown to meet
as impedance transformation on ArIon substrate having a
the design specifications. The designed power divider can be
thickness of I.SSmm and dielectric constant 2.45. The offset
used as a feeding network for four element antipodal Vivaldi
distance between two elliptically tapered slotIine radiators [10]
antenna array.
and the radii of major and minor axes of tapered ellipses
Tapered slot antennas have been widely used in phased
were also adjusted for optimizing antenna impedance and
and active arrays for radar systems for many years. Vivaldi
radiation performance. The semicircular loadings at the end
antenna has infinite instantaneous bandwidth theoretically [6].
affect the lower operating frequency [11]. Tapering the outer
Thus, wideband directional antennas such as Vivaldi are also
conductor edge provides the convenience for antenna feeding
useful in electronic warfare applications. The antenna may
and additional design degrees of freedom. The ground plate is
also be used in radar and communication applications. These
elliptically tapered where as the twin line is linearly tapered.
antennas are good for shared aperture applications due to their
The antenna placed on xy plane simulated using HFSS soft­
highly stable directional patterns and consistent impedance
ware. It is observed that electric field lines are lying on xy
matching over a very broad operating frequency range without
plane and magnetic field lines are on yz plane and maximum
any tuning elements. They are mostly used in ultra wideband
radiation will be in y-direction ( e = 90 0, ¢ = 90°). The final
and broadband applications [7].
design is realized within a substrate dimension of 81 x86 mm
An input return loss of better than 7.5 dB for the integrated
as shown in Fig.I. The measured return loss for this antenna
feed network and antenna assembly was desired. To this
is shown in Fig.2. The return loss is seen to be better than 10
end, Wilkinson Power divider and Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna
dB from 2.1 to 6 GHz. The simulated pattern for this antenna
having return loss better than 10 dB was developed initially.
is shown in Fig.3 for a frequency of 6 GHz. It is observed
But it was seen that 4 element array in combination with the
that E and H field 3 dB beamwidth at 6 GHz are 49° and
power divider (referred to as Type 1) did not provide good
75° respectively. This antenna can be used as an element in
VSWR.
phased arrays for wide band wide angle scanning because of
978-1-4799-2174-4/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE its wide beam width in both the planes and also providing wide
bandwidth. The element spacing in the array was optimized having a dielectric constant of 3.38 and thickness of 60 mils
for total maximum realized gain across the band. was selected. FigA shows schematic diagram of the two way
power divider. The impedances of input and output ports of
the proposed power divider are both 50 [2 and the optimized
characteristic impedances Zl, Z3 of the first and second
branch transmission lines are equal to 79.5 ohms but electrical
lengths are different where as the characteristic impedances
of Z2 and ZS are 98 and 50 [2 respectively. Radial stub(Zs)
is used for impedance matching element in the designing
of RF and microwave band pass filters. Since this divider
is symmetric, even and odd mode analysis can be used to
determine the parameters for the proposed power divider. To
enhance output ports' isolation, 100 [2 resistors are used. Three
such microstrip power dividers, one at the input and one after

Figure l. Geometry of Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna each output of input power divider form the proposed four­
way power divider used for feeding the four element array.
The measured results of the proposed four-way power divider
o show good return loss, insertion loss and isolation performance
across the band from 2 to 6 GHz. The initial design when
-10

OJ
� -20

Pol12
(Output)
- 30

-40

1.5 2.02.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0

PorI 3
F requency (GHz) (Output)

Figure 2. Measured Return loss of Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna Element

Figure 4. Schematic Diagram of two way Power Divider in the frequency
range of 2 to 6 GHz

measured with array gave a worst case return loss of 4.9

dB over the frequency range of 2 to 6 GHz. Optimization
of bandwidth of the power divider was achieved by altering
the radius of the radial stub and simulating the performance in
HFSS. For optimum return loss, the radius of radial stub Rs is
1.85mm. The final optimized design dimensions of two-way
power divider are given in Table I.

Table T
LAYOUT DIMENSIONS FOR OPTIMIZED POWER DIVIDER
-180

Input/output lines(50!1) WO LO
Figure 3. Simulated E and H field pattern of antenna at 6 GHz Port 1,2 & 3 (mm) 3.36 17.14
- -- E-Plane - - - - - H-Plane Power divider Branch lines WI Ll W2 L2
Dimensions (ZI ,Z2 ,Z3 and Zs) (mm) 1.49 11.84 0.93 0.57
W3 L3 Rs ex
III. 4-WAY MODIFIED WILKINSON POWER
1.49 2.93 1.85 90°
DIVIDER

Generally, the bandwidth of a Wilkinson power divider can

be improved by cascading multi-section matching networks
at two output ports of a single Wilkinson power divider or The measured Return loss for the four-way power divider
using multilayer PCB technology. But, the size of the circuit with this design is shown in Fig. 5 and the measured insertion
increases and insertion loss becomes poor. In this paper, a loss(S21) and isolation are shown in Fig.6. It can be seen
4-way power divider in frequency range 2 to 6 GHz based from Fig.5 that the return loss of Type 2 power divider with
on stepped impedance open circuited radial stub concept is optimized radial stubs is better than that of Type 1 without
proposed, and the design consists of a symmetric structure, so radial stubs. The loss incurred in the power divider is around
an equal power division is guaranteed. Rogers 4003 substrate 2.2 dB at 6 GHz as seen from Fig.6.
 o 20

15
-10

�1O
co -20 .�
� '"
5

-30
o
1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6
-40 Frequency IGHz)
1. 5 2 2. 5 3 3. 5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6
Frequency IGHz)
Figure 8. Measured Gain of 4 element Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna Array

Figure 5. Measured Return loss of 4 way Wilkinson Power Dividers

- - - - - Type I (without radial stub) -- Type 2 (with radial stub)

1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0
Frequency (GHz)

Figure 6. Measured S-Parameters of Modified Wilkinson Power Divider

Figure 9. Photograph of 4 element Vivaldi Antenna Array
(Type 2)
--- Measured Insertion IOSS(S21)
- - - - -Measured Isolation (S23)
IV. C ONCLUSIONS

A stacked four element Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna array

The measured return loss of power divider with array using
with Broadband modified Wilkinson power divider feeding
this design is shown in Fig.7 and was found to be better than
network has been realized in order to meet the design speci­
7.5 dB over the band as required. The array return loss with
fication of 7.5 dB return loss over the 2 to 6 GHz band. This
Type 1 power divider is also shown in Fig.7 for comparison.
paper presents the detailed design and measured results of

0
Broadband Modified Wilkinson Power Divider, the Antipodal
Vivaldi Antenna and its array. The developed Wilkinson power
divider has measured return loss better than -10 dB, insertion
· 10 loss of 2.2 dB at 6 GHz and isolation better than 15 dB over the
band. The array achieves a good gain of better than 8 dB over
most of the band and better than 7 dB over the entire band. The
co 20
�
·
final fabricated array with power divider shows satisfactory
� impedance matching and radiation performance due to highly
Vl�
H optimized broadband modified Wilkinson Power Divider. The
· 30
designed array may be used in wideband applications such as
electronic warfare or for communication over multiple bands.

·40
1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5. 5 6 REFERENCES
Frequency (GHz)
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