IEEE MICROWAVE AND WIRELESS COMPONENTS LETTERS, VOL. 27, NO.

3, MARCH 2017 257

Design Equations for a Coupled-Line Type

Filtering Power Divider
Chih-Jung Chen, Member, IEEE, and Zhen-Cheng Ho

Abstract— We derive the design equations for a coupled-line

type filtering power divider. With the design equations that give
analytical solutions to the design parameters, the power divider
can be designed for a desired two-pole Chebyshev or Butterworh
bandpass response. The power divider stands out from those
in the literature, by both simple design procedure and layout.
The design procedure using the derived equations is demon-
strated with two proof-of-concept prototypes, fabricated on a
20-mil-thick RO4003C substrate.
Index Terms— Bandpass filter, coupled line, filtering power
divider, power divider.
Fig. 1. Configuration of the filtering power divider. The design parameters
are labeled with the column vectors.
I. I NTRODUCTION

R F AND microwave systems often require several

bandpass filters and power dividers. In order to enhance
the degree of integration and reduce losses in RF and
microwave systems, many researchers have been proposing
solutions to the joint design of bandpass filters and power
dividers, i.e., filtering power dividers [1]–[8].
Resonators are the constituent parts of a microwave band-
pass filter. Accordingly, the amount of effort involved in
design and implementation of a microwave bandpass filter is
proportional to the complexity of the resonators. For the design
of planar microwave filters, transmission lines are the simplest
form of resonators. Thanks to the well-developed formulas that
facilitate the conversion between the electrical and physical
parameters, we can easily use nomograms or CAD tools to
analyze or synthesize single and coupled transmission lines.
In this letter, we derive the design equations for a coupled-
line type filtering power divider shown in Fig. 1. With the
design equations that give analytical solutions to the design
parameters, the power divider can be designed for a desired
two-pole Chebyshev or Butterworth bandpass response.
The power divider stands out from those in the litera-
ture [1]–[8], by both simple design procedure and layout.
The design procedure using the derived equations is demon-
strated with two proof-of-concept prototypes, fabricated on a
20-mil-thick RO4003C substrate.
II. D ESIGN E QUATIONS
The power divider is composed of two identical two-pole
bandpass filters [9] and an isolation resistor. There are
Manuscript received October 25, 2016; accepted December 21, 2016. Date
of publication March 1, 2017; date of current version March 9, 2017. This
work was supported in part by the Ministry of Science and Technology,
Taiwan, under Grant MOST 105-2221-E-019-010, and in part by EDA tools
and measurement services from the National Chip Implementation Center,
Taiwan.
The authors are with the Department of Communications, Navigation, and
Control Engineering, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung 20224,
Taiwan (e-mail: cjchen@ntou.edu.tw).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LMWC.2017.2661968
1531-1309 © 2017 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
eight design parameters in Fig. 1, including five normalized
impedances, i.e., z 1 , z e1 , z o1 , z e2 , and z o2 , and three electrical
lengths at the center frequency f c , i.e., ψ, θ , and φ.
Due to the symmetry, we can analyze the power
divider using even–odd mode decomposition technique. The
S-parameters of the power divider can be obtained as [10]
S11 = S11e (1a)
√
S21 = S21e / 2 (1b)
S22 = (S22e + S22o )/2 (1c)
S32 = (S22e − S22o )/2 (1d)
where S••o and S••e are the S-parameters of the odd- and
even-mode circuits in Fig. 2(a) and (b).
A. Odd-Mode Analysis
In Fig. 2(a), the output impedance can be calculated as
z e2 + z o2
z OUT = j tan ψ (2)
2
which is independent of z L . The equivalent circuit seen at
port 2 is shown in Fig. 3, according to (2). The following
even-mode analysis will show that the difference between
the values of (z e2 + z o2 )/2 and z 1 can be small for designs
having narrow or moderate bandwidths. In other words, the
two transmission lines in Fig. 3 can be generally approximated
as one quarter-wave transformer. This odd-mode equivalent
circuit is, therefore, similar to that of the Wilkinson power
divider.
As a result, |S22o | of the filtering power divider can approach
zero at around the center frequency, a behavior like that of
the Wilkinson power divider. When |S22o | is negligible, the
performance of the power divider is determined by the even-
mode circuit, according to (1a)–(1d).
B. Even-Mode Analysis
The even-mode circuit in Fig. 2(b) can be modeled
by Fig. 4 [9], which is a two-pole bandpass filter in the
258 IEEE MICROWAVE AND WIRELESS COMPONENTS LETTERS, VOL. 27, NO. 3, MARCH 2017

Fig. 4. Equivalent circuit for even-mode circuit.

Fig. 2. Schematic circuits of the power divider. (a) Odd-mode circuit.

(b) Even-mode circuit.

Fig. 5. Theoretical performance of the filtering power dividers.

(a) Example 1, designed for a fractional bandwidth of 10% and a passband
ripple of 0.1 dB. The baseline is the ideal | S21 | of the Chebyshev response.
Fig. 3. Equivalent circuit for odd-mode circuit seen at port 2. (b) Example 2, designed for a fractional bandwidth of 30% and a Butterworth
response. The baseline is the ideal | S21 | of the Butterworth respons.
generalized form. In Fig. 4, B is the susceptance of the TABLE I
resonator. Its slop parameter can be approximated as [9] D ESIGN PARAMETERS FOR E XAMPLES 1 AND 2
π
b≈ . (3)
4z 1
We can then realize a desired bandpass response with the
even-mode circuit in Fig. 2(b), for a given set of the fractional
bandwidth  and the element values, i.e., g1 , g2 , and g3 .
Among the design parameters, we first assign the values and z 1 is estimated to be smaller than /g1, according to (6)
of ψ and z 1 . Solutions to the others can be derived as [9] and the fact that π/4 < 1. Such a difference can be reasonably
√ small, depending on the filter response, i.e.,  and g1 .
2 g1 g2
θ = 90° √ (4a)
2 g1 g2 +  III. D ESIGN E XAMPLES
√
4 g1 g2
φ = 90° (4b) In this section, we use lossless elements to study the theoret-
4g1 g2 − 2 ical performance of the filtering power dividers. Two examples
√ √
2g1 z 1 + π + 2 csc ψ g1 z 1 π are presented. The first example is designed for a fractional
z e1 = z 1 (4c) bandwidth of 10% and a passband ripple of 0.1 dB, while the
2g1 z 1 − π cot2 ψ
√ √ second one is designed for a fractional bandwidth of 30% and
2g1 z 1 + π − 2 csc ψ g1 z 1 π a Butterworth response.
z o1 = z 1 (4d)
2g1 z 1 − π cot2 ψ For the element values that are, respectively, √ given by
√
4g1 z 1 + π + 2 csc ψ g1 z 1 π g1 = 0.843 and g2 = 0.622, and g1 = g2 = 2, the design
z e2 = z 1 (4e) parameters listed in Table I are either assigned or calculated
4g1 z 1 − π cot2 ψ
√ using (4a)–(4f). As indicated in Fig. 5(a) and (b), the filtering
4g1 z 1 + π − 2 csc ψ g1 z 1 π power dividers achieve the desired bandpass responses, and
z o2 = z 1 . (4f)
4g1 z 1 − π cot2 ψ good in-band isolation between the output ports.
Note that g3 is absent in the equations, due to g1 = g2 g3 for
the element values of a two-pole filter. IV. M ICROSTRIP R EALIZATION
We can now evaluate the difference between the trans-
The design examples are implemented in microstrip on a
mission line characteristic impedances in Fig. 3, by
20-mil-thick RO4003C substrate that has a dielectric constant
using (4e) and (4f) to obtain
of 3.365 and a loss tangent of 0.003. The filtering power
z e2 + z o2 4g1 z 1 + π dividers are designed to have a center frequency of 1 GHz.
= z1 . (5)
2 4g1 z 1 − π cot2 ψ With the design parameters listed in Table I, we con-
ducted full-wave simulations using Keysight’s Momentum
For coupled lines longer than 73°, (5) can be approximated as to take into account the parasitic and high-order effects.
 
z e2 + z o2 π The photographs of the fabricated power dividers are shown
≈ z1 1 + (6) in Fig. 6(a) and (b). The circuit sizes, respectively, amount
2 4g1 z 1
to 0.1λg × 0.51λg and 0.12λg × 0.51λg , where λg is the
due to the fact that cot2 ψ is smaller than 0.1 when ψ is larger guided wavelength of 50- microstrip lines at the center
than 73°. The difference between the values of (z e2 + z o2 )/2 frequency f c .
CHEN AND HO: DESIGN EQUATIONS FOR A COUPLED-LINE TYPE FILTERING POWER DIVIDER
Fig. 6. Photographs of the fabricated filtering power dividers. (a) Example 1.
(b) Example 2.
Fig. 7. Comparison of simulated and measured results for the fabricated
power divider of example 1. (a) |S11 | and |S22 |. (b) |S21 | and |S32 |.
Fig. 8. Comparison of simulated and measured results for the fabricated
power divider of example 2. (a) |S11 | and |S22 |. (b) |S21 | and |S32 |.
The simulated and measured results for the fabricated
power dividers are, respectively, shown in Figs. 7 and 8.
Note that, in Figs. 7 and 8, a normalized frequency axis
is used to make comparison easier, because the mea-
sured results have a slight shift in the midband frequency.
While f c = 1 GHz for the EM-simulated results, it is
0.95 GHz for the measured results. The measured results
show that the frequency shift is about 5%, and the in-band
insertion losses are, respectively, around 4.2 and 3.8 dB.
Moreover, the measured in-band amplitude and phase
imbalances are less than 0.08 dB and 1.2°, as shown
in Fig. 9(a) and (b).
Table II compares the fabricated power dividers with those
in the literature, though we propose an analytical treatment
of filtering power dividers, which is a contribution that can-
not be seen in Table II. In addition, further size reduction
for the power dividers is possible by, for example, using
259
Fig. 9. Measured results for the imbalances, i.e., |S31 | − |S21 | and S31 −
S21 , and group delays. (a) Example 1. (b) Example 2.
TABLE II
C OMPARISON OF D IVIDERS IN THE L ITERATURE
bended stubs in place of the straight ones, as can be seen
in Fig. 6(a) and (b).
V. C ONCLUSION
We present the design equations (4a)–(4f) for a coupled-
line type filtering power divider. The design equations give
analytical solutions to the design parameters, and the design
of filtering power dividers for desired frequency responses is,
therefore, facilitated. In addition, with the concept presented
in this letter and [9], higher order filtering power dividers can
be designed for better selectivity.
R EFERENCES
[1] X.-L. Zhao, L. Gao, X. Y. Zhang, and J.-X. Xu, “Novel filtering
power divider with wide stopband using discriminating coupling,” IEEE
Microw. Wireless. Compon. Lett., vol. 26, no. 8, pp. 580–582, Aug. 2016.
[2] Y. C. Li, Q. Xue, and X. Y. Zhang, “Single- and dual-band power
dividers integrated with bandpass filters,” IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory
Techn., vol. 61, no. 1, pp. 69–76, Jan. 2013.
[3] X. Y. Zhang, K.-X. Wang, and B.-J. Hu, “Compact filtering power
divider with enhanced second-harmonic suppression,” IEEE Microw.
Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 23, no. 9, pp. 483–485, Sep. 2013.
[4] C.-F. Chen and C.-Y. Lin, “Compact microstrip filtering power dividers
with good in-band isolation performance,” IEEE Microw. Wireless Com-
pon. Lett., vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 17–19, Jan. 2014.
[5] K. Song, Y. Mo, and Y. Fan, “Wideband four-way filtering-response
power divider with improved output isolation based on coupled lines,”
IEEE Microw. Wireless. Compon. Lett., vol. 24, no. 10, pp. 674–676,
Oct. 2014.
[6] F.-J. Chen, L.-S. Wu, L.-F. Qiu, and J.-F. Mao, “A four-way microstrip
filtering power divider with frequency-dependent couplings,” IEEE
Trans. Microw. Theory Techn., vol. 63, no. 10, pp. 3494–3504, Oct. 2015.
[7] S.-F. Chao and W.-C. Lin, “Filtering power divider with good isolation
performance,” Electron. Lett., vol. 50, no. 11, pp. 815–817, May 2014.
[8] P.-H. Deng and Y.-T. Chen, “New Wilkinson power dividers and
their integration applications to four-way and filtering dividers,” IEEE
Compon., Packag., Manuf. Technol., vol. 4, no. 11, pp. 1828–1837,
Nov. 2014.
[9] C.-J. Chen, “Design of parallel-coupled dual-mode resonator bandpass
filters,” IEEE Compon., Packag., Manuf. Technol., vol. 6, no. 10,
pp. 1542–1548, Oct. 2016.
[10] D. M. Pozar, Microwave Engineering, 4th ed. New York, NY, USA:
Wiley, 2011.