A Universal Method for the Design and Synthesis of Wideband Directional Couplers using Non-Uniform Coupled Transmission Lines

J. Nehring , M. Hofmann , C. M nker , R. Weigel , G. Fischer and D. Kissinger u

for Electronics Engineering, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg Cauerstr. 9, 91058 Erlangen, Germany, nehring@lte.eei.uni-erlangen.de University of Applied Sciences Munich, Lothstr. 64, 80335 Munich, Germany
Institute

AbstractIn this paper a complete procedure for the design, synthesis and construction of wideband directional couplers is presented. Cascading multiple quarter-wavelength line segments leads to an increase of coupling bandwidth up to 180 % but also results in discontinuities of geometry and thus in strong reections. Furthermore, the isolation is diminished. To avoid these effects a design technique for the generation of continous, nonuniform geometries is analyzed and implemented. Two methods for the coupler synthesis are proposed and compared. One is an approximational approach and uses two sets of equations. The other uses accurate 2D eld simulation of the propagating modes and is universally applicable to any kind of coupled transmission lines. The completely synthesized couplers are simulated in CST Microwave Studio and achieve very good results for coupling, isolation and return loss. A nominal -10 dB wideband coupler at a center frequency of 15 GHz and a nominal bandwidth of 164 % is built in a multilayer stackup. Good agreement between measurement and simulation results is observed.

I. I NTRODUCTION Directional couplers are important components of numerous microwave systems. In this paper, the design and synthesis of wideband directional couplers from 3 GHz to 27 GHz is investigated. The basic idea behind broadband coupler design is to cascade several /4 coupled line segments. In [1] a mathematical approach to determine the coupling values of the single line segments is described and as a result prototypes for chosen coupling characteristics are given. Based on those prototypes, Tresselt [2] developed a theory to transform the cascades into a continuously changing geometry resulting in non-uniform coupled transmission lines. These show improved performance regarding directivity and return loss whereas bandwidth remains constant. Uysal makes use of Tresselts theory in [3] and [4] but focuses on microstrips and inhomogeneous media where it is necessary to equalize the difference in phase velocity between even mode and odd mode (i.e. wiggly lines) [5]. An approach in homogeneous media is shown in [6], where wiggling is not necessary and design equations from [7] are used in order to generate a non-uniform geometry from a given continuous coupling function. Although methods exist to equalize the difference of propagation velocity between even mode and odd mode in in-

homogeneous media, the construction of broadband couplers in homogeneous media produces better results regarding directivity as there is no difference of phase velocity at all. Thus, in this paper homogeneous media requiring a multilayer stackup are used in order to achieve optimum performance. Contrary to previous approaches, a method for the synthesis of non-uniform coupled line structures based on iterative 2D mode calculations with CST Microwave Studio is proposed. Utilizing modern eld simulators it produces exact results and thus is an advanced procedure compared to previous approximate methods. Reducing the simulation to a 2D problem and establishing an intelligent algorithm with re-use of previous data the time needed for the synthesis of a complete coupler can be minimized. The method is universal because the algorithm is independent of the chosen transmission line structure and can easily be applied to any kind of coupled transmission lines. The theory of wideband directional coupling is fundamental for the procedure of synthesis and will be explained in the next section. In order to prove the advantages of the proposed universal method an approximate method is implemented and the results are compared. Furthermore, the construction of a wideband directional coupler in a multilayer stackup is described and measurements results are shown. II. W IDEBAND D IRECTIONAL C OUPLING A. Cascading In most coupling structures the bandwidth of coupling is limited by /4-conditions in geometry. An increase of bandwidth is achieved by cascading several /4-line segments. Fig. 1 shows the effect of cascading for different numbers of /4-line segments for a 3 dB coupler. One can see that there is a saturation at the length of about 9 segments so that further cascading does not increase bandwidth. B. Non-Uniform Line Techniques The method of cascading results in discrete jumps of strip spacing and width which obviously lead to increased return loss due to reection in wave propagation as well

and the voltage coupling of transmission lines

Coupling |S31 | (dB) -3

k=
-4 N N N N N 0 0.5 1 =1 =3 =5 =7 =9 1.5 2

Z0e Z0o . Z0o + Z0e

(7)

With (5)-(7), the coupling vs. distance function k(u) along the coupler length can be expressed as k(u) = (Z0e (u)/Z0 )2 1 . (Z0e (u)/Z0 )2 + 1 (8)

-5

Normalized Frequency f /fc Fig. 1. Coupling function for a -3 dB coupler with different cascade lengths

as in diminished directivity of the coupler because of parasitic capacities [5]. Non-uniform line techniques provide improvements to these parameters and still allow wideband coupling. A sophisticated theory based on a transmission line equivalent has been developed in [2] and can be summarized by the fundamental correlation that the coupling S31 () in the frequency domain can be expressed as
+d/2

The main task in the design procedure of non-uniform couplers is solving the integral in (5). A numerical algorithm was implemented in MATLAB that transforms discrete coupling functions to continuously changing k(u). Fig. 2 shows the result for a 8.34 dB coupler with Z0 = 50 . One can see that the non-uniform coupling function requires a larger maximum coupling than the corresponding cascade. Due to the limited space the weighting technique for p(u) is not described here but is realized in the previously mentioned implementation (see [2] and [5] for detailed explanation).

S31 () = jej(/v)d
d/2

sin 2

p(u)du v

(1)
0.7 Voltage Coupling k 0.5 0.3 0.1 -4 -2 0 Distance / (rad) 2 4
Non-Uniform Cascade

where v is the phase velocity and p(u) is the reection coefcient distribution of a single transmission line along the coupler with the length d. The function p(u) depends on the even mode impedance Z0e (u) as follows: 1 d ln Z0e (u) (2) p(u) = 2 du The maximum coupling-bandwidth product can be achieved by equating p(u) to the function p(u) = k0 sin2 (u/2) u/2 (3)

Fig. 2. Comparison of discrete and continuous coupling vs. distance function k(u) for a -8.34 dB coupler

where k0 is the desired midband coupling value [2]. For instance, k0 = 0.71 leads to a 3 dB coupler. The coupler length d mainly depends on the desired center frequency fc and can be expressed as (N + 1)v d= fc (4)

III. S YNTHESIS OF N ON -U NIFORM C OUPLED L INES With the results from the previous section the electrical properties of the coupled transmission lines are determined completely. They can be expressed equivalently either by the characteristic impedance Z0 and the voltage coupling k(u) or the impedance vs. distance functions for the even mode Z0e (u) and the odd mode Z0o (u). Based on these functions, a synthesis method is required to generate a geometry that matches the given electrical properties. In the following section an approximate and an exact method are presented and the results are compared. In order to achieve optimum coupler performance a multilayer stackup with quasi-homogeneous substrate layers is used. Offset parallel coupled transmission lines allow the realization of very tight coupling with moderate strip spacing (see Fig. 3). For maximum coupling the two lines are located one above the other so that there is no offset (w0 = 0). With a decrease in coupling the horizontal offset increases and the lines drift apart.

where N is the coupler order and equals the number of segments of the corresponding cascaded coupler [2]. Equation (4) indicates that non-uniform coupler geometries require an extra quarter wavelength in the physical coupler length compared to cascades with equal bandwidth. Solving (3) for the even mode impedance vs. distance function Z0e (u) yields
u

Z0e (u) = exp 2

p(t)dt .

(5)

For a given characteristic impedance Z0 the electrical parameters of a coupled transmission are determined completely by the well known equations for the characteristic impedance Z0 = Z0e Z0o (6)

RO4350 r = 3.48

w s = 65 m w0

168 m 100 m 168 m Magnitude (dB)

0 -10

RO4450 r = 3.54

-20 -30 -40

RO4350 r = 3.48

S11 S21 S31 S41

Fig. 3. Multilayer stackup consisting of two substrate layers and one prepreg layer in between and offset parallel coupled line structure

-50

10

15

20

25

30

35

Frequency (GHz)

A. Numerical Approximation An approximate method was implemented using design equations for strip width and spacing developed by [7]. However, there are different equations for tight and loose coupling whereas there is no natural transition so that a manual interpolation is necessary at this point. Furthermore, the equations cannot provide reasonable results for very loose coupling. As one can see from Fig. 2 the coupling drops to zero at the coupler edges which makes another manual correction necessary. Another drawback is that the results only consider innitely thin metalization. Also inhomogeneous media cannot be taken into account as constant permittivity is assumed for the complete multilayer stackup. Nevertheless, this method can be applied to synthesize non-uniform coupler geometries if the k(u) function is discretized in sufciently small steps. From the resulting arrays of geometry parameters a continuous coupler geometry can be extracted. Fig. 4 shows the resulting top view on the coupled striplines. The previously mentioned problems have already been corrected manually. Despite some disadvantages this method still leads to a reasonable performance as one can see from the results of an S-parameter simulation with CST Microwave Studio (see Fig. 5). While return loss and directivity are in an acceptable range the coupling function drops around the center frequency. This effect might be undesirable for some applications.

Fig. 5. S-parameter simulation results for a coupler synthesized using the approximate approach

0.6 0.2 -0.2 -0.6 -15 -10 -5

Top layer Bottom layer

0 5 Distance x (cm)

10

15

simulation of the desired transmission line topology which leads to accurate results. By adopting the structure of the simulated cross section this method can be applied to any kind of coupled transmission lines. Additionally, arbitrary metalization thickness can be taken into account as well as different substrate layers resulting in an inhomogeneous stackup can be considered. In order to nd the desired coupling k for a given characteristic impedance it is necessary to stimulate the even mode and odd mode propagation separately. In this way a constellation providing the required even and odd mode impedances can be determined. If the discretization is small enough the k(u) function and consequently also Z0e (u) and Z0o (u) exhibit only small gradients so that one cross section is very similar to the next one. Hence an iterative algorithm can be used to generate a continuous coupler geometry by using the geometry parameters of a previous section as the start values for the next one. By reducing the 2D model to the minimally required space the computational effort can be further reduced. On an average workstation a complete coupler consisting of 200 discrete cross sections can be synthesized within less than two hours. Fig. 6 shows the resulting parameters for strip width and offset. One can see that a direct synthesis without manual corrections is possible. In addition, the 2D eld simulation results in a very accurate determination of the required even and odd mode impedances. These advantages lead to signicantly improved coupler performance (see Fig. 7). Besides further improvement of return loss and directivity a remarkable improvement of the coupling function is achieved. The new method provides at coupling throughout the entire band. IV. FABRICATION AND M EASUREMENT The rst step is to nd a multilayer stackup that allows the realization of the maximum coupling. In the used fabrication process the stackup was realized by two single substrate layers on top and bottom whereas in between there is a prepreg layer with slightly differing permittivity (see Fig. 3). Usually the height of substrate and prepreg can be chosen from discrete values. Hence it is a main task to nd a structure which fullls the conditions of maximum coupling and system

Fig. 4. Top view on the coupled line structure of a non-uniform wideband directional coupler resulting from an approximate synthesis (fc = 15 GHz)

B. Iterative 2D Even and Odd Mode Simulation In order to improve the performance of broadband couplers a universally applicable synthesis method was developed. It also bases on a very ne discretization of the coupling vs. distance function but uses another principle for determining the geometry parameters. Instead of an approximation the even and odd mode impedances are determined within a 2D eld

Distance y (cm)

Width w, Offset w0 (mm)

1 0.5 0 0

w w0 Magnitude (dB)

0 -10 -20 -30 -40 -50 0 5 10 15 S31 (meas.) S31 (sim.) S41 (meas.) S41 (sim.) 20 25 30 35

10

12

14

16

Distance x (mm) Fig. 6. Resulting geometry parameters from the synthesis based on an iterative 2D even and odd mode simulation

0 -10 Magnitude (dB) -20 -30 -40 -50 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 S11 S21 S31 S41

Frequency (GHz) Fig. 9. Comparison of (gated) measurement results and 3D-Simulation including via-transitions and substrate losses

V. C ONCLUSION Based on the theory for non-uniform coupler design a universal method for the synthesis of any kind of non-uniform coupled transmission lines was developed. Using a 2D simulation of the propagating modes an iterative algorithm generates a geometry fullling the given electrical requirements like even and odd mode impedances. The comparison with an approximate procedure shows signicantly improved results in coupling atness, directivity and return loss. The fabrication and measurement of a nominal 10 dB coupler with a bandwidth of 164 % and center frequency of 15 GHz shows good conformity with simulation results and the impact of necessary via transitions and substrate losses at high frequencies. ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work has been supported by the German Bundesministerium f r Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) through the u research project SMARTSENSORS under contract number 01EX1014T. R EFERENCES
[1] E.G. Cristal and L. Young, Theory and Tables of Optimum Symmetrical TEM-Mode Coupled-Transmission-Line Directional Couplers, , IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 13, no. 5 , pp. 544 - 558, Sep. 1965. [2] Tresselt. C.P., The Design and Construction of Broadband, HighDirectivity, 90-Degree Couplers Using Nonuniform Line Techniques, IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 14, no. 12 , pp. 647 - 656, Jan. 1966. [3] S. Uysal and H. Aghvami, Synthesis, Design and Construction of UltraWide-Band Nonuniform Quadrature Directional Couplers in Inhomogeneous Media, IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 37, no. 6 , pp. 969 - 976, Jun. 1989. [4] S. Uysal, Nonuniform Line Microstrip Directional Couplers and Filters, Artech House, Boston, London, 1993. [5] R. Mongia, I. Bahl and P. Bhartia, RF and Microwave Coupled-Line Circuits, Artech House, Boston, London, 1999. [6] P. Salem, C. Wu and Mustapha C.E. Yagoub, Non-Uniform Tapered Ultra Wideband Coupler Design and Modern Ultra Wideband Balun Integration, IEEE Asia-Pacic Microwave Conf. Proc. (APMC), pp. 803 - 806, 2006. [7] J.P. Shelton, Impedances of Offset Parallel-Coupled Strip Transmission Lines, , IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 14, no. 1 , pp. 7 15, Jan. 1966.

Frequency (GHz) Fig. 7. S-parameter simulation results for a coupler synthesized using the newly developed iterative 2D-eldsimulation method

impedance Z0 at a zero-offset conguration. In this case the 10 dB coupler shown in Fig. 8 with the need of a maximum coupling of k = 0.63 was built. Another important point is contacting the striplines to the coaxial connectors in an appropriate way. For this purpose via connections between the striplines and a coplanar waveguide on top of the substrate were used. Furthermore, it was necessary to implement a viafence connecting the upper and lower ground plane in order to suppress undesirable parallel plate modes. A comparison between simulation and measurement including the parasitic effects of the via-transitions can be seen in Fig. 9. The elimination of the connector transition was achieved by appropriate gating determined by time domain reectometry (TDR). As one can see from the results substrate losses and the inuence of the via-transitions show up at higher frequencies.

Fig. 8. Fabricated 10 dB coupler with mounted coaxial connectors, viafence and coplanar-stripline via-transitions