A broad-band printed circuit hybrid ring power divider

The design of a broadband ring power divider that provides substantial improvement in coupling and phase characteristics over a wide frequency range compared to that of a conventional hybrid ring is presented. It is shown that the new power divider design can be easily constructed using realizable impedances and is applicable to both equal and unequal power divisions. Experimental verification of the broadband power divider was achieved in a stripline configuration at Ku-band for an equal power divider and a 3-dB power divider. Close agreement was observed between theoretical and experimental results for both of the power dividers. The usable bandwidth of the broadband power divider is approximately 45%. It is concluded that this broadband power divider is particularly suited for a narrowband low-sidelobe antenna array beam-forming network, for it provides substantially improved amplitude and phase characteristics, a requirement for low-sidelobe array antennas, and good isolation between output ports. >