A Planar Dual-Band Coupled-Line Balun With Impedance Transformation and High Isolation

This paper proposes a novel planar dual-band coupled-line balun with impedance transformation and high isolation. Closed-form design equations are obtained based on the classical even-odd mode equivalent approach. For convenience of designing and synthesizing such a novel dual-band balun, the practical ranges of the frequency ratio, terminated impedances, and two free variables are provided under the conventional microstrip fabrication constraints. By adopting four coupled-line sections, six transmission-line stubs, and an isolation resistor, a microstrip prototype balun working at 1.0/2.6 GHz is designed, fabricated, and measured. There is a good agreement between the simulated and measured results. The wide bandwidths of 290 MHz from 0.83 to 1.12 GHz and 270 MHz from 2.44 to 2.71 GHz are obtained with the measured return losses (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\vert S_{11}\vert$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\vert S_{22}\vert$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\vert S_{33}\vert$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) and the isolation (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\vert S_{23}\vert$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) better than 10 dB, which effectively confirm the proposed theoretical predictions.