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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 57, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2008
I. I NTRODUCTION
Fig. 1.
EROGLU AND LEE: COMPLETE DESIGN OF MICROSTRIP DIRECTIONAL COUPLERS USING SYNTHESIS TECHNIQUE
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coupling level, and the operational frequency, are known parameters at the beginning of the design. Based on the known
parameters, the proposed design procedure has the following
three steps.
Step 1Find Even- and Odd-Mode Impedances
The even and odd impedances Zoe and Zoo of the microstrip
coupler given in Fig. 1 can be found from
1 + 10C/20
(1)
Zoe = Z0
1 10C/20
1 10C/20
Zoo = Z0
(2)
1 + 10C/20
where C is the forward coupling requirement and is given in
decibels.
Step 2Find Physical Dimensions s/h and w/h
The physical dimensions of the directional coupler are found
using the synthesis method proposed in [3] and applying the
corrections given in [4] and [5]. When the corrections are
employed, we get the following equation for the spacing ratio
s/h of the coupler in Fig. 1:
w
+ cosh 2 w
2
cosh
2
h
h
2
so
so
s/h = cosh1
.
cosh w
cosh w
2
h so
h se
(3)
(w/h)se and (w/h)so are the shape ratios for the equivalent
single case that corresponds to even-mode and odd-mode geometry, respectively. (w/h)so is the modified term for the shape
ratio and is different from the one that is given in [3, eq. (4)].
The modifications are based on the corrections given in [4] and
[5] and are detailed below.
(w/h) is the corrected shape ratio for the single microstrip
line, and it is expressed as [4]
R
r)
r)
(r + 1) 1 7+(4/
+ 1+(1/
8 exp 42.4
11
0.81
w
R
=
h
exp 42.4
r + 1 1
(4)
where
Zoe
Zoo
R=
or R =
.
(5)
2
2
Zose and Zoso are the characteristic impedances that correspond
to single microstrip shape ratios (w/h)se and (w/h)so , respectively. They are given as
Zoe
2
Zoo
=
2
Zose =
(6)
Zoso
(7)
(w/h)se
(w/h)so
= (w/h)
R=Zose
= (w/h)
.
R=Zoso
(8)
(9)
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 57, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2008
(10)
The updated formula in (3) gives accurate results for the spacing
ratio s/h of the symmetrical two-line microstrip directional
coupler when used with (4).
After the spacing ratio s/h for the coupled lines is found, we
can proceed to find w/h for the coupled lines, as described in
[3]. The shape ratio for the coupled lines is
w
1 s
1
= cosh1 (d)
(11)
h
2 h
where
w
(g + 1) + g 1
2
s
g = cosh
.
2 h
d=
cosh
h se
(12)
sef f
Cp
.
Cf =
2cZ0
2
Here, sef f is the effective permittivity constant of a singlestrip microstrip, which can be expressed as
sef f =
F (w/h)
(1+12h/w)1/2 + 0.041(1w/h)2 , for w
h 1 .
=
(1+12h/w)1/2 ,
for w
h 1
c
=
4
4f ef f
1/4
r
Cf
=
sef f
1 + A hs tanh 10h
s
w
A = exp 0.1 exp 2.33 1.5
.
h
Cf
ef f e + ef f o 2
ef f =
.
(15)
2
Ce
Ce1
Co
=
.
Co1
(16a)
ef f o
(16b)
Ce1,o1 is the capacitance with air as dielectric. All the capacitances are given as capacitance per unit length.
1) Even-Mode Capacitance Calculation: The even-mode
capacitance Ce is
Ce = Cp + Cf + Cf .
Cga = 0
where
K(k )
K(k)
w
Cp = 0 r
h
k
k
K(k )
K(k)
1
1+ k
, 0 k 2 0.5
ln
2
1 k
2
=
,
1
0.5
ln 2 1+k
1 k
s
= s h 2w
+ h
h
= 1 k2 .
(23)
(24)
(25)
(26)
(27)
(28)
4h
r
h
(29)
Since
1
Zoe =
c Ce Ce1
1
Zoo =
c Co Co1
(17)
(22)
Cga is the capacitance term in odd mode for the fringing field
across the gap in the air region. It can be written as
(21)
(14)
(20)
l=
r + 1 r 1
F (w/h)
2
2
where
(13)
(19)
(30)
(31)
where w/h is found in Section II-B. Cf is the fringing capacitance due to the microstrips being taken alone as if they were a
1
2
c2 Ce Zoe
1
= 2
.
2
c Co Zoo
Ce1 =
(32)
Co1
(33)
EROGLU AND LEE: COMPLETE DESIGN OF MICROSTRIP DIRECTIONAL COUPLERS USING SYNTHESIS TECHNIQUE
2759
TABLE I
DESIGN PARAMETERS OF A TWO-LINE MICROSTRIP DIRECTIONAL
COUPLER AT 300 MHz FOR Zo () = 50
Fig. 2. Error in percentage for the simulated coupling level and specified
coupling level versus the relative permittivity of the material.
Substituting (17), (24), (32), and (33) into (16) gives the evenand odd-mode effective permittivities ef f e and ef f o . When
(16) is substituted into (15), we can find the effective permittivity constant ef f of the coupled structure. Now, (14) can be
used to calculate the physical length of the directional coupler
at the operational frequency.
III. N UMERICAL R ESULTS
In this section, the numerical results are obtained for
the following five popular microwave materials: 1) alumina;
2) Teflon; 3) RO4003; 4) FR4; and 5) RF-60. In Section III-A,
analytical results are obtained using the three-step design procedure outlined in Section II. The analytical results obtained in
Section III-A are validated in Section III-B using a planar EM
simulation tool [7]. The experimental verification of the results
is given in Section III-C. In Section III-D, we introduce design
charts for the five materials so that we will have a complete
two-line microstrip directional coupler design. In Section III-E,
we physically interpret the results.
A. Analytical Results
In this section, the complete design of a two-line microstrip
directional coupler is obtained using the three-step design procedure given in Section II for five different materials that are
widely used in microwave applications, i.e., alumina, Teflon,
RO4003, FR4, and RF-60. The list of various dielectric materials and their permittivities can be found in [9]. The results for
the five materials that show the final design parameters are tabulated in Table I at the operational frequency of 300 MHz. The
physical dimensions of the directional coupler are obtained for
the desired level of coupling when the port impedances and the
operational frequency are known. This design technique reflects
what has been practiced in real-world engineering applications.
B. Validation of Analytical Results With EM Simulation Tools
The analytical results obtained in Section III-A are validated
with the planar EM simulation software Ansoft Designer V2.1
[7]. Since Ansoft Designer is a planar 2.5-D EM simulator,
the ideal geometry shown in Fig. 1 is used for the simula-
Ccal (dB) and Csim (dB) are the calculated and the simulated
coupling levels, respectively. Overall, the worst error is 3.8%
and occurs when the lower permittivity material Teflon (r =
2.08) is used at a 10-dB coupling. The smallest error is with
the high-permittivity material alumina (r = 9.8) at 20-dB
coupling and is equal to 0.2%. The existing methods [4], [5]
give a more than 10% error with the simulation results for
Teflon at a 10-dB coupling level.
C. Experimental Results
Experimental results are obtained using the analytical results
tabulated in Table I for Teflon (r = 2.08) and FR4 (r = 4.4)
at 15-dB coupling levels. The operational frequency is given
as 300 MHz. The thickness of Teflon and FR4 are 90 and
120 mils, respectively. The structure is first simulated to confirm the design parameters. The coupling levels using simulation are found to be 14.656 and 14.671 dB for Teflon and
FR4, respectively. This represents a 2.29% error for Teflon and
a 2.19% error for FR4 in comparison with the analytical results.
Fig. 3 shows the layout of the two directional couplers that are
constructed. Figs. 4 and 5 give the measured result of the
forward coupling in decibels for Teflon and FR4 over the
frequency range from 1 to 400 MHz. The HP8751A Network
Analyzer is used to measure the response of the couplers.
The markers in Figs. 4 and 5 show the measured forward
coupling level at 300 MHz for Teflon and FR4 as 14.562 and
14.679 dB, respectively. Based on the measured results, the
worst error between the measured results and the analytical
results is found to be within 3% for Teflon. This verifies the analytical results and confirms the results of the planar EM software.
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 57, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2008
D. Design Charts
In this section, we give the design charts to obtain a complete design for a two-line symmetrical microstrip directional
coupler for the following five different materials: 1) alumina;
2) Teflon; 3) RO4003; 4) FR4; and 5) RF-60. Fig. 6 gives the
spacing ratio s/h of the directional coupler versus different
coupling levels. Fig. 7 gives the shape ratio of the directional
coupler w/h versus different coupling levels. Figs. 810 give
the physical length l of the directional coupler versus frequency
at different coupling levels.
E. Observations
In this section, we physically interpret the numerical results
obtained in Section III. The spacing ratio increases as the
relative permittivity of the dielectric material increases, as seen
in Fig. 6. In Fig. 7, it is seen that this is the opposite of the shape
ratio. The loose coupling is a result of a larger spacing ratio, as
EROGLU AND LEE: COMPLETE DESIGN OF MICROSTRIP DIRECTIONAL COUPLERS USING SYNTHESIS TECHNIQUE
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
Fig. 9. Directional coupler length l versus frequency for alumina, Teflon,
RO4003, FR4, and RF-60 at 15-dB coupling.
Fig. 10. Directional coupler length l versus frequency for alumina, Teflon,
RO4003, FR4, and RF-60 at 20-dB coupling.
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lines, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. MTT-32, no. 1, pp. 8390,
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S. Akhtarzad, T. R. Rowbotham, and P. B. Jones, The design of coupled
microstrip lines, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. MTT-23, no. 6,
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Ansoft Designer Version 2.1. Pittsburg, PA: Ansoft Corp.
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Dielectric Constant Reference Guide. [Online]. Available: http://
clippercontrols.com/info/dielectric_constants.html