IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 56, NO.

8, AUGUST 2008

1985

The Synthesis of a Class of Branch-Line Directional Couplers

Wael M. Fathelbab, Senior Member, IEEE
AbstractThe design of a class of branch-line couplers comprising coupled-line branches is presented. The method employs classical network synthesis to derive a distributed network prototype from which the modal sub-networks of the coupler are found. The branch-line couplers overcome realization difculties that are often encountered with conventional couplers. The synthesis of a 3-dB branch-line coupler is presented in detail and further implemented on a microstrip board. The measured performance of the fabricated device shows close agreement with the underlying theory. Index TermsBranch-line couplers, network prototypes, transmission zeros.

I. INTRODUCTION

IRECTIONAL couplers [1] are essential building blocks of any radio or microwave telecommunication system. In particular, branch-line couplers are extensively utilized as power combiners/dividers [see Fig. 1(a)]. These components are required in designing many useful microwave circuits such as balanced ampliers [2], balanced mixers [2], switched multiplexers [3], and lters [4]. Over the past several years, there has been a drive to design multifunctional microwave components for future telecommunication systems. Novel branch-line couplers were amongst the components addressed in those studies. This led to the demonstration of a variety of coupling structures with outstanding performance. For example, the design of compact single-band branch-line couplers was addressed in [5][10], while dual-band branch-line couplers were the subject of [11][13]. Implementation of branch-line couplers with defected ground planes was demonstrated in [14]. Successful attempts to drastically miniaturize the overall size of such components utilized metamaterials (also known as engineered materials) to realize ultra-compact left-handed dual-band branch-line couplers [15][17]. The realization of very compact branch-line couplers using lumped elements in low-temperature co-red ceramic (LTCC) technology was also demonstrated in [18]. These design approaches have led to practical branch-line couplers with enhanced electrical characteristics. Perhaps the rst unied synthesis technique of branch-line couplers was that introduced in [19] and further documented in

some textbooks, most notably in [20]. It is well known that the realization difculties of such coupling structures are dependent on their number of branches, fractional bandwidths, coupling factors, and isolation levels. For example, strong or weak coupling or narrow or broad bandwidth strongly inuence the element values of such couplers, as demonstrated by the tables presented in [19]. Due to these limitations, an alternative synthesis approach based on Zolotarev transfer functions was presented in [21] that proved to overcome some realization difculties. It is fair to say that the design techniques of [19] and [21] are the most straightforward since they rely on exact network synthesis leading to coupling structures that require little circuit optimization. These methods are still widely utilized in designing such couplers. Dependent on the design specication under consideration, the branches of conventional branch-line couplers could be of high characteristic impedances, making it hard to realize such devices, especially in planar technology. This is often true for loosely coupled or broadband multisection branch-line couplers. An attempt to alleviate such difculties was proposed in [22] where the branches of conventional branch-line couplers were replaced by coupled-line sections and subsequently circuit optimization applied to the coupler circuits to adjust their electrical parameters. The approximation of the high-impedance branches by coupled lines leads to signicant errors, especially when the coupler has many branches or if its fractional bandwidth is large. Inspired by the work of [22], this paper presents a circuit-oriented design methodology that enables the direct synthesis of a class of multisection branch-line couplers comprising coupled-line branches. The branch-line couplers can be designed for any number of branches, specic fractional bandwidths, and coupling factors. This paper is organized as follows. Section II presents the basics of the synthesis procedure of the branch-line couplers. Section III demonstrates the step-by-step synthesis of a 3-dB branch-line coupler comprising ve branches, which is then implemented and measured in Section IV. II. SYNTHESIS OF THE MULTISECTION BRANCH-LINE COUPLERS COMPRISING COUPLED-LINE BRANCHES The conventional lossless branch-line coupler shown in Fig. 1(a) has the following scattering parameters [19][21]:

Manuscript received February 13, 2008; revised April 30, 2008. First published July 25, 2008; last published August 8, 2008 (projected). This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) Grant EPS-0554609 and by the State of South Dakota. The author is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, SD 57701 USA (e-mail: wfathelbab@ieee.org). Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TMTT.2008.927407 0018-9480/$25.00 2008 IEEE

(1)

1986

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 56, NO. 8, AUGUST 2008

Fig. 1. (a) Structure of a conventional lossless multisection branch-line coupler from [19][21]. Its S -plane: (b) even-mode and (c) odd-mode sub-networks. (The odd-mode sub-network is obtained upon application of S 1=S to the even-mode sub-network. The capacitors and inductors in the modal sub-networks represent open- and short-circuited stubs in the f -plane, respectively.)

where and are the scattering parameters of the even-mode sub-network of the branch-line coupler shown in Fig. 1(b), and similarly, and are the scattering parameters of the odd-mode sub-network of the branchline coupler shown in Fig. 1(c). In (1), is the Richards variable dened as (2) where is the real frequency variable and is the frequency at which the transmission line resonators of either of the modal sub-networks of the branch-line coupler are a quarter-wavelength long. With reference to [19], the modal sub-networks of the branchline coupler of Fig. 1(a) are actually inter-related through the following transformation: (3) where is dened in (2). It is easy to show that the application of (3) to the even-mode sub-network of Fig. 1(b) reverts its capacitors (open-circuited stubs) to inductors (short-circuited stubs), but has no effect on the transmission lines [19]. Thus, the odd-mode sub-network of Fig. 1(c) can be derived from the even-mode sub-network of Fig. 1(b) or vice-versa using (3), and consequently, the branch-line coupler can be constructed.

This implies that the starting point in designing a conventional branch-line coupler is to rst synthesize either of its modal sub-networks. The new branch-line coupler of Fig. 2 is also designed in a similar fashion and will possess scattering parameters according to (1). However, this class of branch-line couplers is expected to have modal frequency characteristics that are different from those of conventional branch-line couplers. Shown in Fig. 3 are the modal frequency characteristics of the branch-line coupler under consideration. The even-mode frequency response of the branch-line coupler has a passband with band-edge frequencies at and and clearly exhibits innite attenuation at dc and at . It can be shown that the odd-mode frequency response of the branch-line coupler of Fig. 2 has band-edge frequencies complying with the following relations: (4) and (5) These frequencies are clearly labeled in Fig. 3. The overlap of the modal frequency responses determines the operating bandwidth of the new coupler [21]. Thus, from Fig. 3, the branch-line coupler has a specic coupling factor over the nite bandwidth of (6)

FATHELBAB: SYNTHESIS OF CLASS OF BRANCH-LINE DIRECTIONAL COUPLERS

1987

Fig. 2. Structure of the proposed lossless multisection branch-line coupler comprising coupled-line branches.

of either the conventional or the proposed branch-line coupler can be expressed as [23] (8) is the passband ripple, is the characteristic where function of the sub-network, and is the Richards variable dened in (2). Using (8), the square of the magnitude of the reection transfer function of the even-mode sub-network can thus be found as follows:

(9) where it is assumed that the system is lossless. It is now a straightforward matter to synthesize the even-mode sub-network upon evaluation of its input impedance in a 1- system using the following well-known expression: (10) However according to (8), the synthesis of the even-mode subnetwork requires the construction of its characteristic function , which is actually determined based on the selection of a set of transmission zeros. The zeros of the even-mode subnetwork of the class of proposed branch-line couplers are distributed as follows: number of zeros at number of zeros at number of zeros at

Fig. 3. Modal frequency characteristics of the proposed branch-line coupler of Fig. 2.

that is centered at (7) It is now worthwhile introducing some system equations for the sake of synthesizing either of the modal sub-networks of the proposed branch-line coupler of Fig. 2. The focus will be on the synthesis of the even-mode sub-network of the branch-line coupler, but the procedure equally applies to the synthesis of the odd-mode sub-network. The square of the magnitude of the forward transmission coefcient of the even-mode sub-network

(11)

where is an even number and the overall frequency characteristic of the sub-network is bandpass. On the other hand, should the even-mode sub-network of a conventional branchline coupler be required to be synthesized, then the zeros of its even-mode sub-network [see Fig. 1(b)] should be distributed as follows: number of zeros at number of zeros at

(12)

1988

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 56, NO. 8, AUGUST 2008

Fig. 4. S -plane even- or odd-mode sub-network of the branch-line coupler of Fig. 2 that realizes the even- or odd-mode frequency response of Fig. 3. (The prototype has pairs of transmission lines with the same characteristic impedances.)

where is an even number and the overall frequency characteristic of the sub-network is low pass. However, in both cases, the total number of transmission zeros [either from (11) or from (12)] determines the number of branches of the resulting coupler. It is possible to show that either of the modal frequency responses of Fig. 3 may actually be realized by the distributed network prototype shown in Fig. 4. By examining the network of Fig. 4, it is seen that all of its capacitors (open-circuited stubs) will appear as inductors (short-circuited stubs) at leading to the transmission zero observed in the frequency, Fig. 3. It is also seen that the network has bandpass resonators separated by pairs of transmission lines of equal characteristic impedances. This property is of paramount importance in synthesizing the class of proposed branch-line couplers under consideration. Effectively the odd-mode sub-network of the branch-line coupler of Fig. 2 can be derived from its even-mode sub-network or vice-versa upon application of (3). It is interesting to point out that the network prototype of Fig. 4 has been recently utilized in the design of broadband recongurable lters [26] showing its usage in other applications. However, in that work, the lters were deliberately designed to possess nonoverlapping passbands for maximum recongurability. Based on the theory developed in this section, it is easily appreciated that the approach pursued in [26] is simply irrelevant in designing the new branch-line couplers of Fig. 2. This highlights the fundamental difference between the goal of this paper and that of the work already presented in [26]. The design procedure of a branch-line coupler is best discussed through the presentation of a numerical example, as done in Section III. III. NUMERICAL EXAMPLE In this section, the goal is to design a 3-dB branch-line coupler comprising ve branches that has a 40% fractional bandwidth centered at 1 GHz. The design process is divided into three steps, as explained below. A. Evaluation of the Modal Transfer Functions of the 3-dB Branch-Line Coupler The response of the even-mode sub-network of the branchline coupler under consideration has the following distinct frequency points: MHz MHz MHz

thus, must be carefully chosen. Now using (13), the band-edge frequencies of the odd-mode sub-network of the branch-line coupler can be evaluated according to (4) and (5) to give MHz MHz (14)

Thus, using (13) and (14), the absolute bandwidth of the branchline coupler is determined from (6) as MHz which, according to (7), is centered at GHz (16) (15)

These are part of the specications outlined at the outset of this section. The next step is to utilize the classical synthesis technique presented in [23][25] to generate the characteristic function of the even-mode sub-network of the branch-line coupler in the complex -plane. The generality of this synthesis technique encompasses the design of many microwave components such as dc blockers, baluns, and ampliers [23] and also various microwave lters [23], [26][28]. For a bandpass-type response, is related to via the following transformation: (17) Substituting the even-mode band-edge frequencies from (13) into (2) yields and as and , respectively. Thus, (17) becomes (18) The following step is to generate in the -variable the following polynomial: (19) where is the total number of transmission zeros of the evenmode sub-network. The branch-line coupler is required to have ve branches, and thus, its even-mode sub-network must have a total of ten transmission zeros distributed as follows: number of zeros at number of zeros at number of zeros at

(13)

has a direct The selection of the lower band-edge frequency impact on the element values of the branch-line coupler, and

(20)

FATHELBAB: SYNTHESIS OF CLASS OF BRANCH-LINE DIRECTIONAL COUPLERS

1989

The zeros in the -plane are then substituted into (19) using (18) to yield the polynomial shown in (21) at the bottom of this page. Subsequently, the square of the magnitude of the characteristic function is computed using the following expression:

(22) and are the even and odd polynomials of where (19). Hence, applying (22) to (21) leads to (23), shown at the may bottom of this page. The characteristic function now be easily obtained enabling the evaluation of the even-mode transfer characteristics from (8) and (9). The following step is to carefully select the passband ripple of the even-mode sub-network of the branch-line coupler, which actually determines the coupling factor, return loss, and isolation level of the branch-line coupler. Using (23), a simple computer program was written to nd the poles and zeros of the even-mode reection and transmission coefcients using (8) and (9) for different values of . For every value of , the and odd-mode reection and transmission coefcients [ ] were then obtained through the transformation of (3). Subsequently the scattering parameters of the branch-line coupler were evaluated using (1). The goal of this task was to setup the branch-line coupler to achieve a coupling factor of 3 dB. Upon some trials, the passband ripple was found to be of value 0.021462131. As a result of the above process, the modal reection and transmission coefcients of the branch-line coupler were found to be (24) and (25), shown at the bottom of this page, and (26), shown at the bottom of the following page. Substituting (24) and (25) into (1) and plotting the scattering parameters of the branch-line coupler leads to the characteristics depicted in Fig. 5. The coupling factor is clearly 3 dB.

Fig. 5. Computed frequency characteristics of the 3-dB branch-line coupler comprising ve branches.

B. Synthesis of the Even-Mode Sub-Network of the 3-dB Branch-Line Coupler The even-mode sub-network of the branch-line coupler was synthesized after evaluating its input impedance by substituting (24) into (10) and performing elements extraction. The result is

(21)

(23)

(24) and (25)

1990

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 56, NO. 8, AUGUST 2008

Fig. 6. (a) Synthesized even-mode S -plane sub-network of the 3-dB branch-line coupler in a 50-
system. (b)(k) Application of circuit transformations to transform the initial network of (a) to a topology similar to that of Fig. 4.

shown in Fig. 6(a) where the is the plane of symmetry for this circuit. This circuit must be subjected to a series of circuit transformations for it to represent the even-mode sub-network of the branch-line coupler. Those circuit transformations were briey addressed in [26] in the design of recongurable lters. For this reason, a detailed account of this procedure will be described here for extra clarity.

As seen in Fig. 6(a), there is a section of the circuit within a dashed box. Application of the second Kuroda transformation [23], shown in Fig. 6(b), shifts the shunt inductor to the left side of the transmission line and introduces a transformer of value 1.602, as shown in Fig. 6(c). The transformer in the circuit is then moved after adjusting the element values of the circuit, leading to Fig. 6(d). Now applying the rst Kuroda trans-

(26)

FATHELBAB: SYNTHESIS OF CLASS OF BRANCH-LINE DIRECTIONAL COUPLERS

1991

is observed that the values of the capacitors and inductors inside each of the dashed boxes are the inverse of each other, making those sections invariant with the transformation of (3). Now each parallel LC section within the dashed boxes is then converted to a stepped-impedance short-circuited stub utilizing the relations shown in Fig. 7(b). This leads to the -plane evenmode sub-network of the coupler, as illustrated in Fig. 7(c), from which the odd-mode sub-network of the coupler can then be obtained, as shown in Fig. 7(d). The branch-line coupler can now be directly constructed from the modal sub-networks, as shown in Fig. 8(a). At this stage, the sections within the dashed boxes in Fig. 8(a) were transformed into coupled-line sections [using the relations shown in Fig. 8(b)], leading to Fig. 8(c). It is appreciated that the by virtue of circuit synthesis, an optimum solution has been directly obtained. IV. PLANAR CIRCUIT IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SYNTHESIZED 3-dB BRANCH-LINE COUPLER The electrical network of the 3-dB branch-line coupler of Fig. 8(c) was converted into a physical layout using Agilent Technologies Advanced Design System (ADS)1 for implementation on an FR-4 substrate with a thickness of 1574.8 m (62 mil), a relative dielectric constant of 4.7, a metal thickness of 55.88 m (2.2 mil), and a loss tangent of 0.016. The main transmission lines of the branch-line coupler were 3048- m (120 mil) wide and 41910- m (1650 mil) long. The lengths of the branches of the branch-line coupler were 44958- m (1770 mil) long. The widths and spacings of the branches of the branch-line coupler were as follows. First and fth branches: m mil m mil

Fig. 7. (a) S -plane prototype of Fig. 6(k) after splitting the shunt capacitors appropriately. (b) Transformation of a shunt S -plane LC section into an f -plane stepped-impedance stub. The f -plane: (c) even- and (d) odd-mode sub-networks of the 3-dB branch-line coupler.

formation [23] shown in Fig. 6(e) to the shunt capacitor to the right side of the 40.947- transmission line in Fig. 6(d) creates a series inductor, as shown in Fig. 6(f). The shunt and series inductors of Fig. 6(f) can then be transformed to a Pi-section using the relations shown in Fig. 6(g), leading to Fig. 6(h). Each of the shunt inductors in Fig. 6(h) are transformed to the other sides of their neighboring transmission lines using the second Kuroda transformation, leading to Fig. 6(i). Subsequently, the series inductor in between the pair of transmission lines in Fig. 6(i) must be split appropriately such that, upon application of the rst Kuroda transformation, the resulting cascade pair of transmission lines ends up being of identical characteristic impedances. This leads to Fig. 6(j). The outlined process must be also performed to the elements inside the dotted box of Fig. 6(j), nally leading to the circuit of Fig. 6(k). At this stage, it is evident that this network resembles in topology that of Fig. 4. It must also be pointed out that each pair of cascaded lines has identical characteristic impedances, as required for the transformation of (3) to apply. C. Construction of the 3-dB Branch-Line Coupler In order to construct the 3-dB branch-line coupler, a few more steps are required to be performed. The shunt capacitors in the even-mode sub-network of Fig. 6(k) must be split such that the sub-network comprises LC sections, as shown in Fig. 7(a). It

Second and fourth branches: m Third branch: mil m mil

mil

mil

The measured electrical characteristics of the fabricated branch-line coupler together with its simulated performance are shown in Fig. 9. Very close agreement is observed. From Fig. 9(a) and (b), the midband couplings of the through and coupled ports are 4.02 and 4.45 dB, respectively. This indicates that there is roughly 1 dB of insertion loss introduced due to radiation, conductor, and substrate losses. As seen from Fig. 9(a) and (b), the measured input return loss and isolation are both over 26 dB, as predicted by the simulations. Also illustrated in Fig. 9(c) is a plot of the phase difference between the transmission coefcients at the through and coupled ports. Excellent agreement is observed.
1Agilent

Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, ADS, version 2005A.

1992

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 56, NO. 8, AUGUST 2008

Fig. 8. (a) Synthesized 3-dB branch-line coupler comprising ve branches constructed from the modal sub-networks of Figs. 7(c) and (d). (b) Pair of shunt short-circuited stubs separated by a transmission line and its equivalent coupled-line model. (c) 3-dB branch-line coupler after transforming its branches into coupled-line sections.

FATHELBAB: SYNTHESIS OF CLASS OF BRANCH-LINE DIRECTIONAL COUPLERS

1993

theory. As a result of this study, it is foreseen that this class of couplers will nd applications in advanced telecommunication systems. With regard to future work related to this topic, it would be benecial to generate a set of tables (similar to those of [19] and [21]) listing the element values of this class of branchline couplers for different number of branches, fractional bandwidths, coupling factors, and isolation levels. Such documentation could prove invaluable to the circuit designer. The author is currently pursuing this research activity. REFERENCES
[1] S. B. Cohn and R. Levy, History of microwave passive components with particular attention to directional couplers, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. MTT-32, no. 9, pp. 10461054, Sep. 1984. [2] D. M. Pozar, Microwave Engineering. New York: Wiley, 2005. [3] C. I. Mobbs, The use of matched four-port lters to realize switched multiplexer having low amplitude and group delay ripple, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. MTT-35, no. 12, pp. 11831191, Dec. 1987. [4] W. M. Fathelbab, Synthesis of cul-de-sac lter networks utilizing hybrid couplers, IEEE Trans. Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 17, no. 5, pp. 334336, May 2007. [5] K. W. Eccleston and S. H. M. Ong, Compact planar microstripline branch-line and rat-race couplers, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 51, no. 10, pp. 21192125, Oct. 2003. [6] K. O. Sun, S. J. Ho, C. C. Yen, and D. V. D. Weide, A compact branch-line coupler using discontinuous microstrip lines, IEEE Trans. Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 15, no. 8, pp. 519520, Aug. 2005. [7] S. S. Liao and J. T. Peng, Compact planar microstrip branch-line couplers using quasi-lumped elements approach with nonsymmetrical and symmetrical T-shaped structure, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 54, no. 9, pp. 35083514, Sep. 2006. [8] J. Wang, B. Z. Wang, Y. X. Guo, L. C. Ong, and S. Xiao, A compact slow-wave microstrip branch-line coupler with high performance, IEEE Trans. Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 17, no. 7, pp. 501503, Jul. 2007. [9] C. W. Tang and M. G. Chen, Synthesizing microstrip branch-line couplers with predetermined compact size and bandwidth, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 55, no. 9, pp. 19261934, Sep. 2007. [10] S. S. Liao, P. T. Sun, N. C. Chin, and J. T. Peng, A novel compact-size branch-line coupler, IEEE Trans. Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 15, no. 9, pp. 588590, Sep. 2005. [11] H. Zhang and K. J. Chen, A stub tapped branch-line coupler for dualband operations, IEEE Trans. Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 106108, Feb. 2007. [12] K. K. M. Chen and F. L. Wong, A novel approach to the design and implementation of dual-band compact planar 90 branch-line coupler, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 52, no. 11, pp. 24582463, Nov. 2004. [13] M. J. Park and B. Lee, Dual-band, crosscoupled branch line coupler, IEEE Trans. Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 15, no. 10, pp. 655657, Oct. 2005. [14] C. W. Tang, M. G. Chen, Y. S. Lin, and J. W. Wu, Broadband microstrip branch-line coupler with defected ground structure, Electron. Lett., vol. 42, no. 25, pp. 14581460, Dec. 2006. [15] I. H. Lin, M. D. Vincentis, C. Caloz, and T. Itoh, Arbitrary dual-band components using composite right/left-handed transmission lines, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 11421149, Apr. 2004. [16] I. H. Lin, C. Caloz, and T. Itoh, A branch-line coupler with two arbitrary operating frequencies using left-handed transmission lines, in IEEE MTT-S Int. Microw. Symp. Dig., 2003, pp. 325328. [17] R. Islam and G. V. Eleftheriades, Phase-agile branch-line couplers using metamaterial lines, IEEE Trans. Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 14, no. 7, pp. 340342, Jul. 2004. [18] T. N. Kuo, Y. S. Lin, C. H. Wang, and C. H. Chen, A compact LTCC branch-line coupler using modied-T equivalent-circuit model for transmission line, IEEE Trans. Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 9092, Feb. 2006.

Fig. 9. Measured frequency characteristics of the fabricated 3-dB branch-line coupler.

V. CONCLUSION The exact synthesis of a class of branch-line couplers has been presented in this paper. The design methodology pursued in this study utilized circuit synthesis to obtain a distributed network prototype, which when subjected to successive circuit transformations leads to the modal sub-networks of the coupler. This class of couplers is easier to implement in practice due to the fact that its branches are made of coupled lines, thus overcoming realization difculties that are usually encountered in designing conventional branch-line couplers. The detailed synthesis steps of a 3-dB branch-line coupler comprising ve branches that are made of coupled lines are presented. The synthesized coupler was then implemented in microstrip and its measured characteristics were in close agreement with the

1994

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 56, NO. 8, AUGUST 2008

[19] R. Levy and L. F. Lind, Synthesis of symmetrical branch-guide directional couplers, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. MTT-16, no. 2, pp. 8089, Feb. 1968. [20] J. A. G. Malherbe, Microwave Transmission Line Couplers. Norwood, MA: Artech House, 1988. [21] R. Levy, Zolotarev branch-guide couplers, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. MTT-21, no. 2, pp. 9599, Feb. 1973. [22] J. W. Gipprich, A new class of branch-line directional couplers, IEEE MTT-S Int. Microw. Symp. Dig., pp. 589592, 1993. [23] B. J. Minnis, Designing Microwave Circuits by Exact Synthesis. Norwood, MA: Artech House, 1996. [24] H. J. Orchard and G. C. Temes, Filter design using transformed variable, IEEE Trans. Circuit Theory, vol. CT-15, no. 4, pp. 385408, Dec. 1968. [25] J. A. G. Malherbe, Microwave Transmission Line Filters. Norwood, MA: Artech House, 1979. [26] W. M. Fathelbab, A new class of recongurable microwave bandpass lters, IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. II, Exp. Briefs, vol. 55, no. 3, pp. 264268, Mar. 2008. [27] W. M. Fathelbab and M. B. Steer, Four-port microwave networks with intrinsic broadband suppression of common-mode signals, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 53, no. 5, pp. 15691575, May 2005. [28] W. M. Fathelbab and M. B. Steer, Parallel-coupled line lters with enhanced stopband performances, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 53, no. 12, pp. 37743781, Dec. 2005.

Wael M. Fathelbab (M03SM05) received the B.Eng. degree (with rst class honors) and Ph.D. degree (with a focus on the synthesis of passive microwave lters with nite circuit elements) from the University of Bradford, Bradford, U.K., in 1995 and 1999, respectively. From 1999 to 2001, he was a Senior Radio Frequency Engineer with Filtronic Comtek (U.K.) Ltd., where he was involved in the design and development of different classes of lters and multiplexers for various cellular base-station applications. He was subsequently involved in the architecture of advanced RF front-end transceivers for the U.K. and European markets when he joined the Mobile Handset Division, NEC Technologies (U.K.) Ltd. From 2002 to 2006, he was a Research Fellow with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina State University. He is currently an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City. He has been a Reviewer for the Institution of Engineering and Technologies (IET) Microwaves, Antennas and Propagation since 2005 and an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Electronics since 2006. His research interests are focused on the synthesis of novel recongurable/tunable microwave coupling structures and the design of ultra-broadband differential and metamaterial microwave circuits. Dr. Fathelbab has been a reviewer for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES since 2003. He was the recipient of the 1995 Overseas Research Students Award presented by the U.K. Department of Higher Education. He was also the recipient of a Filtronic Comtek (U.K.) Ltd. (now PowerWave Technologies Inc.) industrial sponsorship for his doctoral studies.