A Modified Wilkinson Power Divider With Harmonic Suppression Characteristic

ABSTRACT

This paper presents design, simulation and test results of a modified corporate type Wilkinson power divider / combiner in microstrip configuration where all the λ/4 branch line impedances have equal characteristic impedances (Z_o) instead of conventionally used π2Z_{. Electronic Band Gap (EBG) structure employed by etching periodic pattern on the ground plane to the modified power divider/combiner operating at the frequency of 4-GHz to suppress unwanted harmonics. The modified Wilkinson power divider/combiner provides flexibility of selecting width of the branch lines depending upon power handling requirement and eliminates the use of additional harmonic reject filter (HRF) to suppress harmonics.}

1. INTRODUCTION

Wilkinson power divider and combiners¹ are being used widely for microwave power amplifier, antenna array and other applications. Conventional corporate type of Wilkinson power divider/combiners are having all branch line characteristic impedances of π2Z_o. Even and odd mode analysis² shows that, 4-way (in general 4ⁿ way, n is an integer) corporate type Wilkinson power divider can be realized by using all teh λ/4 branch line impedances of ssame characteristic impedance of any value. Analysis shows that this design maintains the characteristic of a conventional Wilkinson power divider; featuring an equal power split, a simultaneous impedance matching at all ports and good isolation between all the output ports.