DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF FOUR HOLE COUPLED

MICROSTRIP DIRECTIONAL COUPLER

Ravi Kumar*, Member IEEE, Narendra Singh,
*Corresponding Author
Jaypee Institute of Engineering & Technology, Guna-473226, INDIA
E-Mail: ravi.kumar6@gmail.com, narendra.singh@jiet.ac.in

ABSTRACT- The present work describes the
design of a four hole coupled Multilayered
Microstrip directional coupler. The multi-layered
four hole directional coupler consist of two
layers one with Ground plane layer. This four
hole directional coupler is used to greatly extend
the coupling up to -10dB. The Proposed
directional coupler has been designed and
analyzed using IE3D software. Variation of the
performance of the coupler with frequency has
also been investigated.

INTRODUCTION:
Directional couplers are passive microwave
component used for power division or power
combining. Directional couplers are essential
elements in microwave circuits and they are
commonly used in balanced amplifiers, balanced
mixers, phase shifters etc. In the recent decades,
Engineers developed various RF or Microwave
modules with high performance, light-weight
and compact size. The modules have widespread
application in telecommunications, radar and
information systems. Lightweight and compact
size RF or Microwave circuits are especially
critical in hand held, airborne and satellite
communication systems. [1].
Commonly used directional coupler
used in Microstrip substrate are coupled
Microstrip directional coupler [2], bi-level
couplers [3], Re-entrant mode directional
couplers [3] etc.
In this paper, a four hole directional
coupler using coupled Microstrip configuration
to improve the coupling at higher frequency
range is proposed. Here the hole means the
aperture in the middle layer of the directional
coupler on the basis of the conventional
directional coupler. These apertures are made to
form a coupling between port 1 and port 2 or 3
and vice versa. The simulation of the proposed
structure has been carried out using IE3D
software [5]. The coupling of 10dB at the center
frequency of 10GHz using four hole microstrip
directional coupler is proposed in this paper.
THEORY
The circuit layout of a multilayered microstrip
four hole directional coupler is shown in Fig.1.
The coupling coefficient C and directivity of the
coupler D in dB can be designed using following
equations

C = -20 Log | E
3
/E
0
| = -20 Log k 20 Log

=
N
n
n n
b a
0
2
(1)

D= - 20 Log |E
4
/E
3
| = -C 20 Log k 20 Log(S) (2)

Where,

S= |

=
N
n
n n
b a
0
2
e
-j(n/
0
)
| (3)

Where E
o
is the input electric field at port 1, E
3
and E
4
are electric field at port 3 and port 4, is
the propagation constant of the dual layer
multiaperture coupling structure,
o
is the
propagation constant at the center frequency, k is
a constant to be determined, and a
n
and b
n
are the
width and length of the n
th
aperture, respectively.
Assuming that N is an even number( an odd
number of apertures) and the coupler is
symmetrical (a
0
x b
0
= a
N
xb
N
, a
1
xb
1
= a
N-1
xb
N-1
,
a
2
xb
2
= a
N-2
xb
N-2
,), couplers with different
responses will be achieved by equating S to
different N degree polynomials, respectively

| ) cos (sec | ) 2 cos( 2
2 /
0
2

m N n
N
n
n
P K n N b a S = =

=
(4)

Where K and
m
are constant to be determined
and polynomial P
N
(sec
m
cos) may be
binomial(maximum flat), or chebyshev
polynomial, etc. Multiaperture, dual layer
Microstrip directional couplers with different
coupling coefficients can be designed with the
above method and small-hole coupling theory.
Here a directional coupler has been designed for
four apertures in middle layer of the designed
multilayered microstrip directional coupler.
PROPOSED GEOMETRY:
Figure 1(a) and 1(b) shows the Top view and the
side view of the proposed directional coupler.
The dimensions of four apertures of Microstrip
directional coupler with different coupling
coefficient and constant k have been calculated
using equation (4) and the approach proposed
[6]. Matching transformers of
g
/4 length have
been used for the Impedance matching purpose.
The coupler has been simulated by IE3D
simulation software for microwave circuit
design. The middle line is grounded with the
ground plane placed at zero height. The four
different holes are made in this grounded
Microstrip line at the length of
g
/4. The
Microstrip transmission line has been taken of
50 whose width has been found 4.4mm. The
effective permittivity of 2.1361 has been taken in
consideration. The dielectric constant of 2.55 of
silica material has been taken in consideration.
The calculated guided wavelength has been
found 20.52mm. The width has been calculated
for the Microstrip is 1.5875 and the distance
between Ground plane and Microstrip plane has
been taken 1mm.
By using the approach [6], the
dimensions of external apertures i.e.r
02
and
internal apertures r
01
with the distance of g/4
i.e. 5.131mm for matching purpose have been
given as follow:

Dimension of apertures for four hole coupler
r
01
= 0.293mm
r
02
= 0.464mm
Here these apertures have been made to get the
coupling between port 1 and port 2 or 3 and vice
versa, based on the new approach that has been
followed by equation (4) as above.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors thankfully acknowledge the support
provided by and the authorities of Jaypee
Institute of Engineering & Technology, Guna,
INDIA.

REFERENCES
[1] Pozar D.M., Microwave Engineering, Second
edition, Wiley, 1998.
[2] Kitlinski M., Coupled Microstrip Lines with
Three Layer Substrate, 40. Internationales
wissenschafliches colloquium, Ilmenau 1995,
Band 2,PP.302-307.
[3] Buntschuh C., High Directivity Microstrip
Couplers Using Dielectric Overlays,1975, IEEE
MTT-S International Microwave Symposium
Digest,pp 125-127.
[4] IE3D software release 8 & developed by m/s
Zealand software Inc.
[5] IE3D users Manual, Zeland Softwares,USA.
[6] Altman J.L., Microwave Circuits, D.Van
Nostrand Company,Inc.,1964.
[7] Janiczak B., Compact Hybrid-Mode Approach
to Design of Bimode High-Directivity Microstrip
Directional Couplers in MIC Proximity,
Mikrowellen Magazine,vol.13,No 3, 1987.
[8] Collin Robert E., Foundation For Microwave
Engineering, Second Edition, Mc Graw Hill,
Inc.,1992.
[9] Chun Dong Wan, Design of Directional Coupler
using three layer Microstrip Structure, IEEE
Proceedings,2001.

RESULTS & DISCUSSION:
The proposed structure have been simulated
experimentally using IE3D software[5] where
the desired results have been found. Figure 2
shows variation of the coupling with frequency
where it shows that -10.37dB has been found at
the center frequency of 10GHz that is nearly -
10dB for which all the components have been
calculated theoretically. Figure 3 shows the
variation of Isolation with frequency where the
Isolation -35.68dB has been found between the
port 1 and port 4 of the four hole multilayered
Microstrip directional coupler. The simulated
and measured result shows that designed coupler
has good performance over a tight coupling.
















g
/4


Figure 1(a). Cross Sectional view of Four hole Coupled Microstrip Directional Coupler











Figure 1(b). Side View of Four Hole Coupled Microstrip Directional Coupler










Figure 2. Variation of Coupling with Frequency







Figure 3. Variation of Isolation with Frequency