Experiment No.

15
Aim:
To design 4- port unequal branch line coupler in microstrip
Design Specification:
Dielectric Constant of Substrate, for microstrip

r =3.2

Substrate Height, h=1.58 mm

Design Frequency, fd= 5 GHz
Characteristic Impedance, Zo=50
Theory and Design Steps:
Quadrature hybrids are 3 dB directional coupler with a 90

phase difference in the outputs of the

through and coupled arms. This type of hybrid is often made in microstrip or stripline and is also known
as branch line hybrid .

The basic operation of the branch line coupler is as follows . With all port matched , power entering at
port 1 is evenly divided between ports 2 and 3with a

90o phase shift between these outputs . No

power is coupled to port 4 (the isolated port), thus the S- matrix will have the following form :

[ ]

0 j1 0
1 j 0 01
[ S ]=
2 1 0 0 j
01 j0

Branch line coupler has the high degree of symetry so any port can be used as the input port .The
ouput port will always be on the opposite side of the junction from the input port, and the islate
port will be the remaining port on the same side as the input port. This symmetry is reflected in
the scattering matrix , as each roe can be obtained as a transposition of the first row.
Even- odd mode analysis
For analysis each transmission line in the branch line coupler is normalized to Zo. We assume
that wave of unit amplitude is incident at port 1.
Now the circuit can decompose in to the superposition of an even mode and odd mode excitation
. As the circuit is linear , the actual response (the scattered waves ) can be obtained from the sum
of the responses to the even and odd excitations.

(a) Decomposition of branch line coupler in to Even mode

(b) Decomposition of branch line coupler in to Odd Mode

Amplitude of the emerging wave at each port of the braanch line hybrid can also expressed as
1
1
B 1= e + o
2
2

1
1
B 2= T e + T o
2
2
1
1
B 3= T e T o
2
2
1
1
B 4= e o
2
2
Where e,o and Te,o are the even and odd mode reflection and transmission coefficients for
thr two port networks . First consider calculation of e and Te, for the even mode two port
circuit . This can be done by multiplying the ABCD matrices of each cascade component in
that circuit , to give

[ ][

j
A B = 10 0
1 0 = 1 1 j
2

C D e j1
j 1 2 j1
j20

[ ] [ ]

] [ ]

e=

A + BCD
=0
A+ B+C + D

T e=

2
1
=
( 1+ j )
A+B+C + D 2

Similarly for odd mode we obtain

AB = 1 1j
C D o 2 j1

[ ]

[ ]

Which give the reflectin and transmission coefficient as

o =0,
T o=

1
(1 j )
2

Thus using above equation we get following result

B 1=0

(port 1 is matched)

B 2=

j
2

(half power , -90 phase shift from port 1 to 2)

B 3=

1
2

(half power , -180 phase shift from port 1 to 3

B 4=0

(no power to port 4)

Design Step for unequal power branch line coupler

PA 3
=
PB 1
Step 1 :
Calculation of impedance

Z 0 A =Z 0

Z0 A

PA
PB
P
1+ A
PB

Z 0 A =43.301
Step 2 :
Calculation of impedance

Z0 A

Z 0 B=Z 0

PA
PB

Z 0 B=86.60

Compution of width and length of the microstrip using QUCS are

l

Zo

(degree)

(ohm)

90o

2
3

Section

(width of conductor plate)

(Length of Microstrip)

mm

mm

50

3.843

9.245

90o

43.30

4.789

9.155

90o

86.60

1.402

9.609

Design and Response :

(a)Design using PUFF , for microstrip line

(b)Design using QUCS ,for microstrip line

S11 :

S21:

S31:

S41 :

Comparing graphs of S11, S21, S31, S41 :

Result and Discussion:

The response of Branch line equal power coupler using microstrip line has been studied
successfully. Comparison of responses has been carried out in QUCS and Puff, on the basis of
insertion loss and reflection coefficient, at design frequency (fd=5 GHz)
PUFF

QUCS

Reflection Coefficient (for port1) (dB)

>100

64.9

Insertion Loss (for Port 2)

(dB)

1.25

1.29

Insertion Loss (for Port 3)

(dB)

6.02

6.07

Insertion Loss (for Port 4)

(dB)

>100

59.3