Symmetric Coupled Composite Right-/Left-Handed Transmission Line in Common-/Differential-Mode Operation

In this paper, a novel four-port symmetric coupled composite right-/left-handed (CRLH) transmission line in common-/differential-mode operation is introduced. The symmetric metamaterial structure is based on a unit-cell which under a differential-mode excitation behaves like a CRLH metamaterial with bandpass filter characteristics. In contrast, the CRLH metamaterial is below the cut-off frequency under a common-mode excitation. To validate these features, a five-cell four-port symmetric CRLH-TL is simulated, fabricated, and measured, and the obtained results verify the bandpass filter features of the structure under differential-mode excitation.