Ultra Wideband Power Divider Using Tapered Line

A power divider with ultra-wideband (UWB) performance has been designed. The quarter-wave transformer in the conventional Wilkinson power divider is replaced by an exponentially tapered microstrip line. Since the tapered line provides a consistent impedance transformation across all frequencies, very low amplitude ripple of 0.2 dB peak-to-peak in the transmission coefficient and superior input return loss better than 15 dB are achieved over an ultra-wide bandwidth. Two additional resistors are added along the tapered line to improve the output return loss and isolation. Simulation performed using CST Microwave Studio and measured results confirm the good performance of the proposed circuit. The return loss and the isolation between the output ports are better than 15 dB across the band 2-10.2 GHz. Standard off-the-shelf resistance values can be selected by optimizing the physical locations to mount the resistors. Better performance can be achieved with more isolation resistors added. Hence, the number of isolation resistors to be used may be selected based on the desired bandwidth and level of isolation and return loss specifications.