Computation of the Frequency Response of a Class of Symmetric N-Way Power Dividers
01 October 1980
Symmetric, n-way power dividers have the advantage of giving neither amplitude nor phase power-division unbalance at all frequencies. Thus, they are used in many broadband applications such as in the feed system of multi-element antennas, and as combiners of solidstate amplifiers and oscillators. They are also used (without isolation resistors) for fanning in and fanning out in high-speed, digital integrated circuits. This paper is primarily concerned with methods of analysis suitable for the computation of the frequency response of the class of symmetric, n-way power dividers represented schematically in Fig. 1. This includes the well-known Wilkinson power divider,1"8 the recently introduced radial9"12 and fork12,13 power dividers (see also Ref. 14, Fig. 1), and the coaxial power divider described in Ref. 14, Fig. 2, which has the same topology as the radial power divider. The radial 1493 and the fork power dividers are particularly interesting since they are both planar. When Wilkinson1 introduced his power divider, which consisted of one stage of n, uniform, uncoupled transmission lines, and one network of isolation resistors, he limited his analysis to the center frequency. Later, several simple methods of analysis were introduced for the computation of the frequency response of single- or multi-stage, Wilkinson, /i-way power dividers with uniform, uncoupled lines and an arbitrary n,2'4 with uniform uncoupled lines and n = 2,5 with uniform, coupled lines and n = 2,6 with nonuniform, uncoupled lines and n = 2,7 and with uniform, coupled lines and n = 3.8 No methods are available in the literature for the analysis of Wilkinson power dividers with coupled and/or nonuniform transmission lines and an arbitrary value of n.