An asymmetric left-handed coupled-line is presented to implement the tight forward coupler. Two left-handed transmission lines are coupled through its shunt inductors. The numerical procedures based on the generalized four-port scattering parameters combined with the periodical boundary conditions are applied to extract the modal characteristics of the asymmetric coupled-line, and theoretically predict that the proposed coupled-line can make a normalized phase constant of c mode 1.57 times larger than π mode for the forward coupler miniaturization. The design curves based on different overlapping length of the shunt inductors are reported for the coupler design. The procedures, so-called the port-reduction-method (PRM), are applied to experimentally characterize the coupler prototype using the two-port instruments. The measured results confirm that prototype uses 0.21 λg at 430 GHz to achieve -4.55 dB forward coupling with 13% 1-dB operating bandwidth.

A new elliptic-function bandpass filter (BPF) is proposed, which utilizes an inter-digital coupled line (IDCPL) as a left-handed transmission line. The IDCPL is employed in order to realize a negative coupling between non-adjacent resonators in a wideband BPF. As the authors' knowledge, the left-handed operations of the IDCPL has rarely utilized before, although the IDCPL itself has been widely used in many microwave circuits without being paid attention to the left-handed operations. Measured characteristics of two BPFs are presented in this paper, one is targeted for 3-4 GHz WiMAX systems, and the other is for 3-5 GHz ultra wideband communication systems (UWB).

This paper presents a new quarter-wavelength microstrip coupler compensated with a periodic sequence of floating metallic strips in the slots on the inner edges. After describing the characteristics of the coupled-line, as an example, a 15-dB coupler is designed and a high directivity of 30 dB or more in theory is obtained over a full band of a single-section coupler. Next, couplers with various coupling factors are designed, and the usefulness for very loose coupling is demonstrated. Furthermore, a three-section coupler is designed to show the effectiveness in a wide frequency range. The validity of the design concept and procedure is confirmed by electromagnetic simulations and experiments.

In this paper a new method for the design and optimization of microstrip parallel coupled-line bandpass filters is presented which allows for the specification of frequency bandwidths and arbitrary source and load impedance transformation. The even- and odd-mode theory and the relationships between impedance, transmission and scattering matrices and their properties are used to construct a positive definite error function using the insertion losses at discrete frequencies in the pass, transition and stop bands. The dispersion relations for the coupled line are also taken into account. The minimization of the error function determines the widths, gap spacings and lengths of the coupled-line filter, for the optimum design and realization of filter specifications. The proposed filter design and optimization method is coded by computer programs and the results of simulation, fabrication and testing of sample filters together with comparisons with available full-wave analysis softwares, indicate the efficacy of the proposed method. Filter design with up to 50% bandwidth and the design of shorter lengths of coupled line sections are achievable by the proposed method in part due to the incorporation of impedance matching.

In a partially coupled-line bandpass filter (BPF), a combination of two microstrip line resonators which are partially coupled, are considered, where one resonator is half-wavelength (λ/2)-long, and another whose one end is grounded, is only quarter-wavelength (λ/4)-long. Therefore, the length of a coupled-line section can be varied based on the position of the grounding end, and five conditions of the movable coupling length have been simulated which will greatly influence the spurious responses of a BPF. This property is numerically investigated in this paper. The analysis shows that, based on the grounding position, this method is capable of realizing the improved out-of-band characteristics by locating the multiple attenuation poles in the stopband and improved spurious responses up to five times of the center frequency (5f0). A few empirical models of BPF are fabricated, and the numerical results are ensured by comparing with the experimental results.

In this paper the method of least squares is employed to design an axially symmetric contradirectional multisection coupled - line coupler together with the impedance matching of real generator and load impedances. An error function is constructed for the required coupling (C) based on the squared magnitude of the ratio of the coupler voltage to that at the incident port. Another algorithm based on the reflected and transmitted wave amplitudes is developed by the method of least squares for the design of a coupled - line coupler with impedance matching of different input and output complex impedances and arbitrary coupling and length. The error functions are minimized to determine the coupler geometry, namely the normalized strip conductor widths (u=w/h) and separation (g=s/h) and the coupler length, where h is the substrate thickness. A procedure is presented to provide the initial values of u and g. The computer implementation of the proposed method shows that a proper coupler design is possible for any given coupler length. This is particularly interesting where space limitations impose contraints on the coupler length. The results are favorably compared with available computer simulation softwares.

A new technique to reduce the isolation network's size in a Marchand balun needed for perfect all-port matching and isolation is proposed. The proposed isolation circuit is realized using a coupled-line phase-inverter in place of the bulky 180line section that has been previously proposed. Analysis of the proposed circuit yields the required relationship between coupling coefficient and electrical length of the coupler. Based on the design equations, the circuit is experimentally demonstrated at 1.8 GHz and has shown excellent results. The obtained output return loss and isolation loss are more than 18 dB and 40 dB, respectively. The proposed balun was then applied to the application of a doubled-balanced ring-diode mixer. The designed mixer achieves a low conversion loss of 6 dB at its operating frequency, which is 1.5 dB lower than for a doubled-balanced diode mixer using a conventional impedance-transforming Marchand balun. The RF-IF and LO-IF isolations are well below 25 dB and 18 dB across 1 GHz RF operating bandwidth, respectively.

Directional couplers with flat coupling are designed by using an asymmetrical coupled-HNRD-guide consisting of two HNRD guides of different cross sections arranged closely. First, propagation characteristics of the asymmetrical coupled-HNRD-guide are analyzed by the transverse resonance technique. Next, the whole directional couplers including tapered sections are designed from the S-parameters of the coupled HNRD guides derived from a superposition of the even-like and odd-like modes. Finally, the validity of the design procedure is confirmed by an em-simulator (HFSS).

Miniaturized millimeter-wave HMIC amplifiers have been developed by using capacitively-coupled matching circuits (CCMC) and FETs with resistive source-stubs. CCMC includes FET's parasitic reactances, and is able to reduce the size of a matching circuit in a HMIC amplifier to about 1/3 of a conventional matching circuit using an open-circuited stub for matching and a quarter-wavelength coupled-line for d. c. blocking. The resistive source-stubs, which consist of two open-circuited stubs and a resistor, can improve the gain and stability of FETs at millimeter-wave frequencies. In this paper, design procedures of CCMC and the resistive source-stubs are described, and their usefulness has been confirmed experimentally through measurements of prototype V-band high-power HMIC amplifiers.

Coupling effects between resonators on a laminated Band Elimination Filter (BEF) is studied. The coupling degrades the filter attenuation performance. A new equivalent circuit of coupled-line BEF with loaded capacitors is investigated. The performance is simulated and the improvement by staggered resonators is confirmed. An experimental filter made of Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramics (LTCC) is constructed. It shows good performance.

A rat-race hybrid-ring which includes a coupled-line called microwave C-section is proposed for size reduction. The perfect input match, isolation, equal power split and certain phase differences between two output ports can be satisfied at center frequency as in a normal hybrid-ring. The size of the proposed circuit becomes smaller than that of a normal rat-race built up with a folded non-coupled 3/4-wavelength transmission line, although the frequency characteristics are slightly damaged by the electromagnetic coupling between two folded strips. Theoretical results based on the even and odd mode decomposition method are in good agreement with those of the experimental circuit fabricated at 1 GHz.