A Symmetrical Fractal-based Balanced Branch-Line Coupler for Simultaneous Low- and Mid-band 5G Frequencies Applications

Authors

  • Abdulkadir B. Shallah Wireless Communication Centre, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4643-1482
  • Farid Zubir Wireless Communication Centre, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8434-166X
  • Mohamad Kamal A. Rahim Communication Engineering Department, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
  • Zubaida Yusoff Faculty of Engineering, Multimedia University, Persiaran Multimedia, 63100 Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13052/2023.ACES.J.381206

Keywords:

Balanced, Coupler, Fifth-generation, Fractal, Frequency ratio, Low-band, Mid-band, Minkowski, Simultaneous, Symmetrical

Abstract

Symmetry is a key factor for Branch-Line Couplers (BLCs) in RF and microwave systems. This balanced approach evenly distributes power between two output ports, aiding impedance matching and reducing unwanted coupling and crosstalk, while increasing input-output isolation. Furthermore, the symmetrical design of BLCs ensures favorable return loss and phase balance, which are essential for phase-sensitive detectors and beamforming. This symmetry also guarantees consistent performance over a wide frequency range, making it suitable for broadband or multi-frequency applications. We present a compact BLC operating in two frequency bands, ideal for 5G sub-6 GHz applications. It uses T-shaped lines with folded lines and stubs in a Minkowski fractal shape, resulting in a size reduction of 90%. The design and simulation were performed using the CST Microwave Studio at 0.7 GHz and 3.5 GHz, achieving a new high frequency band ratio of 5. A prototype on Rogers RT5880 substrate (εr=2.2,h=0.787 mm) was tested to validate the design’s effectiveness, offering potential for modern wireless applications requiring versatile frequency band operation.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Abdulkadir B. Shallah, Wireless Communication Centre, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

Abdulkadir Bello Shallah (Member, IEEE) was born in Gwandu, Kebbi, Nigeria, in 1984. He received the B.Eng. Degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Bayero University, Kano, in 2014, and the M.Eng. degree in electronics and telecommunications from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, in 2017, where he is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree from the School of Electrical Engineering.

He has been a Lecturer with the Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Kebbi State University of Science and Technology, Aliero, Kebbi. His research interests include RF and microwave devices, reflectarray antennas, beamforming networks, and metamaterials.

Farid Zubir, Wireless Communication Centre, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

Farid Zubir (Member, IEEE) received the B.Eng. degree in electrical (majoring in telecommunication) and the M.Eng. RF and microwave degree from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), in 2008 and 2010, respectively, and Ph.D. degree from the University of Birmingham, UK, in 2016, for research into direct integration of power amplifiers with antennas in microwavetransmitters.

He is currently an Assistant Professor and a Research Fellow with the Department of Communication Engineering, School of Electrical Engineering, and the Wireless Communication Centre, UTM, respectively. He was an Honorary Postdoctoral Research Fellow with The University of British Columbia (UBCO), Okanagan, BC, Canada, from September 2019 to August 2021, where he conducted research into highly efficient and linear amplification power amplifier topology for wireless power systems. His research interests include the area of RF and microwave technologies, including linearization and high-efficiency techniques for PAs, beamforming networks, planar array antenna, dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) and active integrated antenna (AIA).

Mohamad Kamal A. Rahim, Communication Engineering Department, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

Mohamad Kamal A. Rahim (Senior Member, IEEE) was born in Alor Setar, Malaysia, in 1964. He received the B.Eng. degree in electrical and electronic engineering from the University of Strathclyde, UK, in 1987, the Master’s degree in engineering from the University of New South Wales, Australia, in 1992, and the Ph.D. degree in wideband active antenna from the University of Birmingham, UK, in 2003. From 1992 to 1999, he was a Lecturer with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, where he was a Senior Lecturer with the Department of Communication Engineering, from 2005 to 2007, and is currently a Professor.

His research interests include the design of active and passive antennas, dielectric resonator antennas, microstrip antennas, reflectarray antennas, electromagnetic bandgap, artificial magnetic conductors, left-handed metamaterials, and computer-aided design for antennas.

Zubaida Yusoff, Faculty of Engineering, Multimedia University, Persiaran Multimedia, 63100 Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Zubaida Yusoff (Senior Member, IEEE) received the B.Sc. degree (cum laude) in electrical and computer engineering and the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from The Ohio State University, USA, in 2000 and 2002, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from Cardiff University, Wales, UK, in 2012. She worked with Telekom Malaysia International Network Operation in 2002, before joining Multimedia University, Malaysia, in 2004, where she currently holds the position of a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Engineering. She has authored and coauthored more than 50 journals and conference papers.

Her teaching and research focus in the area of power amplifier design, antenna, 5G communications, and analog/mixed signal RF circuit design. She has presented technical papers at conferences nationally and internationally. One of her conference papers has received the “Honorable Mention” for the Student Paper Competition at the International Microwave Symposium, USA, in 2011.

References

K.-K. Cheng and F.-L. Wong, “A novel approach to the design and implementation of dual-band compact planar 90/spl deg/branch-line coupler,” IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 52, no. 11, pp. 2458-2463, 2004.

S. I. Yahya, F. Zubir, L. Nouri, F. Hazzazi, Z. Yusoff, M. A. Chaudhary, M. Assaad, A. Rezaei, and B. Nguyen Le, “A balanced symmetrical branch-line microstrip coupler for 5G applications,” Symmetry, vol. 15, no. 8, p. 1598, 2023.

R. K. Barik, Q. S. Cheng, N. C. Pradhan, and K. S. Subramanian, “A miniaturized quad-band branch-line crossover for GSM/WiFi/5G/WLAN applications,” AEU-International Journal of Electronics and Communications, vol. 134, p. 153611, 2021.

N. Zheng, L. Zhou, and W.-Y. Yin, “A novel dual-band Π

-shaped branch-line coupler with stepped-impedance stubs,” Progress In Electromagnetics Research Letters, vol. 25, pp. 11-20, 2011.

P. Liu and D. Yang, “A dual-band compact branch line coupler based on Γ

-shaped transformer,” in 2016 17th International Conference on Electronic Packaging Technology (ICEPT), pp. 1476-1479, IEEE, 2016.

H. Zhang, W. Kang, and W. Wu, ‘‘A novel compact dual-band branch-line coupler with cross-shaped stubs,” in 2016 IEEE International Conference on Ubiquitous Wireless Broadband (ICUWB), pp. 1-4, IEEE, 2016.

W. Feng, X. Duan, Y. Shi, X. Y. Zhou, and W. Che, “Dual-band branch-line couplers with short/open-ended stubs,” IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs, vol. 67, no. 11, pp. 2497-2501, 2020.

J.-H. Yu, J.-C. Cheng, and Y.-H. Pang, “Design of a dual-band miniaturized 90 branch-line coupler with coupled lines,” in Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference 2011, pp. 21-24, IEEE, 2011.

C.-H. Yu and Y.-H. Pang, “Dual-band unequal-power quadrature branch-line coupler with coupled lines,” IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 10-12, 2012.

A. B. Shallah, F. Zubir, M. K. A. Rahim, H. A. Majid, U. U. Sheikh, N. A. Murad, and Z. Yusoff, “Recent developments of butler matrix from components design evolution to system integration for 5g beamforming applications: A survey,” IEEE Access, vol. 10, pp. 88434-88456,2022.

A. M. Zaidi, M. T. Beg, B. K. Kanaujia, K. Srivastava, and K. Rambabu, “A dual band branch line coupler with wide frequency ratio,” IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp. 25046-25052, 2019.

L. Xia, J.-L. Li, B. A. Twumasi, P. Liu, and S.-S. Gao, “Planar dual-band branch-line coupler with large frequency ratio,” IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 33188-33195, 2020.

F. A. Ghaffar, T. Y. Al-Naffouri, M. Mobeen, K. N. Salama, and A. Shamim, “A compact QPSK modulator with low amplitude and phase imbalance for remote sensing applications,” Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2012.

S. Roshani, S. I. Yahya, S. Roshani, and M. Rostami, “Design and fabrication of a compact branch-line coupler using resonators with wide harmonics suppression band,” Electronics, vol. 11, no. 5, p. 793, 2022.

H. Zhang and K. J. Chen, “A stub tapped branch-line coupler for dual-band operations,” IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 106-108, 2007.

K.-S. Chin, K.-M. Lin, Y.-H. Wei, T.-H. Tseng, and Y.-J. Yang, “Compact dual-band branch-line and rat-race couplers with stepped-impedance-stub lines,” IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 58, no. 5, pp. 1213-1221, 2010.

M. A. Maktoomi, M. S. Hashmi, and F. M. Ghannouchi, “Systematic design technique for dual-band branch-line coupler using T-and Pi-networks and their application in novel wideband-ratio crossover,” IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology, vol. 6, no. 5, pp. 784-795, 2016.

A. C. Das, L. Murmu, and S. Dwari, “A compact branch-line coupler using folded microstrip lines,” in 2013 International Conference on Microwave and Photonics (ICMAP), pp. 1-3, IEEE, 2013.

K. Falconer, J. Fraser, and X. Jin, “Sixty years of fractal projections,” in Fractal Geometry and Stochastics V, pp. 3-25, Springer, 2015.

M. Kumar and V. Nath, “Introducing multiband and wideband microstrip patch antennas using fractal geometries: Development in last decade,” Wireless Personal Communications, vol. 98, pp. 2079-2105, 2018.

C. Gai, Y.-C. Jiao, and Y.-L. Zhao, “Compact dual-band branch-line coupler with dual transmission lines,” IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 325-327, 2016.

D. A. Letavin, “Compact dual-frequency microstrip branch-line coupler using artificial transmission lines,” in 2018 19th International Conference of Young Specialists on Micro/Nanotechnologies and Electron Devices (EDM), pp. 185-188, IEEE, 2018.

A. M. Zaidi, S. A. Imam, B. Kanaujia, and K. Rambabu, “A new equal power quadrature branch line coupler for dual-band applications,” Progress In Electromagnetics Research Letters, vol. 74, pp. 61-67, 2018.

W. Feng, M. Xun, Y. Zhao, and W. Che, “Dual-band branch line coupler with high isolation isolation using loaded coupled lines,” in 2018 International Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society Symposium-China (ACES), pp. 1-2, IEEE, 2018.

R. Islam, A. I. Omi, M. A. Maktoomi, C. Zakzewski, and P. Sekhar, “A new coupled-line based dual-band branch-line coupler with port-extensions,” Progress in Electromagnetics Research M, vol. 105, no. 2021, 2021.

H. Naseri, P. PourMohammadi, Z. Mousavirazi, A. Iqbal, G. A. Vandenbosch, and T. A. Denidni, “A low-profile dual-band hybrid coupler with flexible frequency band ratio,” Progress in Electromagnetics Research Letters, vol. 107, pp. 119-124, 2022.

H. Chang, T. Lim, K. C. Dimitrov, and Y. Lee, “Dual-band branch-line coupler based on crossed lines for arbitrary power-split ratios,” Sensors, vol. 22, no. 15, p. 5527, 2022.

X.-Y. Zhang and J.-C. Lee, “A dual-band branch-line coupler with ultra-wideband harmonic suppression,” Journal of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 57-62, 2023.

S. Singh, R. P. Yadav, and A. Jain, “Miniaturized dual-band branch-line coupler with folded stubs,” in 2019 IEEE 5th International Conference for Convergence in Technology (I2CT), pp. 1-4, IEEE, 2019.

Downloads

Published

2023-12-30

How to Cite

[1]
A. B. Shallah, F. Zubir, M. K. A. Rahim, and Z. Yusoff, “A Symmetrical Fractal-based Balanced Branch-Line Coupler for Simultaneous Low- and Mid-band 5G Frequencies Applications”, ACES Journal, vol. 38, no. 12, pp. 965–974, Dec. 2023.

Issue

2023: Vol 38 Iss 12

Section

General Submission

Categories