Metamaterial Based Compact Branch-Line Coupler with Enhanced Bandwidth for Use in 5G Applications

Authors

  • Arshad K. Vallappil Advance RF and Microwave Research Group (ARFMRG), School of Electrical Engineering Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, 81310, Malaysia
  • Mohamad Kamal A. Rahim Advance RF and Microwave Research Group (ARFMRG), School of Electrical Engineering Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, 81310, Malaysia
  • Bilal A. Khawaja 2 Faculty of Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering Islamic University of Madinah, Madinah, 41411, Saudi Arabia ,3 Department of Electronics and Power Engineering, PN-Engineering College (PNEC) National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Habib-Rahmatullah Road, Karachi, Pakistan
  • Murtala Aminu-Baba Advance RF and Microwave Research Group (ARFMRG), School of Electrical Engineering Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, 81310, Malaysia

Keywords:

5G, beamforming network, branch-line coupler, butler-matrix, Composite Right/Left Handed (CRLH) Transmission-Line (TL), interdigital capacitor

Abstract

A novel compact 5G branch-line coupler (BLC) based on open-circuit coupled-lines and interdigital capacitor structure is presented in this paper. The proposed BLC shows the composite right/left handed (CRLH) metamaterial transmission-line (TL) operation. The proposed BLC is designed and simulated using CST microwave studio. The designed BLC is then fabricated using the FR4 substrate (εr = 4.3 and h = 1.66mm). The proposed 5G BLC with coupled-lines and the interdigital capacitor has achieved the fractional bandwidth of ~ 40.2% and the size reduction of 54% as compared to the conventional BLC. The fabricated BLC operates at 2.74 – 4.15GHz frequency band with a coupling factor of -3 ± 0.2dB and the phase difference of 88o between the output ports. The BLC measurements are performed at the operating frequency of 3.5GHz. The simulated and measured scattering parameters and phase difference results are in good agreement with each other. The proposed design is suitable for use in future butler-matrix based beamforming networks for antenna array systems in 5G wireless applications.

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Published

2020-06-01

How to Cite

[1]
Arshad K. Vallappil, Mohamad Kamal A. Rahim, Bilal A. Khawaja, and Murtala Aminu-Baba, “Metamaterial Based Compact Branch-Line Coupler with Enhanced Bandwidth for Use in 5G Applications”, ACES Journal, vol. 35, no. 6, pp. 700–708, Jun. 2020.

Issue

2020: Vol 35 Iss 6

Section

Articles