Broadband coupler using improved vertically installed planar structure

A novel vertically installed planar structure with patterned ground plane had been presented in this paper. It eliminates the existing limitations of conventional vertically installed planar structure, resulting in a simple structure with less fabrication efforts. For demonstration purpose, a 3-dB hybrid coupler was designed based on the proposed improved structure. It was measured to have a good performance both in amplitude and phase from 2.5 to 5.5 GHz.