A novel broadside coupler model for MMIC impedance transformer design

Broadside coupled impedance transformers offer the potential for significantly improving the loss and bandwidth of matching networks for high power, broadband power amplifiers. There are currently no adequate scalable models available for prototyping designs. This work presents a novel method for developing an accurate, scalable, process specific, broadside coupler model which can be used to design impedance transformers. The empirical broadside coupler model presented in this work is used to construct an example impedance transformer and is compared to electromagnetic simulation and measured data.