A Novel 3-dB Directional Coupler With Broad Bandwidth and Compact Size Using Composite Right/Left-Handed Coplanar Waveguides

A wideband composite right/left-handed (CRLH) coplanar waveguide (CPW) coupler with 3-dB coupling value and quadrature phase difference is presented. Compared with the conventional edge-coupled CPW coupler, this symmetrical structure, consisting of a gap capacitor, a broadside-coupled capacitor, and a meandering short-circuited stub inductor, achieves wider operating bandwidth and larger coupling level. The 3-dB CRLH CPW coupler with 0.7mm spacing between coupled lines exhibits an amplitude balance of 2dB and a phase balance of 90⁰ plusmn 5⁰ from 3.2 to 7.6GHz. The coupled-line length and the port impedance of the proposed structure are approximately lambda/4 and 50Omega, respectively, which makes it more compact than the cascaded CRLH microstrip coupled-line coupler. To characterize this structure, the equivalent circuit model including the unique coupling mechanism within CRLH CPWs is established and verified by measurement. The signal with less dispersion on output ports is demonstrated based on the standard deviation of group delay time