Abstract
In this paper, we extracted design parameters for re-entrant mode microstrip directional coupler using FE(finite element) calculations. The microstrip directional coupler suffers from a poor directivity due to effect of the inhomogeneous dielectric including both dielectric substrate and air in microstrip transmission lines. Thus, the phase velocity of even mode is not equal to that of odd mode. In order to improve the directivity of microstrip directional coupler, a novel re-entrant mode microstrip directional coupler was employed. In microstrip configuration, the high directivity can be reached by matching the even- and odd-mode effective phase velocities. Through the values of capacitance obtained from 2-dimensional FE calculations, the phase velocities for each mode and the design parameter were extracted for the proposed parallel coupled-line configuration. Based on the extracted design parameter with phase matching condition, we designed and fabricated a 30dB directional coupler at 0.85GHz. Experimental results show good performance with excellent, isolation and directivity.
