Design of compensated coupled-stripline 3-dB directional couplers, phase shifters, and magic-T's - Part 1: Single-section coupled-line circuits

The problem of discontinuities in coupled-stripline 3-dB directional couplers, phase shifters, and magic-T's, regarding the connections of coupled and terminating signal lines, has been comprehensively investigated for the first time. The proposed equivalent circuit of these discontinuities, of which parameters can be computed in a process of fitting curves of the circuit and electromagnetic analyses, has been used for accurate modeling of coupled-stripline circuits. It has been shown that parasitic reactances, which result from connections of signal and coupled lines, severely deteriorate the return losses and the isolation of such circuits, and that these discontinuity effects can be substantially reduced by connecting compensating shunt capacitances to both coupled and signal lines. Results of measurements carried out for various designed and manufactured coupled-line circuits are most promising and prove the efficiency of the proposed compensation technique. This paper describes the technique of capacitive compensation of discontinuity effects in single-section coupled-line circuits.