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A Tri-Band Branch-Line Coupler Design Using Double-Lorentz

Transmission Line Metamaterial
F. Mazeh1, H. Ayad1, 2, A. Khalil1, M. Fadllallah1, J. Jomaah

1
Lebanese University, Physics Department, Faculty of Sciences, Beirut – Lebanon
2
IMEP-LHAC, Grenoble INP, Grenoble – France

Abstract — A branch-line coupler (BLC) working at three
arbitrary frequencies using double-Lorentz (DL) transmission
line (TL) Metamaterial is presented. A DL has sufficient degrees
of freedom to realize tri-band microwave devices. We
demonstrate that the three operating frequencies can be obtained
by tuning the phase slope of the line section. Then, the design
equations are extracted and validated for the first time to the
best of our knowledge. Moreover, a tri-band BLC is introduced
for the application of GSM-UMTS services. Such prototype is
demonstrated by simulation at 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, and 2100
MHz. This coupler exhibits transmission of 3±0.5dB, return
losses more than 14dB, isolations larger than 14dB, and a phase
difference of 90±3.5 degrees.
Index Terms — Composite right/left-handed CRLH TL,
coupler, double-Lorentz DL TL, metamaterial, tri-band
component.
I. INTRODUCTION
Metamaterials are artificial structures implemented with a
negative effective dielectric permittivity and magnetic
permeability. That's what is called Left-Handed Metamaterial
(LHM); which have gained significant interest in many guided
waves and radiated applications in the microwave community.
LH materials are so named because of the LH triad formed by
the electric field, magnetic field, and wave vector leading to
an antiparallel phase and group velocities. Going through the
transmission line (TL) approach, a LH TL is made up of
periodic series capacitances and shunt inductances which is
the dual of the conventional TL known as Right-handed RH
TL. But a purely LH TL doesn't exist due to the natural
parasitic induced current and voltage which are modeled by a
series inductance and a shunt capacitance. This was the
motivation for introducing the term CRLH (Composite Right-
Left Handed) TL. The dual concept of such CRLH was
introduced in [1]. However, the dual CRLH structure is an
idealization that cannot be exactly recognized. A real dual
In this paper, DL TLs are shown to be efficient in the design
of the BLC in which the second and the third operating
frequencies can be arbitrarily designed. This is demonstrated
by deriving, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, the
necessary equations permitting to construct a first-cut design
directly.
II. DOUBLE-LORENTZ TL METAMATERIAL
The unit cell of the artificial DL TL is shown in Fig. 1. It
consists of the ideal dual CRLH structure [1], a parasitic series
inductance Lp and a shunt capacitance Cp. These parasitic
elements are important TL parameters. A DL TL is designed
by cascading periodically this unit cell with a condition that
this cell is much smaller than the guided wavelength in the
frequency range of operation. Mainly, it is examined in the
homogeneous limit where (¨Ȁɉ‰ሻ՜0.


Fig. 1. Unit-cell of artificial double-Lorentz (DL) transmission
line (TL).
As shown in Fig. 1, the unit cell series impedance Zse and
shunt admittance Ysh are given by (1) and (2):
Z2  Zse2
Zse Z jZL p 2 0
. (1)
Z  Zse2
f

CRLH Metamaterial is in fact a double-Lorentz (DL) medium

and this material has an intrinsic tri-band property that can be Where
used to design various tri-band microwave components [2].
The conventional BLC is made up of quarter wavelength
1 LR  Lp
Zfse & Z0se .
transmission lines; it can operate only at its desired frequency LRCL LR LpCL
and its odd harmonics [3]. Since wireless communication
systems as GSM-UMTS have operational non-harmonic
frequencies, tri-band components are demanded to reduce the
number of devices used.

&RS\ULJKW,(,&( 

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 Ȧ2  Ȧ0sh 2
Ysh Ȧ jȦC p . (2)
Ȧ2  Ȧfsh 2

Where

1 CR  C p
Zfsh & Z0sh .
LLCR LLCRCP

The DL structure can be balanced so that no gap exists in

the transition from LH medium to RH medium. There are two
conditions to reach such case (3):
Zfse Zfsh Zf & Z0se Z0sh Z0 . (3) f1 f2 f3
Under the balanced condition, the dispersion relation and
the characteristic impedance are given by (4) and (5) and the
Fig. 3. Phase response in a DL TL
dispersion diagram is plotted in Fig. 2 for specific set of LC
parameters.
Ȧ Ȧ2  Ȧ02 III. TRI-BAND DESIGN PROCEDURE
ȕ Ȧ ' . (4)
Ȧ p Ȧ2  Ȧf2 The proposed BLC is designed using DL TLs. The two Z0
Where lines have 50π characteristic impedance while the other two
1 Z0/ξ2 lines are of 35πǤ The TL has six variables LP, CP, LR,
Zp . CR, LL, and CL, in our design equations that we should extract
Lp C p and validate. If we assume that the operating frequencies are
chosen as f1, f2, and f3, the phase shift of the DL TL at each
LR LL LP frequency is given by (6), (7) & (8):
Z0 . (5)
CR CL CP M f1 S / 2 . (6)

As shown in Fig. 2, the RH medium is dominant at low M f2 S / 2 . (7)

frequencies where Ⱦ>0, while both contributions exist at high M f3 S / 2 . (8)
frequencies, Ⱦ can take both signs. The balanced condition is
fulfilled in the design of Fig. 2.
The phase shift is related to Ⱦ by ɔi = -Ⱦ‹ο where N is the
number of unit cells and i=(1,2,3). So, the dispersion relation
can be written in the form (9):
LH Media RH Media
Mi Zi Zi 2  Z02
where i 1, 2,3 . (9)
N Z p Zi 2  Zf2
f3=2.1GHz
IV. IMPLEMENTATION
f2=1.8 GHZ
A. Artificial DL TL
f1=0.9 GHz
A symmetric balanced structure is developed where the
input and output impedances are equal. The sub-section that
corresponds to the parasitic part is replaced by a microstrip
element.
B. Procedure Of Implementation
Fig. 2. Dispersion diagram computed for the following set of
parameters: LR=1.24 nH, CR=0.496 pF, LP=5.2 nH, CP=2.08 pF, 1) Choose f1, f2, and f3.
LL=18 nH, CL=7.2 pF. 2) Solve the system of equations obtained in (9) for the
unknown values of ɘ0, ɘ’, and ɘλ.
The advantage of using DL TLs over RH TLs can be seen
3) With the help of ɘ0, ɘ’, ɘλǡ and Z0, calculate the values
from the flexibility in the phase response diagram as shown in
of LP, CP, LR, CR, LL, and CL for Z0=50π and Z0=35π
Fig. 3 where we can intercept a triple of arbitrary frequencies
which are derived to be :
for two desired phases. This is in contrast to a quarter
Z0 1
wavelength RH TL where the next usable frequency is its first Lp & Cp . (10)
harmonic. Zp Zp Z0



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 Z 0 Z02  Zf2 Z02  Zf2
LR & CR . (11)
ZpZ 2
f Z 0 Z p Zf2
Z0 Z p Zp
LL & CL . (12)
Z02  Zf2 Z 0 Z02  Zf2

4) Check that each unit cell has a phase shift less than 90° at
each operating frequency; otherwise increase N.
5) Use the value of LP and CP to find the length of the
microstrip lines used using standard microstrip formulas.

V. SIMULATION
Following the procedure in the previous section, a BLC is
implemented and demonstrated. Fig. 4 shows both the 50Ÿ TL Fig. 5. Simulated S-Parameter of the BLC design of Fig. 4.
section and the 35Ÿ TL section.
TABLE 1: PERFORMANCE OF THE TRI-BAND BRANCH-LINE
COUPLER DESIGN
Operating Frequency 900 MHz 1800 MHz 2100 MHZ
Return Loss -26.75 dB -14.17 dB -23.97 dB
Output 1 -3.2 dB -3.27 dB -3.4 dB
Output 2 -2.92 dB -3.5 dB -2.8 dB
Isolation -27.51 dB -14.11 dB -24.57 dB
(a) Phase Difference -89.9 -93.4 -90.4

To overcome this, we go down by dimensions in the series

(b)
Fig. 4. Schematics of DL 50Ÿ and 35Ÿ lines
Surface Mount Technology (SMT) components are used for
the LH and RH sections while a conventional microstrip line
is used for the parasitic section. The substrate used is FR4
with permittivity 4.4, thickness 0.8mm, and copper thickness
18ȝm. The operating frequencies are chosen to be 0.9 GHz,
1.8 GHz, and 2.1 GHz. The ideal parameters are obtained
from the design equations for both 50Ÿ and 35Ÿ lines. A
tuning stub is added to the 50 ohms TL just to enhance the
amplitude imbalance between the output ports. The simulation
result is shown in Fig. 5. The performances at each frequency
are summarized in Table 1.
The design equations obtained are just ideal. So they are
considered to be our first-cut design. We should now look for
real available values found in the AWR libraries [4].
Start looking in the 0805WL values and taking the closest
values in this series, optimizing didn't give good expected
results.
reaching the 0402 which best suites our ideal values. Not only
the ideal capacitances and inductances are replaced by real
ones, but also the ideal wires should be replaced by real TLs.
By the time you replace all the circuit elements with real
values, the results will be totally different that you would
expect. So, the next step in our design is to start optimizing in
the values of L's and C's as well as the length in the TLs.
Optimizing step is very important to reach very close results to
the ideal ones. This second step will be our future work.
VI. CONCLUSION
A BLC with three operating frequencies was designed. This
tri-band operation is accomplished by replacing the
conventional TLs with DL TLs in which we can tune its phase
response to intercept the three desired frequencies. That's why
a DL TL is so termed as an intrinsically triband TL.
REFERENCES
[1] C. Caloz and T. Itoh, Electromagnetic Metamaterials,
Transmission Line Theory and Microwave Applications, Wiley
and IEEE Press, 2005.
[2] C. Caloz and I. Wolff, "Double-Lorentz transmission line
metamaterial and its application to tri-band devices," IEEE
Microwave Symposium, 2007.
[3] C. Caloz, “Dual composite right/left-handed (D-CRLH)
transmission line metamaterial,” IEEE Microwave and Wireless
Components Letters, Vol. 16, No. 11, November 2006.
[4] www.awrcorp.com



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