Design of Wideband 3-way Power Divider/Combiner
with 3D FDTD

Abstract— An optimum topology design of wideband power
divider/combiner has been developed. The performance is very
good, with high transmission and low insertion loss from dc to 20
GHz. 3D-FDTD Method with implementation of Uniaxial
Perfectly Matched Layer (UPML) absorbing boundary conditions
is used to simulate the structure. A numerical optimization was
successfully used to determine the optimal topology structure for
design 3-way power divider/combiner and an improvement was
achieved compared with some other results of recent publications.
The Simulation results obtained in this article show a great
performance characteristic improvement of the 3- way power
divider/combiner, the return loss is greater than - 10.0 dB from
dc to 20, and better than -14 dB at ku band. The proposed
structure has more application in microwave systems which
require amplifiers operating at higher frequencies and providing
high power such as radar or satellite applications.
Index Terms— Power Divider/Combiner, Microstrip, FDTD,
Topology, UPML.
Paper Classification
DOI: 10.7251/ELSxxxxxxxx
I. INTRODUCTION
P OWER dividers/combiners are essential passive devices
for many applications in telecommunication, radars,
satellites, and other systems, such as array antenna power
amplifiers. They are widely used in applications that require
power higher than the capacity of a single electromagnetic
source to increase their output power [1,2,3]. They can
combine electromagnetic waves from multiple sources to a
single output port, and can also be used as power dividers
when used in reverse. The key features of power
divider/combiner are clearly their insertion loss, return loss,
bandwidth and size. The techniques adopted for the
optimization of device performance are strictly related to the
type of power divider/combiner structure and to the selected
realization technology [1,2].
A wide variety of power dividers/combiners with high
performance have been modeled in different topologies, with
various methods. An overview of these topologies can be
found in [2,3].
In the present paper, a three-way power divider/combiner
based on microstrip circuit has been analysed, modelled and
simulated with a great performance characteristic and an
optimum topology, the designed power divider/combiner is
operating at ultra wideband from dc to 20 GHz.
Several computational techniques were used for the analysis
of power dividers/combiners structures. These techniques can
be classified as: finite element method, moment method, finite
difference time domain method. A three-dimensional finite-
difference time-domain (3D-FDTD) method is used to
simulate the electromagnetic (EM) waves propagation in the
proposed power divider, it is simple, easy to implement and a
very efficient solution for wideband problems [4,5] and
particularly well suited to analysis of microwave circuits such
as mixers, multiplexer, power amplifiers, antenna array, power
combiners and dividers, and it has an advantage to give a
broadband solution with a single simulation run.
Boundary condition for reducing boundary reflections
should be introduced to simulate the proposed structure. The
most used techniques to truncate the limit for open region
modeling problems are the Mur's ABC artificial boundary
condition, the Liao ABC [5, 6] and various perfectly matched
layer PML formulations [7]. The PML concept was initially
proposed by Jean Pierre Berenger in 1994 and has been
modified and extended to the uniaxial PML (UPML) [8,9], it
have the ability to absorb evanescent waves, more
computationally efficient and is proved to be stable with
greater flexibility [9,11]. In our work, uniaxial perfectly
matching layer (UPML) in three dimensions is used as the
Mur's ABC to terminate the finite difference time domain
formulation for electromagnetic wave, it is efficient and can be
easily implemented with 3D- FDTD method and it will absorb
unwanted reflections and truncating unbounded domains in
numerical simulations.
This paper is divided into the following sections: In the first,
the theoretical analysis and design configurations of the
proposed power divider/combiner will be introduced. In
section II the simulation algorithm and numerical optimization
will be explained, next we give the results obtained and
provide a comparison with other results of recent publications.
Finally, the paper is concluded in section III.
 II. ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF POWER DIVIDER/COMBINER Where sx ,sy and sz are defined by [6, 7]:
The analysis consists of using a theory to provide complete
explanations with the implementation of a numerical method. x y 
sx  k x  ; sy  ky  ; sz  k z  z (5 a,b,c)
Starting with mathematical proof, we explain how to calculate j j j
the scattering parameters. In first we give a formulation to
calculate the electromagnetic fields that will be used to One approach is to define the constitutive relationship to
calculate the Sij coefficients, then we present the design decouple the frequency dependent terms [6,7], specifically, let:
procedure with a numerical optimization. ~ s ~ ~ s ~ ~ sy ~
Dx   z E x ; D y   x E y ; Dz   Ez (6 a,b,c)
A. FDTD with UPM Formulation sy sy sz
UPML absorbing boundary conditions have been
Then, equation (4) is rewritten as:
implemented within the three-dimensional FDTD method for
solving the scattering problem to simulate a microstrip power ~ ~
 H H y  ~
Divider/combiner. It is efficient and can be easily implemented  z
 s y 0 0  D x 
 ~y z  ~ 
j  0 0   Dy 
in the FDTD method. More information and formulation of
~ = sz
fields in uniaxial medium can be found in [6-9]. In this section  H z H z  (7)
  
we describe how to compute the electric and Magnetic fields
 ~z x 
~
 0 0 s x   Dz 
distribution from FDTD method using UPML boundary  H y Hx 
conditions; next we give a technique for extracting scattering  x y 
parameters.  

The time harmonic Maxwell's curl equations in a three- Substitute sx, sy, and sz from equations (6) into (7), and
dimensional UPML medium can be write as [6]: then we use the inverse Fourier transform by the identity
jf ( )  (  ) f (t ) .This gives an equivalent system of

~ 
~ t
  H   j s H . (1)
~ 
~ time-domain differential equations for equation (7):
  E   js H . (2)
~ ~
 H H y 
Where s is the diagonal tensor defined by:  z
 k y 0 0 D x 
 z   0 0   Dy 
 ~ y
~
 H z H z  =  kz
  t
 s x1  ~z x   0 0 k x   Dz 
0 0  s y 0 0  s z 0 0 ~
    H y Hx 
s  0 sx 0  0 s y1 0   0 sz 0   x y 
0  
 0 s x   0 0 s y   0 0 s z1 
 y 0 0   D x 
s y s z s x1 0 
  0  z 0   Dy 
0 1
  (8)
= 0 s x s z s y1 0  (3) 
 0 0  x   Dz 
 0 0 s x s y s z1 


Used equations (1), (2) et (3), Ampere's law in a matched

UPML is expressed as: Yee lattice" is used to discretize equation (8). This leads to
explicit time step expressions for Dx, Dy and Dz.

~ ~
 H H y  For example, the Dx update is given by [6]:
 z
 s y s z s x1 0 0  ~
 ~y z    Ex 
s   H ~
H z   0 s x s z s y1 0  ~ 

z
 E y   2k y   y t   2t 
 0 s x s y s z1 
n 1
 D  
n
z x  0 ~ 
E Dx
 ~ ~   z i  1 , j ,k  2k   t  x
 
i  1 , j ,k  2k   t 
 
 H y
2 2
Hx  y y y y

 x y  n 1 n 1 n 1 n 1
  Hz 2
 Hz 2 Hy 2
 Hy
i  1 , j ,k i  1 , j  1 ,k i  1 , j ,k  1 i  1 , j ,k  1
(4) ( 2 2 2
 2 2 2 2
)
y z
(9)
 After multiplying both sides by par and substituting A similar procedure can be derived to update the
for et from (5a) and (5c), we obtain the equation: components of Ex, Ey, Hx, Hy and Hz using the same approach.

x ~  ~
(k x  ) Dx   (k z  z ) E x (10) B. Computation of S Parameters
j j
For wideband S-parameter extraction, a Gaussian pulse is
Multiplying both sides by j and transforming into the time used as the source excitation. To calculate the parameter S11
domain we can get: for this structure, two computations are required one to capture
the incident waveform at port 1, and a second to capture the
     total wave (incident + reflected) seen at port 1.
( k x Dx )  x Dx    ( k z E x )  z E x  (11)
t   t   The reflected wave form seen at port 1 is determined by
taking the difference at port 1 between the total waveform and
Similarly, from equations (6b) and (6c), then we get a: incident waveform from the structure simulation. The return
loss parameter S11 is calculated by taking the Fourier
 y    transforms of both incident and reflected then computing the
(k y D y )  Dy    (k x E y )  x E y  (12) ratio defined by [12,13]:
t   t  
 FT ( E port
reflected

y  S11  20Log  (17)
1
   incident 
( k z D z )  z Dz    ( k y E z )   FT ( E port1 
 z 
E (13)
t   t
The insertion loss parameter S21 is computed by recording
the value of the Ez field component at port 2. The Fourier
Discretizing the time in equations (11~13) using standard
transforms are then taken for the incident waveform at port 1
Yee. We have , and . For example, the update is
and the transmitted waveform at port 2.
given by:
S21 is given by the ratio:
n 1  2k z   z t   1 
   E x  
n
E x i  1 , j ,k
2
 2k z   z t 
i  1 , j ,k
2
 ( 2k    t )   FT ( E transmited )
z z
S 21  20Log 
port 2
 (18)
incident
2k   t ) D  FT ( E port1 ) 
 (2k x   x t ) Dx in 1 , j ,k 
n 1
 x x x i  1 , j ,k
2 2 
S31 and S41 parameters are computed in the same manner.
(14)

C. Procedure modelling and Simulation

Where x, y, and z namely the space steps in x y z
direction, and t is the time step. A three-dimensional finite-difference time domain FDTD
simulation code with the uniaxial perfectly matched layer
The maximum time step that may be used is by stability UPML absorbing boundary condition [6, 10-16], has been
restriction of the finite difference equations: used to simulate a 3-way power divider/combiner.
The design technique of the proposed structure sets as
1 (15) follows:
t  .
1 1 1
 max    Step 1: Build geometries of proposed structure.
x 2 y 2 z 2
 Step 2: Define parameters.
 Step 3: Initialize all electric and magnetic fields to be
Where  max is the maximum speed of light. zero.
 Step 4: Excite the system by electric source Ez
The input signal is a Gaussian pulse, it has a frequency  Step 5: Updating equations of electric fields.
spectrum from dc to the desired cut-off frequency by adjusting  Step 6: Enforce boundary conditions on the electric
the width of the pulse [13, 14]. The form of the Gaussian fields.
signal is as follows:  Step 7: Update the magnetic fields from equations.
2
 Step 8: Enforce boundary conditions on the magnetic
( t t0 )
E z  f (t )  e 2 (16) fields.
 Step 9: Set the updated electric and magnetic fields for
Where t0 is the pulse delay and  is period of pulse . the next time step, and perform a new cycle by
 repeating between steps 3 to step 6 until the system
comes to a steady state.
 Step 10: Compute scattering matrix coefficients from
time domain results using procedure described in
section B.

D. Design of 3-way Power Divider/Combiner

We will build a structure based on microstrip to design a 3-

way power divider/combiner with wide operating bandwidth,
this structure has a symmetric layout, it's a passive device used
to divide an input signal into three signals, or to combine more
signal sources when used in reverse. In this section, we discuss
the design of circuit, then we present our numerical results to
describe the performance of the proposed design of 3-way
power divider/combiner. Firstly, we give the multi sectional
layout for proposed microstrip circuit in three dimensions (3D)
as shown in figure 1.

The line width, the section length and the total length are Fig. 1. Structure of the proposed power Divider/combiner
indicated with Wj, Li respectively. Index i is starting from 1
and ending with 6 and j from 1 to 2. Then we use a
computational procedure described in section C. E. Optimization

A microstrip is used to design the proposed power divider/
combiner [16], the structure has a simple form, which has four
segments, ports 2-4 are three Output ports which receive
power while port 1 is the signal input port, as shown in Figure
1. The power divider/combiner has an attractive property, it is
in planar form, and can be manufactured with simple
technology without any complicated mechanical assembly, the
interconnections with other planar circuits are simple. This
structure can operate in a large wideband.
The power divider/combiner is designed with the following
specifications: RT Duroid substrate 5880 with thickness 2.41,
width h=0.794, relative permittivity 2.2 and loss tangent
0.0009. The grid cells sizes in x y z are: nx = 80, ny = 100, nz
= 16 for 3-way power divider/combiner. The space steps are:
dx = 0.4064e-3, dy = 0.4233e-3 and dz = 0.2650e-3.
[12,15,16,17, 18].
The input port of the circuit is excited by a source Ez and
equally divided at the three output ports, the interior of the
structure is discretized by an FDTD grid [6, 12].
In order to reduce unwanted reflections and improve the
transmission of the proposed power divider/combiner, a
numerical optimization was successfully used to determine the
optimal topology structure for design 3-way power
divider/combiner. Below, we will describe the proposed
method for optimization utilized in our work which depends
on the following steps:
• Define of power divider/combiner geometry.
• Calculate scattering parameters using 3D FDTD Simulation.
Algorithm described in section B.
• Redefine geometry area of topology structure by gradually
varying its size.
• Recalculate scattering parameters.
• This process goes on until we reach to find the best values
to obtain an overall acceptable performance.
The optimization flowchart can be summarized in Figure 2.

The reflection and transmission coefficient are

computed from the electrical fields at four ports.
 Fig 3a. Ez Field distribution at t = 53 ps in 3-way Power
Divider/Combiner

Fig .2 Flowchart of optimization

A series of simulations have been used to determine the

optimal layout parameters for a minimum insertion loss and
good values of return loss at wideband. The final optimized
dimensions of the proposed 3-way power divider/ combiner
are given in table 1.

Table1.Dimensions of the power divider/combiner

Structure Parameters Values

(mm)
h 0.794
W 2.413 Fig 3b. Ez Field distribution at t = 105 ps in 3-way Power
L1 7.308 Divider/Combiner
Dimensions
L2 5.055
L3 30.856
L4 10
L5 40.650

Three different images of Ez distribution has been captured

at three different times, when the input signal passes through
the device and equally divided between the outputs ports. It
can be observed that the input signal is divided at port 2, 3 and
port 4 as shown in figures 3 (a, b, c).

Fig 3c. Ez Field distribution at t = 221 ps in 3-way Power

Divider/Combiner

The scattering transmission parameters for the proposed
circuit are shown in Figure (4), the return loss is better than –
11 dB over a frequency band from dc to 20 GHz, the results of
S21, S31 and S41 show performance levels of -4.50 dB from dc
to 20 GHz. At Ku band S11 is better than – 14 dB and S21
lower than -6 dB as shown in figure 4.
0 low volume, therefore, is suited for low cost applications, they
-5
Scattering parameters (dB)
III. CONCLUSION
In this article, a 3-way power divider/combiner was
designed and simulated using the 3D-FDTD Method. The
simulated results indicate that the proposed power
divider/combiner is constructed with excellent wideband
performance especially at ku band, has simple structure and
easy to process, with good return loss, excellent amplitude and
low insertion loss. The structure is compact, lightweight and
can also be used as power combiners when used in reverse.
The design of this power divider/combiner can be easily

extended to various multi-band microwave devices using

FDTD method.
-10
.

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