A 3-dB quadrature coupler suitable for PCB circuit design

A quadrature 3-dB coupler, which combines the advantages of a coplanar waveguide and microstrip line structure suitable for single-layer substrate printed circuit board (PCB) circuit design is proposed. As compared to the conventional Lange coupler, the proposed coupler with the advantages of increasing the coupled linewidths and coupling spacing without using extra bonding wires can solve the drawbacks of Lange coupler. In addition, the proposed structure can easily be realized in a single-layer substrate by PCB manufacturing processes to eliminate the effects and uncertain factors from a multilayer substrate. Good agreements between the simulation and measurement in the frequency range from 0.45 to 5 GHz can be seen. With the operation bandwidth ranging from 1.8 to 2.8 GHz, the measured results of the return loss are better than 18.2 dB and insertion losses of coupled and direct ports are approximately 3±0.1 dB; the relative phase difference is approximately 89.8°. The dimension of the circuit is 2.7 cm × 1.6 cm × 0.08 cm.