Directional couplers are passive components in radio frequency (RF) engineering and have a broad set of applications. With the scope of how a directional coupler can be implemented in a design, it is important to have specified goals in mind when designing a coupler, for the component to be precise and behave in a desired way. Different design variations also have benefits and disadvantages, and in this project several variations of couplers were investigated. The limiting factors in this project were the rather small area to work with, combined with the design requirements. This is ultimately what made the design approach unique and the reason for using an iterative process in a simulation software, where conventional methods of designing could not be used. Out of the different designs that were tested, two directional couplers on the RO4350B substrate with a gap of 0.34 mm between the transmission lines fulfilled every design parameter except the one regarding the coupling factor. There are three notable conclusions that were drawn. The first is that all directivity compensation methods that were evaluated are valid after optimizing relevant parameters. Some methods could be combined to have an even greater effect, such as the soldermask and wiggly line methods. The second is that ground vias can affect the directivity of a directional coupler substantially. Designing a coplanar waveguide coupler can also have benefits in respect to the given design requirements in this project. Thirdly, a lossy material such as FR4 could be used and still achieve the design parameters at these frequencies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-531546 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Söderström, Arvid, Tunberg, Lucas |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för elektroteknik |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | ELEKTRO-E ; 24017 |
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