Fast design method and validation of very wideband tapered Wilkinson divider

This paper presents a fast method to design very wideband RF-signal dividers needed for multiband applications. To achieve the targeted wideband performance the classical Wilkinson divider is replaced by a TWD (tapered Wilkinson divider). For large bandwidths, the complexity of the problem and the number of design parameters are high. Up to now, only full wave simulations solved this problem. In order to reduce the computational time to design this complex circuit a new and time-efficient method is proposed. It reduces the number of parameters needed to be optimized in a full-wave optimization by using a circuit model. The presented approach is verified by the design, fabrication and measurement of a 2-38 GHz TWD achieving: input reflection less than -10 dB, output reflection less than -12 dB and islation less than -10 dB. To the best of the authors' knowledge this is the most broadband Wilkinson divider published in the scientific literature up to now.