Design of a three-way reconfigurable power divider with three switches

Abstract

In this letter, a three-way reconfigurable power divider consisting of a Y-junction, λ/4 transmission lines, and switch elements is proposed. The presented structure employs one switch per branch, with no switch required on the main line and no isolation resistors, thereby minimizing the total number of switches. The switches, including λ/4 transmission lines, serve as an N-selector and impedance matching circuit. To achieve an input return loss greater than 10 dB, the characteristic impedance of the λ/4 line and the number of branches are mathematically determined. Based on the derived results, a three-way reconfigurable power divider with three switches—the minimum possible number—is designed. The measured input return losses and ON-port losses for all transmission states were obtained as 12.01–24.4 dB and 0.24–1.4 dB, respectively, at 2.45 GHz. The ON-OFF port isolations for 1:1 and 1:2 transmission modes were achieved as 45.32 and 24.28 dB, respectively, at 2.45 GHz.