E-plane 3-dB power divider/combiner in substrate integrated waveguide technology

Power dividers and combiners are fundamental blocks to realize different types of microwave and mm-wave circuits, including distributed amplifying. E-plane 3-dB structures offer wideband operation, low loss and compactness, at the cost of a limited isolation. This can be significantly improved using a layout based on a resistive septum, which is an implementation particularly suited for substrate integrated waveguide technology (SIW), which can offer extra advantages over standard waveguides such as low-cost printed-circuit manufacturing techniques and high integration. This paper presents the parametric analysis of an SIW X-band E-plane 3-dB power divider/combiner. The optimization of the resistive septum is discussed in detail, showing the impact of the different design parameters, such as length, width, and surface resistance.