A COMPACT MICROSTRIP RAT-RACE COUPLER WITH MODIFIED LANGE AND T-SHAPED ARMS

A compact microstrip rat-race coupler is proposed with a new phase inverter which is realized by a modified Lange coupling structure with a slotted ground plane and a floating-potential conductor. Based on the evenand odd-mode theory, its parameters are generally synthesized. In order to further miniaturize the rat-race coupler, a T-shaped line is utilized. A prototype operating at 2.0 GHz is designed and fabricated for verification. The circumference of our proposed rat-race coupler is only 0.52λ. Its in-phase and out-of-phase bandwidths are also enhanced, with reasonable agreement obtained between its simulated and measured S-parameters.