Dual-Band N-Way Series Power Divider Using CRLH-TL Metamaterials With Application in Feeding Dual-Band Linear Broadside Array Antenna With Reduced Beam Squinting

A general design for a non-radiating dual-band N-way series power divider (SPD) is presented in this paper. The non-linear phase responses of composite right and left handed transmission-line (CRLH-TL) and non-radiating CRLH-TL (NR-CRLH-TL) are used to achieve the desired dual-band performance. Theory and design procedure of this divider are analyzed in detail. For demonstration, a dual-band 3-way power divider was designed, fabricated and tested at two arbitrary design frequencies: 0.915 GH (UHF) and 2.440 GHz (ISM). There is nearly equal and in-phase power division to all three output ports in the two passbands while the measured input return loss remains below 10 dB. Also, the dual-band divider presents the benefit of setting the output ports arbitrarily apart. In addition, the dual-band nature of the proposed SPD, low cost and easy integration with printed antenna make it well suited for feeding dual-band planar antenna arrays. To verify the performance of the proposed divider, the designed dual-band 3-way SPD is used as a series feed network for a linear array of printed monopole antennas, designed to radiate in the broadside direction. It is shown that the proposed dual-band planar antenna array experiences a decrease in the amount of beam squinting with a change in frequency for both the operating bands.