Same band combiners for last generation base stations

A new class of combiners for base stations of mobile communications is introduced. This combiner allows to share two antennas between two base stations which both use an additional diversity channel in the receiving band. To achieve this result, classical combiners require at least 4 filters and one 3dB divider. With the new solutions only 2 filters are needed, resulting in a substantial reduction of the overall size (and cost). The paper describes the approach to the design of the new combiner and shows the attainable performances through the design of a test device.