A miniature LCP-based quadrature hybrid coupler for GPS system on package (SoP)

In this paper, a quadrature hybrid coupler is presented for a GPS system on packages (SoP). The coupler is based on lumped components and is designed for multi-layer LCP (M-LCP) for the first time. A novel topology that uses fewer components and utilizes mutual coupling is introduced. As a result of this new topology the coupler dimensions are (3.6 × 4.9 × 0.13)mm³ making it the smallest reported for the GPS band. The design is approximately 98 % smaller than distributed element couplers as well as being considerably thinner than reported multi-layer designs. The coupler demonstrates an insertion loss of 0.6 dB and more than 20 dB isolation at the operating frequency.