Wideband compact 3-dB microstrip power divider for L- and S-band applications

This paper presents the analysis, design, built and testing of a new compact 3 dB power divider operating across a wideband frequency range, with a 2.56 GHz center frequency. The proposed divider, consisting of three ports, is constructed using an FR4 substrate, with overall dimensions of 45 × 40 × 1 mm³. The frequencies with the best S21 and S31 results are recorded with a magnitude of −3.04 dB at 2.56 GHz. The simulated input match (S11) displays nearly −30 dB at 2.56 GHz, with a −10 dB bandwidth extending from 1 to 4 GHz, resulting in a total bandwidth of 3 GHz. Hence, the proposed power divider emerges as a strong candidate for applications in both the L- and S-bands. The measured data exhibit strong agreement with the simulation results. The originality of this study lies in achieving high performance within such compact dimensions at an affordable cost, thereby eliminating the complexity that can lead to manufacturing errors. Additionally, it is demonstrated through a comparative table that the proposed power divider exhibits superiority over similar ones found in the literature.