Miniaturized Dual-Band Power Splitter in LTCC for GNSS Applications
Michael L. Laurenzi, Yahia M. M. Antar, Alois P. Freundorfer, Michel Clénet, Slobodan Jović
Abstract
Global navigational satellite systems (GNSS) have received considerable attention in recent years, given their dual-band superiority over traditional single-band constellations. As such, there is new interest in compacting the RF front-ends of these systems and their corresponding devices. In this letter, the design and characterization of a low profile two-way equal power splitter operational over the lower- and upper-GNSS bands—1165–1295 MHz and 1560–1606 MHz—is proposed. Miniaturization was achieved by utilizing low temperature cofired ceramics (LTCC) as a 3-D integration method and substrate medium; yielding splitter dimensions of only <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$3.9\times 6.23\times1.28$ </tex-math></inline-formula> mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> . Across both bands, measurements indicate return loss < 27 dB, insertion loss (IL) < 0.6 dB, output isolation < 16.9 dB, amplitude unbalance < 0.4 dB, and phase unbalance < 3.3°.