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Four-Way Waveguide Power Divider/Combiner Based on Stepped T-junction for THz Antenna Array Application

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Abstract

A new H-plane four-way waveguide power divider/combiner is proposed for the \(1\times 4\) THz antenna array with a 120 mm element distance. The waveguide power divider is designed based on an improved H-plane T-junction using 2nd stepped topology, and a 90 \(^\circ\) circularly curved waveguide. First, the topology and evolution of an H-plane two-way power divider with a 2nd stepped T-junction is explored, which is shown to achieve a significantly improved input impedance matching, and a balanced two-way output power amplitude and phase. Second, a four-way power divider is realized by cascading the two same T-junctions. Finally, a 90 \(^\circ\) circularly curved waveguide is presented and combined with the four-way power divider for guiding the wave. The effects of tolerance and roughness on the performance have been analyzed. A prototype, as a feed network for the THz antenna array with a 120 mm element distance working from 210 to 225 GHz, is designed, fabricated, and measured. The measured results show that the input return loss is greater than 15 dB, the insertion loss is less than 2.7 dB with an amplitude imbalance of \(\pm\) 0.3 dB, and a phase imbalance of \(\pm\;2.7^\circ\), which is also in good agreement with simulations.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Associate Professor Xiaoyan Pang (NPU) and Dr. Peyman PourMohammadi (KU Leuven) for their warm help in editing the paper.

Funding

This work was supported in part by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2018YFE0207500), Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (No.21ZR1424300), and Yulin Science and Technology Plan Project (CXY-2020–003, CXY-2021–143).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Communication and Information Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China

    Wenxuan Liu, Xue-Xia Yang & Qi Zheng

  2. The 54th Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC), Shijiazhuang, China

    Yingran He & Biao Du

  3. School of Information and Technology, Yulin University, Yulin, China

    Haixiong Li

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  1. Wenxuan Liu
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  2. Yingran He
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  3. Biao Du
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  4. Haixiong Li
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  5. Xue-Xia Yang
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Contributions

Qi Zheng and Wenxuan Liu worked on the design, fabrication, and measurements, and wrote the main manuscript; Yingran He, Biao Du, Haixiong Li, and Xuexia Yang also worked on the fabrication and measurements. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Qi Zheng.

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Liu, W., He, Y., Du, B. et al. Four-Way Waveguide Power Divider/Combiner Based on Stepped T-junction for THz Antenna Array Application. J Infrared Milli Terahz Waves 44, 66–81 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10762-022-00899-7

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