Shanghai Minxi Electric Appliance Manufacturer mainly produces relay modules, module relays, terminal block modules, PLC terminal block modules, optocoupler modules, servo cables, I10 cables and other products. Next, our editor will explain to you that there are many different types of circuit materials used in the design of power dividers (or combiners when used in reverse) and couplers, which have various forms. There are simple dual power dividers and complex N-power dividers, depending on the actual needs of the system. Many different directional couplers and other types of couplers have also made great progress in recent years, including Wilkinson and resistive power dividers, as well as Langer couplers and orthogonal hybrid power-saving bridges, which have many different forms and sizes.
Choosing appropriate PCB materials in these circuit designs can help achieve higher performance. These different types of circuits will compromise the design structure and performance, helping designers choose boards for different applications. Wilkinson dual power divider provides dual equal amplitude and phase output signals through a single input signal. It is actually a "lossless" circuit designed to provide an output signal that is 3dB smaller (or half the original signal) than the original signal (the output power of each port of the power divider decreases with the increase of the number of output ports). In contrast, a resistive dual power divider provides an output signal that is 6dB smaller than the original signal. The increased impedance in each branch of the resistive power divider increases losses, but also increases isolation between the two signals. Like many circuit designs, the dielectric constant (Dk) is generally the starting point for selecting different PCB materials, and designers of power dividers/synthesizers tend to use high dielectric constant (Dk) circuit materials because these materials can provide effective electromagnetic coupling on smaller circuits compared to low dielectric constant materials. There is a problem with high dielectric constant circuits, that is, the dielectric constant in the circuit board is anisotropic or the dielectric constant values of the circuit board are different in the x, y, and z directions. When the dielectric constant changes greatly in the same direction, it is also difficult to obtain a transmission line with uniform impedance. Maintaining impedance invariance is crucial in achieving the characteristics of power divider/combiner PLC terminal module circuit breakers, as changes in dielectric constant (impedance) can lead to uneven distribution of electromagnetic energy and power. Fortunately, there are commercial PCB materials with superior isotropy that can be used in these circuits, such as TMM from Rogers Corporation ® 10i circuit material. These materials have a relatively high dielectric constant value of 9.8 and remain at a level of 9.8+/-0.245 in the three coordinate axis directions (measured at 10GHz). This can also be understood as the uniform impedance characteristics in the transmission lines of power dividers/combiners and couplers, which can make the distribution of electromagnetic energy in the devices constant and measurable. For PCB materials with higher dielectric constants, TMM 13i laminates have a dielectric constant of 12.85 and a variation in three axes within+/-0.35 (10GHz).
Of course, when designing power dividers/synthesizers and couplers, constant dielectric constant and impedance characteristics are only one of the parameters that need to be considered for PCB materials. When designing power divider/combiner or coupler circuits, minimizing insertion loss is often an important goal. Ideally, a dual Wilkinson power divider can provide -3dB or half of the input electromagnetic energy to two output ports. In fact, every power divider/combiner (and coupler) circuit has a certain insertion loss, which usually depends on the frequency (the loss also increases as the frequency increases). Therefore, for the design of a power divider/combiner, the selection of PCB materials needs to consider how to control the insertion loss of the circuit to be low.
In passive high-frequency devices such as power dividers/combiners or couplers, insertion loss is actually the sum of many losses, including dielectric loss, conductor loss, radiation loss, and leakage loss. Some of these losses can be controlled through careful circuit design, and they may also depend on the characteristics of PCB materials and can be minimized by selecting PCB materials reasonably. The leakage loss of Rogers' PCB materials has been minimized. For example, when making transmission lines, Rogers' boards have high body resistivity, which provides high isolation and reduces leakage loss. Impedance mismatch (i.e. standing wave ratio loss) can lead to losses, but can be reduced by selecting PCB materials with a constant dielectric constant. Minimizing losses is crucial in designing high-power power dividers/combiners and couplers, as losses at high power are converted into heat and dissipated in the device and PCB materials, which in turn affects the dielectric constant (and impedance) values of the materials.
