Compact multilayer wideband symmetric five-port reflectometer

This article presents a new design of a wideband, compact, and low-cost symmetric five-port reflectometer (5PR). The proposed 5PR features a wide operational bandwidth of 3240 MHz (about 162% centered at 2 GHz). Five-symmetric branch-lines consist of SCURVE, STEE, SLIN, and Term were designed and optimized to achieve an equivalent value of 78 dB for S₁₁, S₂₂, S₃₃, S₄₄, and S₅₅ at center frequency of 2 GHz. Such consistent value between those S-parameters proven a perfect matching impedance are successfully obtained by proposed symmetric 5PR even own a bandwidth as high as 162%. Moreover, the simulated and measured results show the proposed 5PR has realized magnitude of ≈ 0 dB (S₁₁), 0.5 (S₁₂, S₁₃, S₁₄, S₁₅, S₂₁, S₂₃ … S₅₄) as well as phase relative error of 120° which in parallel to theoretical values. With all capabilities mentioned, the proposed 5PR is a promising candidate to be installed in a microwave imaging system for biomedical applications in the future. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 59:802–805, 2017