auxiliary arm and the rest of the power is delivered to the port 2 of the main arm.
In such case port 3 is called the coupled port and port 2 is called the through
port.
For a directional coupler, theoretically, no power should be coupled at port 4
and hence port 4 is called an isolated port and is generally kept matched
terminated.
Following a similar logic when the network is fed through port 2, port
1 is the through port, port 4 is the coupled port and port 3 is the
isolated port.
In practice signal also can be fed through port 3 or 4 but in such case
the main arm behaves as an auxiliary arm while the auxiliary arm
becomes the main arm. The coupled, through and isolated port can be
defined in a similar manner.
A directional coupler is generally characterized by three parameters
namely coupling, directivity and isolation.
If the power fed at port 1 is P1 and the power received at port 2, 3 and 4 are
P2 , P3 and P4 respectively, then
Therefore I C D dB
Coupling Factor: The coupling factor is a measure of how much of the
incident power is being sampled
0 S12 S13 0
S 0 0 S24
S S12 0 0 S34
13
0 S24 S34 0
0 S12 S13 0 0 *
S12 *
S13 0 1 0 0 0
S * *
12 0 0 S24 S12 0 0 S24
0 1 0 0
S13 0 0 S34 S13
*
0 0 *
S34 0 0 1 0
0 S24 S34 0 0 S*24 *
S34 0 0 0 0 1
which gives
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
S12 S13 1 S12 S24 1 S13 S34 1 S24 S34 1
Further multiplication of row 3 and column 2 gives S13 S12 S34 S24 0
* *
Substituting the above three relations in S13 S12 S34 S24 0 we get
* *
It should be noted that the above coupler differs only in the choice of
reference plane. The application of lossless condition in the above matrices
implies that 2 2 1
For the first matrix 2 and hence such coupler is called a 900 hybrid
whereas for the second, 0, and such couplers are called 1800 hybrid.
The lumped element equivalent circuit of a directional coupler can be
represented as
The term “Reciprocal” here means that the response between any two ports of the
network does not depend upon the direction of signal flow, that is, Sij S ji
This condition is valid till the networks consists only isotropic material.
If the network consist an anisotropic material, e.g., magnetically biased ferrites,
then the network will be no longer reciprocal. Such networks are called non-
reciprocal networks.
Ferrite phase shifters, gyrators, isolators, circulators are the examples of non-
reciprocal microwave networks.
The main feature of anisotropic material is that either its permittivity or
permeability is a tensor. (tensorial material).
If the permittivity of the material is a
tensor then it is called as electrically
anisotropic whereas if the permeability of
the material is a tensor then it is called as
magnetically anisotropic.
In microwave applications the most
commonly used anisotropic materials are
Yattrium Iron Garnet (or YIG) materials
and ferrites.
Ferrites are non-metallic material with resistivity nearly 1014
times greater than metals and with dielectric constants around
10-15 and relative permeability of the order of 1000.
They have magnetic properties similar to those of ferrous
metals.
They are oxide based compounds having general composition of
the form MO.
The general chemical composition of ferrite is MOFe2O3 where
M is a divalent metal such as manganese, magnesium, iron,
zinc, nickel, cadmium etc or a mixture of these.
Few examples of ferrites are Mnn Zn(1-n)Fe2O4 Nin,Zn(1-n)Fe2O4
etc.
Ferrites have atoms with large number of spinning electrons which result in magnetic
dipole moments.
In absence of magnetic biasing, the dipoles remain randomly oriented and hence the
net dipole moment becomes zero.
On the application of the bias field the dipoles are aligned in a preferred direction
and the net magnetic dipole moment of the material becomes non-zero.
These magnetic dipoles precess at a certain frequency either in the clockwise or in
the anti-clockwise direction.
While the frequency of this precision can be controlled by the strength of the bias
field, the direction of rotation is controlled by the direction of the bias field.
Ferrites have one more special property which is useful in microwave
frequencies i.e. the non reciprocal property.
When 2 circularly polarized waves one rotating clockwise and other
anticlockwise are made to propagate through ferrite, the material reacts
differently to the two rotating fields, thereby presenting different
effective permeabilities to both the waves.
Means permittivity, permeability and resistivity is different for left and right
circularly polarized wave.
This non-reciprocal property of a biased ferrite is used to design several non-
reciprocal microwave components like phase shifter, gyrator, isolator,
circulator etc.
Faraday rotation in Ferrites
0 1
S
1 0
When field moves from port 1 to port 2 it is first rotated by 90o in the
anti-clockwise direction by the twist.
It is further rotated by 90o in the anti-clockwise direction by the Faraday
rotator and finally exit from port 2 with a 180o phase difference.
When it travels from port 2 to port 1 it is first rotated by 90o in the
clockwise direction by the Faraday rotator and next it is rotated by 90o in
the anti-clockwise direction by the twist. Therefore it exits port 2 with a
0o phase difference.
A gyrator can also be designed
without using the 90o twist.
However in such case the port
cross-sections must be orthogonal
to each other.
Ferrite Circulator