Patent Application
20140240056
The concepts, systems, circuits, devices and techniques described herein relate generally to radio frequency (RF) circuits and more particularly to RF baluns.
As is known in the art, a balun is a circuit element often used to convert unbalanced transmission line inputs into one or more balanced transmission line outputs or vice-versa. Baluns operating at relatively low-frequencies (e.g., below 1 GHz) are generally provided using ferrite and air coil transformer technology to achieve high performance and relatively broad bandwidth.
There has, however, been a trend to employ baluns in a wide variety of different types of applications often requiring high-frequency and/or wideband operation. For example, baluns have been included in output stages of delta-sigma modulator direct digital synthesizers, Digital-to-Analog Converters (DACs), Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs), differential digital signaling, RF mixers, SAW filters, balanced amplifier circuit configurations, feeding differential antenna elements in array antennas and other antenna feeds, for example, antenna feeds for cognitive radio systems. All of these applications require a balun which operate over a relatively wide bandwidth and which are compatible with integrated circuits and capable of rejecting common mode energy from differential inputs or providing differential outputs lacking common mode energy.
For baluns operating at or above microwave frequencies, it has become increasingly more difficult to fabricate broadband baluns utilizing ferrite and air coil transformers. This has necessitated that other techniques be used. Baluns operating at such high-frequency bands generally are provided using distributed components rather than from ferrite and air coil technology. Such baluns often comprise quarter-wavelength matching elements or transformers having a size determined according to desired operating wavelengths (i.e. operating frequencies) of the balun. One disadvantage of this approach is that the operational frequency bands of such baluns are fundamentally narrow. Moreover, high frequency signals (e.g., microwave and millimeter wave signals) typically rely on single-ended and unbalanced anti-phase signals (i.e. a signal driven with reference to a ground), rather than balanced differential signals. Such single-ended signals may be beneficial in controlling electromagnetic interference. The corresponding structures, however, are not well suited to accommodate balanced differential signals, which are necessarily isolated from ground.
As is also known, three port balun structures and other differential lines typically do not provide good common mode isolation between the differential ports. For many circuit and array antenna applications, this limits system performance. In particular, differential fed, wide band antenna elements frequently excite a common mode excitation at large scan angles (e.g. at scan angles of about 45 degrees or greater) in an E-plane scan plane.
Prior art systems have used resistive common mode isolators implemented at the differential ports of the balun to terminate this excitation and improve overall array performance.
Other wideband antenna array structures which have encountered this common mode problem have developed solutions for mitigating the effect of this common mode excitation. Such solutions involve E-plane walls or shorting vias to place the common mode in cutoff. These solutions accomplish the goal of limiting the common mode, but at the expense of antenna bandwidth and performance. Other approaches for limiting the common mode include material shaping and/or the use of materials having a relatively low relative dielectric constant. Such materials, however, have undesirable properties from a processing and mechanical point of view and thus increase the cost of manufacturing the circuit. Furthermore, in many cases, the use of low relative dielectric constant materials is still not sufficient to eliminate the problems, particularly in those applications requiring relatively large operating bandwidths.
Thus, a significant design challenge is posed when seeking to provide baluns having both high performance characteristics and/or which operate at relatively high frequencies and/or over relatively wide operating frequency bandwidths while at the same time maintaining phase and amplitude balance. As noted above, balun performance may be a limiting factor in the performance of array antennas and in other RF/microwave systems. Additionally, it is desired to make the baluns small, such that one or more baluns can fit within a unit cell of an array antenna to enable the array antenna to achieve desired performance and functionality.
Conventional balun designs used in circuit and array antenna applications at microwave frequencies include so-called Marchand baluns. Marchand baluns, for example, have been realized in planar form utilizing microstrip technology to provide balun configurations which function over fractional bandwidths of between 6:1 and 9:1. Due to dispersions inherent in implementing microstrip circuits, the performance of such microstrip baluns degrades at higher operating frequencies, reducing the upper frequency band limit and the overall bandwidth of these circuits. This leads to amplitude and phase imbalance at the higher frequencies.
Double Y baluns and similar configurations are also known and have been used to realize baluns having fractional bandwidths of 9:1 and greater (18:1 in some cases). However, such baluns typically suffer from one of two shortcomings depending upon the design. One shortcoming is they often require more space than is available within a unit cell once a transition to an appropriate transmission line mode is included. While compact designs are available in coplanar form, many systems (e.g. array antennas) require microstrip or stripline interfaces. Thus, another shortcoming is that baluns implemented in coplanar form require transitions from coplanar to microstrip and other transmission line implementations and such transitions are prohibitive in a small space due to the presence of a strong coplanar moding. Strong coplanar moding possesses multiple fundamentally different modes that require complex transitions to match with microstrip and stripline modes without the creation of resonances that degrade performance.
It would, therefore, be desirable to provide a balun having good performance characteristics at RF and microwave frequencies and/or over wide operating bandwidths and which are appropriate for use in feeding differential antenna elements in array antennas, balanced amplifier circuits and other applications.
In accordance with the concepts described herein, a symmetric, stripline Marchand balun includes a first substrate having first and second opposing and a second substrate having first and second opposing surfaces. Transmission line conductors are disposed on one surface of each of the first and second substrates with conductive ground layers on the other surface. A central dielectric layer having a conductor provided therein is disposed between the surfaces of the substrates on which the conductors are disposed. The central dielectric layer equally spaces the substrate conductors from the conductor on the central dielectric layer (i.e. the substrate conductors are symmetrically disposed about the central dielectric layer), and in particular, are symmetrically disposed about the conductor in the central dielectric layer. The conductor on the central dielectric layer acts as both a signal and a ground such that the substrate conductors form a Marchand balun.
With this particular arrangement, a symmetric, stripline Marchand balun is provided. The central dielectric layer equally spaces the substrate conductors to thus form a double offset stripline stacked at close spacing. Thus, the central dielectric layer and conductor provided therein allows realization of closely spaced broadside coupled lines.
Described herein are concepts, circuits and techniques which utilize a symmetric stripline Marchand balun topology. In one particular embodiment, a fourth order Marchand balun topology is used. A balun circuit provided having a fourth order Marchand balun topology in accordance with the concepts described herein operates over a fractional bandwidth of up to 9:1. In one exemplary embodiment, a balun was built using soft substrate technology (i.e. printed circuit board (PCB) technology in which the circuit boards are fabricated in various materials, including, but not limited to low cost FR4-processed, ceramic-based materials, and lower loss, lower dielectric constant PTFE-based materials (i.e., CLTE, RO6002))
The Marchand balun topology may be provided as a symmetric stripline design implementable both with and without additional isolator sections, as needed for system performance. One exemplary stripline Marchand balun described herein operates over a fractional bandwidth of 6:1 or more.
Marchand baluns fabricated in accordance with the concepts and techniques described herein may be provided using low cost fabrication techniques (e.g. conventional printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing techniques).
One exemplary implementation described herein utilizes multilayer PCB technology that is low cost and scalable. Thus, such embodiments are suited for use with relatively large array antennas. In one embodiment, the baluns described herein can be fabricated on 18″×24″ and 24″×36″ substrates (e.g. panels) which can be integrated with antenna elements on the same panels to thus provide relatively large array antennas.
In one embodiment, the baluns described herein utilize backdrill vias and/or Ormet paste technology to interconnect interior layers and thus reduce the occurrence of, or ideally prevent, excitation of higher order RF signal modes. Reducing (or ideally preventing) the occurrence of higher order RF signal modes, improves system performance. For example, array antenna systems using the balun concepts described herein operate over bandwidths which are wider than that allowed by the use of conventional baluns. Also, array antenna systems using the balun concepts described herein operate at frequencies which are wider bandwidth than achieved with the use of conventional baluns.
In one embodiment, a balun utilizes a double offset stripline stacked at close spacing to realize broadside coupled lines. This increases the operating bandwidth of the balun and also provides the necessary transition from balanced to unbalanced performance.
Furthermore, the double offset stripline configuration allows relatively easy integration of isolator sections within the balun.
In one embodiment, the addition of a resistive common mode isolator integrated at differential ports of a balun improves a balun isolation characteristic. In one exemplary embodiment, balun isolation improves from a level of roughly 6 dB to levels better than 20 dB without any increase in the size of the balun (i.e. without increasing the surface area which the balun occupies on a circuit board which includes, for example, a stripline or mircostrip PCB).
Multiple isolators can be cascaded in a manner similar to adding resistive sections to a Wilkinson power divider to further improve isolation at the expense of balun/isolator footprint. These additional sections are simply added on the differential lines of the baluns using either the common mode isolation technique described here or other well-known common mode isolation techniques. By improving the isolation, the common mode excitation is reduced or ideally terminated and thus prevented from resonating across the face of an array antenna. This improves bandwidth and performance by preventing large nulls from appearing in the frequency band as a result of the common mode.
In one embodiment, the resistive common mode isolators are realized within the same PCB stackup as the balun. The common mode isolators are placed over the differential matching section of the balun. The common mode isolator uses broadside coupled lines located proximate to the differential matching section. These isolator lines are shorted together on one end, and then connected together to a resistor connected to ground on the other end. This resistive connection is invisible to the differential mode, but provides an excellent common mode termination.
The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of particular embodiments of the invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which like reference characters refer to the same parts throughout the different views. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention.
In general overview, described herein is a Marchand balun implemented using a double offset stripline stacked at a relatively “close” spacing (generally 0.001″-0.003″, but in the range of about 0.0001 to about 0.010″ for some applications). Such relatively close spacing is needed to realize desired coupling levels between the conductors in the stripline circuit. Significantly, the stripline conductors which form the Marchand balun are symmetrically disposed about a conductor provided in a center dielectric layer. The center dielectric layer is disposed between a pair of substrates each of which have a ground plane disposed on one surface thereof and strip conductors disposed on another surface thereof. The center dielectric layer thus dielectrically spaces or offsets the substrate conductors from each other by an amount which is symmetric about the conductor provided in a center dielectric layer (hence providing the “double offset stripline” structure). When disposed proximate each other, the substrate conductors form the Marchand balun structure.
In some exemplary embodiments described herein, the central dielectric layer is provided as a bond layer. Thus, in such exemplary embodiments the central dielectric layer functions to both dielectrically space conductors disposed on the substrates and also bind together the two substrates so as to provide a bonded (or laminated) multilayer printed circuit board.
Significantly, conductors on the first and second substrates (i.e. the substrate conductors) must be symmetrically disposed about (i.e. symmetrically spaced) from the conductor provided in the central dielectric layer.
In one particular embodiment described herein, the symmetric spacing of the conductor in the central dielectric layer is achieved by providing the central dielectric layer from a pair of bond film layers disposed on either side of a conductor such that the pair of bond film layers have the conductor embedded substantially in the center thereof. By providing each of the bond film layers having a thickness in the range of about 0.001-0.005 inches the substrate conductors (i.e. the conductors on the substrate surfaces) can be closely spaced but dielectrically insulated from each other via the bond layers.
Referring now to
A bond layer 18 is disposed between the two substrates 14, 16 to fasten or otherwise secure substrates 14, 16 into a single multi-layer printed circuit board (PCB).
A conductor 20 is disposed substantially in the center of the bond films and is thus spaced apart from the surfaces of substrates 14, 16. With this configuration, the multi-layer PCB 12 is said to have five (5) layers as follows: each surface of the first and second substrates 14, 16 corresponds to a layer and conductor 20 corresponds to a layer. To promote clarity in the description provided herein the layers will be designated herein as follows: layer 1 top surface of substrate 14 (
In one exemplary embodiment, bond layer 18 is provided from a pair of bond films each having a pre-bond thickness of about 0.0029 inch and conductor 20 is disposed between the two bond films. This provides approximately a 0.0015 inch dielectric separation between conductor 20 and conductor layers. Marchand balun 10 has four parts 10a-10d each of which is coupled to a respective one of four transmission ones 22a-22d. While transmission lines 22a-22d are not properly a part of Marchand balun 10, they provide access to (or a means to couple signals to/from) balun ports 10a-10d.
Marchand balun 10 is provided from a plurality of conductors disposed on layers 2, 3 and 4.
Conductors 26 are disposed (e.g. patterned or otherwise provided using, a subtractive and/or an additive process) on layer 2 in the configuration shown in
Conductive vias 34, extend through the entire multi-layer PCB 12 such that vias 34 provide a conductive signal path between conductive ground planes on PCB layers 1 and 5. Thus, any conductor (e.g. conductor 30 in the region proximate ports 20d and 22d) electrically connected to one of vias 34 is also connected to the ground planes through those vias. In this via implementation, ground loop currents have a shortened path to ground which helps eliminate resonances in Marchand balun 10. In this exemplary embodiment, conductive vias are provided as conductively filled vias (e.g. solid conductive solid posts) but other types of vias (e.g. hollow vias or plated vias that are dielectrically filled with products such as SanEI PHP900 of Peters 2795 fill materials) or other techniques for providing a conductive signal path between the ground planes may, of course, also be used.
Conductive vias 32 are disposed proximate vias 34, however, these vias are provided from two separate vias with a first portion 34a coupled between layers 1 and 2 and a second portion 34b thus coupled between layers 4 and 5. Conductive vias 34 thus couple conductors disposed on layers 2 and 4, respectively, such that the layer 2 and 4 conductors act as ground planes for conductors disposed on layer 3 (e.g. conductor 30).
In one embodiment, substrates 14, 16 are provided having a thickness of about 0.020 inches and a relative dielectric constant (∈r) of about 2.85. Bond layer 18 is provided having a relative dielectric constant (∈r) selected to be close (and in preferred embodiments substantially match) the dielectric constant of the substrates 14, 16. In this exemplary embodiment, bond layer 20 is provided as a so-called pre-preg layer having a relative dielectric constant of about 2.9.
In one exemplary embodiment, conductive vias 32 are provided having a diameter of about 0.008 inch and conductors 26, 28, 30 are provided having a thickness of about 0.0012 inch.
Conductive vias 40 are provided using a conventional backdrill technique (in this exemplary embodiment, a conventional 0.028 inch backdrill and fill technique is used) and provide connections between layers 2 and 4. The backdrilled holes are filled with a hole plugging material 41 (e.g. TAIYO THP-100DXI or similar). A conductor is then disposed over the filled regions to provide layers 1 and 5 having a continuous ground plane in the regions above conductive vias 40. Techniques other than backdrilling and filling techniques may also be used to provide conductive vias 40.
A conductive signal path 42 (provided from a conductor 30) on layer 3 extends between Marchand balun ports 10a, 10b. A resistive isolator 44 is placed between conductive path 42 and ground. Resistive isolator 44 enhances common mode attenuation in the balun.
Marchand balun 10 further includes a second common mode attenuation circuit 46 to further increase common mode attenuation in the balun. In the exemplary embodiment of
It should be appreciated that depending upon the needs of a particular application, either one or both of common mode attenuation circuits 45, 46 may be provided as part of balun 10. Furthermore, in some applications both of common mode attenuation circuits may be omitted.
In operation, a pair of balanced signals 180° out of phase provided to respective ones of input ports 22a, 22b (e.g. 70 ohm balanced signals) appear at port 22d as a 50 ohm balanced signal.
Alternatively, a signal provided to port 22d (e.g. a 50 ohm unbalanced signal) is coupled to ports 22a and 22b and are provided as two signals 180° out of phase (e.g. 70 ohm balanced signals).
Referring now to
In one exemplary embodiment, interconnects 50 are provided via Ormet paste applied within bond layer 18. Ormet paste is applied in trimmed out prepreg areas to allow layer to layer conductive connection. The addition of interconnects 50 improves the performance of the device by reducing and eliminating higher order mode leakage. This improves high frequency insertion loss performance. It should, of course, be appreciated that any technique for providing a conductive signal path between layers 2 and 4 may also be used.
Referring now to
The particular shape of wedge portion 61 is selected to reduce, and preferably minimize, a distance between a transmission line section and a ground plane disposed on the same layer as the transmission line. The ability to closely space the transmission line from the ground plane is an important factor to consider in selecting the shape of wedge portion 61.
It should be appreciated that balun 60 includes conductive vias 32′ which may be the same as or similar to conductive vias 32 described above in conjunction with
It should be noted that portions of conductor 62 have been removed to expose dielectric channels 64. The purpose of channel 64 is produce strong coplanar coupler realizing the benefits mentioned above.
Referring now to
In one exemplary embodiment, in which the balun operates over a frequency range of about 3 GHz to about 19 GHz the conductive vias are provided having a diameter of about 0.008″ and are disposed in a rectangular grid pattern with a center-to-center spacing of about 0.04″. In other embodiments, different vias may be provided having different diameters and may be disposed in a pattern other than a rectangular grid (e.g. a triangular lattice, a series of concentric circles, or any other regular or irregular pattern may also be used). After reading the disclosure provided herein, one of ordinary skill in the art will understand how to select the sizes, shapes and patterns of the vias for a particular application. Thus, in view of the above, it should also be understood that ground blocks 72 may be provided having any shape (e.g. including but not limited to square, rectangular or triangular cross-sectional shapes as well as any other regular or irregular cross-sectional shape as well as any volumetric shape—e.g. cube, pyramidal, prism of any number of sides, etc . . . ).
The balun further includes conductive extension regions 74 which improve electrical coupling with ground blocks 72. Extension regions 74 are extended to intersect with the conductive vias with the ground blocks 72. The extension region must intersect with at least one individual via among the plurality in the ground blocks 72 to realize the performance improvement.
Referring now to
Referring now to
In this embodiment, balun 90 includes a common mode isolator circuit 98 comprising a resistor 100 (provided as a 60 ohm resistor in the exemplary embodiment of
Balun 90 further includes a mode suppression circuit 106 disposed in substrate 94 in the region in which conductors are disposed to provide the Marchand balun (i.e. mode suppression circuit 106 is disposed below the conductors which make up the Marchand balun. it should be appreciated that the conductors which provide the common mode isolator circuit 98 also provide part of the balun circuit itself (i.e. the isolator circuit is formed as part of the balun which results in the balun experiencing no increase in size.
Mode suppression region 106 may be provided from a plurality of conductive vies 108 (
Referring now to
While particular embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the following claims. Accordingly, the appended claims encompass within their scope all such changes and modifications.
