Super-miniaturized Wilkinson power divider using cross-connect meander microstrip lines and conductive vias

A novel three-dimensional (3-D) folded two-way microstrip lines (ML) is proposed for realizing the super-miniaturization of electron devices. The 3-D structure realized with two-way folded ML, which consists of several groups of cross-connected ML and conductive vias, has the potential to have an advanced performance than the corresponding conventional, meandering, and 3-D one-way ML. It can be arranged longer ML in limited spaces. Physical size reduction of the transmission line segments is from λ/4 to λ/32. The Wilkinson power divider (WPD) is designed to operate at the frequency of 433 MHz, has a return loss better than −29 dB, an insertion loss less than 0.28 dB, and isolation larger than +30 dB. The physical size has been reduced by 98.39% when compared with the conventional WPD. Design method about the folded two-way ML is presented for the first time.