A new type of millimeter wave-integrated directional couplers

In this paper a new type of millimeter wave integrated directional coupler is proposed. The coupling mechanism on the narrow wall of waveguide consists of a series of bilateral E-plane slots deposited on a dielectric substrate by photo-etching technique. The modified generalized transmission parameters considering the thickness effects of the strips and higher order mode interactions at the step discontinuities in the coupling region are used in optimizing program. The calculated performance of a 3-dB 12-slot directional coupler at Ka-band is given. A prototype Ka-band coupler has been tested. The measured results agree with the theoretical prediction satisfactorily.