UC Davis

We present the design and development of a compact, broadband balun based on a quasi-lumped LC transformer. The balun is constructed on a multilayer liquid crystal polymer substrate. The balun has a wide range of operating frequency from 0.9 to 3.6 GHz. Within this operating band, the balun achieves a measured insertion loss of less than 1 dB, a measured return loss of better than 10 dB, a measured amplitude imbalance of less than 1 dB and a measured phase imbalance less than 7°. This balun has an extremely compact size of 2 × 2.5 mm2. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.