1 To 18GHz Power Divider

1 to 18 GHz Power Divider – 3 Types, Their Advantages and DisadvantagesThe term ‘power divider’ has often been used to refer to devices meant to distribute power to two or more outputs. In the most restricted sense, however, such a device will only have one input port and more than one output port, and in theory, all ports are matched and isolated from one another.Different dividers, though, are built to handle different frequencies. The lowest of these typically, is the HF (high frequency) band, at 1-30 MHz (megahertz). The highest is the Ku-Band, operating at 12-18 GHz (gigahertz), and the L-Band is right in the middle, at 1-2 GHz. This means that, when dealing with such systems, you’ll need a 1 to 18 GHz power divider.There are several possible types of power dividers – octave, multi-octave, and resistive. Each one has its pros and cons, as with all kinds of technology currently existing. A 1 to 18GHz power divider is considered an ultra-wideband power divider.<strong>Resistive Power Dividers</strong>Resistive power dividers are naturally wideband, meaning they can work from DC, or zero frequency, up to 18GHz. The biggest advantage such a divider has is its size – it can be made quite compact because it contains only lumped elements.The disadvantages of a resistive splitter, however, include the real resistive loss of a little more of 3dB (decibels), as well as its poor isolation.In applications like power amplifier combiners, using a resistive power divider is an unacceptable option. The less-than-optimal isolation between output ports is also a big factor in deciding against such dividers. For test equipment, though, these factors aren’t that big a deal, since additional power isn’t hard to come by.<strong>Multi-Octave Power Dividers</strong>Multi-octave power dividers typically cover communications bands from 500 MHz (megahertz) to 2.7 GHz (gigahertz).While not as much of a wideband divider as resistive power dividers, this means it can work with WiFi bands as well as 3G and 4G. This fact makes it a popular choice for such applications as test environments and in-building distributed antenna systems, or DAS (DAS).Wilkinson power dividers are the industry standard when it comes to such dividers, usually available in 2-way all the way up to 8-way configurations. A disadvantage of multi-octave power dividers, though, is the insertion loss. The more sections are needed for the configuration, the more it loses, although components can be customised to try and limit this.<strong>Octave Power Dividers </strong>Octave dividers split the input they receive up to 8 ways, although some can be used for less than that. One of the advantages to octave power dividers is the insertion loss normally being relatively inconsequential, even when one or more of the output ports isn’t used.For example, an 8-way divider used as a 7-way divider instead will have less than a 1dB (decibel) insertion loss as a result. The largest possible insertion loss for a divider used in the 6-18 GHz range is around 1.5 dB. There are lossless configurations possible.Given the different advantages and disadvantages, it’s important that you put some thought into which type of  1 to 18 GHz power divider to get, in order to make the most of whatever application you need it for.<br />