A Modified Marchand Balun Configuration With Tunable Phase Balance

Abstract

In this letter, a novel modified Marchand balun configuration with tunable phase balance is analyzed and verified experimentally. It is proposed to add a shunt susceptance in between the two couplers of the Marchand balun. This allows for a change in the phase balance which, to first order, is linear with the susceptance, while the magnitude balance is kept constant. To verify the proposed configuration, a lumped element Marchand balun has been fabricated using a SiGe BiCMOS technology. The balun design is centered around 9.4 GHz, with an insertion loss of 6.0 dB. The phase difference between the output ports can be changed from 175.8 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">°</sup> to 183 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">°</sup> whereas the magnitude imbalance is kept almost constant at 0.3 dB. The balun performs well in the range from 7 to 11 GHz, where it is possible to tune the phase to exactly 180 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">°</sup> .