A simple technique for fast design tuning of compact rat-race couplers is presented. Our approach involves equivalent circuit representation, corrected by nonlinear functions of frequency with coefficients extracted through nonlinear regression. At the same time, the tuning process connects two levels of coupler representation: EM simulation of the entire circuit and re-optimization of the coupler building blocks (slow-wave cells...

In this article, a reliable and low-cost design methodology for simulation-driven optimization of miniaturized rat-race couplers (RRCs) is presented. We exploit a two-stage design approach, where a composite structure (a basic building block of the RRC structure) is first optimized using a pattern search algorithm, and, subsequently, the entire coupler is tuned by means of surrogate-based optimization (SBO) procedure. SBO is executed...

In the paper, a framework for computationally-efficient design optimization of compact rat-race couplers (RRCs) is discussed. A class of hybrid RRCs with variable operating conditions is investigated, whose size reduction is obtained by replacing ordinary transmission lines with compact microstrip resonant cells (CMRCs). Our approach employs a bottom-up design strategy leading to the development of compact RRCs through rapid design...

A technique for rapid EM-driven design optimization of compact microwave couplers is presented. Our approach exploits response features and adjoint sensitivities and allows for low-cost design closure both in terms of performance enhancement and structure miniaturization. It is demonstrated using a compact rat-race coupler working at 1 GHz and compared to adjoint-based gradient optimization.

Fast surrogate models can play an important role in reducing the cost of EM-driven design closure of miniaturized microwave components. Unfortunately, construction of such models is challenging due to curse of dimensionality and wide range of geometry parameters that need to be included in order to make it practically useful. In this letter, a novel approach to design-oriented modeling of compact couplers is presented. Our method...