3-way Power Divider
The Productive Uses Of 3-Way Power Dividers
In the busy yet highly productive and profitable world of electronics and communications, devices such as “power dividers” play major roles, especially in terms of facilitating the flow or transmission of signals. A power divider (also called a power splitter or power combiner) is described as a directional “coupler” or a device that’s used to connect two shafts together at their ends, for the purpose of transmitting power. This device is used to “couple a defined amount of electromagnetic power in a transmission line to a port, enabling the signal to be used in another circuit”.
The Essential Features of Power Dividers
According to electronics and communications technology experts, an essential feature of power dividers is that they only couple power that flows in one direction. This means that in 1, 2 or 3-way power dividers, the power entering the output port is coupled to the isolated port, but not to the coupled port.
These truly important devices are used in a wide assortment of applications, which include providing a signal sample for measurement or monitoring. They’re also used for feedback, combining feeds to and from an antenna, for providing taps for cable-distributed systems like cable television, antenna beam forming, and separating transmitted and received signal on telephone lines.
Factors To Consider when Selecting Power Dividers
When shopping for power dividers, there are a couple of factors or parameters to consider. These include frequency range, voltage standing wave ration (VSWR), insertion loss, coupling factor, isolation, amplitude tracking, phase tracking, octave bands and input power.
For frequency range, the factors vary because this may be application-specific. VSWR refers to the ratio of maximum and minimum voltage at a given point along a transmission line.
The VSWR serves as a perfect measurement of power transfer efficiency. Thus, if there’s a low VSWR, this means that more power is being delivered from the source to the load while a high VSWR will mean there’s less power delivered to the load.
Insertion loss is defined as the decrease or reduction in the transmitted signal power due to the insertion of a device in a transmission line. Coupling power refers to the ratio of power that’s transferred to the coupled port, with respect to the input port. Isolation refers to the ratio of input with respect to the power at the isolated port, or vice versa.
Amplitude tracking refers to the difference between the amplitude of the output signals that are measured at the output ports of the dividers. Phase tracking refers to the maximum deviation (from theoretical value) between the phase measured between two output signals, and is also specified as phase balance (or imbalance).
A 3-way power divider is a device that splits one signal, or combines three signals, and is optimized to provide better isolation, bandwidth, balance and reliability. A typical 3-way power divider will also feature low insertion loss, low VSWR, as well as exhibit optimum phase balance, amplitude balance, input power, and others. They can also be customized to meet the specific requirements of various industrial or commercial users.
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