A miniaturized and reconfigurable rat-race coupler realized in inexpensive printed circuit board (PCB) technology is proposed. Miniaturization is achieved by exploiting the theory of right- and left-handed artificial transmission lines. The frequency agility allows the rat-race coupler to operate in two bands centered at 900 MHz and 1.7 GHz, therefore, covering many industrial and communication standards. The frequency selection is operated by CMOS switches, and controlled by only a 1-bit signal, for adapting the electrical length of the branches of the coupler. Moreover, the dimension is significantly reduced with respect to standard realizations at the same frequencies, with required areas of about 3% at 900 MHz and 10.4% at 1.7 GHz. The proposed design has been fabricated and measured, showing good performance in both operative frequency bands.

中文翻译：

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基于人工传输线的小型化可重构鼠-竞耦合器

提出了一种采用廉价印刷电路板 (PCB) 技术实现的小型化和可重新配置的快速耦合器。小型化是通过利用右手和左手人工传输线的理论来实现的。频率捷变允许快速耦合器在以 900 MHz 和 1.7 GHz 为中心的两个频段内运行，因此涵盖了许多工业和通信标准。频率选择由 CMOS 开关操作，仅由 1 位信号控制，以适应耦合器支路的电气长度。此外，与相同频率下的标准实现相比，尺寸显着减小，所需面积在 900 MHz 时约为 3%，在 1.7 GHz 时约为 10.4%。所提出的设计已经过制造和测量，在两个工作频段都显示出良好的性能。