A novel composite right-/left-handed coupled-line directional coupler with arbitrary coupling level and broad bandwidth

xA novel composite right-/left-handed (CRLH) backward-wave coupled-line directional coupler with arbitrary coupling level and broad bandwidth is presented, explained by even/odd-mode analysis, validated by full-wave simulations, and demonstrated by experiments. First, the CRLH-transmission-line (CRLH TL) theory is given, and a microstrip implementation of a CRLH TL is described. A simple circuit model is then proposed both for the understanding and design of the coupler. The coupler exhibits very unusual characteristics, such as zero electrical length, imaginary even/odd-mode characteristic impedances, and coupling dependence on even/odd attenuation length (instead of propagation length). Both a quasi-0- and 3-dB coupler are demonstrated experimentally. The 3-dB coupler exhibits amplitude balance of +/-2 dB over a huge bandwidth of 50% (3.5 +/- 5.8 GHz), phase balance of 90degrees +/- 5degrees from 3.0 to 4.0 GHz and directivity of 20 dB.