Analysis and design of complex impedance transforming marchand baluns

A new type of Marchand balun is presented in this paper, which has the property of complex impedance transformation. To allow the Marchand balun to transform between arbitrary complex impedances, three reactances should be added to the circuit. A detailed analysis of the circuit gives the governing equations. To verify the theory, a design and electromagnetic simulation of a lumped element Marchand balun is made in a SiGe BiCMOS technology. The lumped element impementation is favorable because capacitors are placed where the additional reactances should be added. Thus it is possible to absorb a positive reactance by reducing a capacitor. At the design frequency of 10.5 GHz it matches 50Ω to 50 - j66Ω. It has an insertion loss of 5.1 dB, an input reflection of −20.8 dB, as well as phase and magnitude imbalance better than 0.2° and 0.12 dB, respectively.