Patent ID: 7839236

Claim:
A composite right and left handed (CRLH) metamaterial device for dividing or combining power, comprising: a dielectric substrate; a plurality of branch CRLH transmission lines each formed on the dielectric substrate to have an electrical length that corresponds to a phase of zero degree, 180 degrees or a multiple of 180 degrees at an operating signal frequency, each of the plurality of branch CRLH transmission lines comprising one or more CRLH unit cells and each of the one or more CRLH unit cells having an equivalent circuit having a right handed series inductance, a right handed shunt capacitance, a series capacitance, and a shunt inductance, each of the plurality of branch CRLH transmission lines having a first terminal and a second terminal; and a main signal feed line formed on the dielectric substrate and having a first feed line terminal and a second feed line terminal, wherein the second feed line terminal is electrically coupled to the second terminals of each of the plurality of branch CRLH transmission lines to combine power from each of the plurality of branch CRLH transmission lines to output a combined signal at the second feed line terminal or to distribute power in a signal received at the first feed line terminal into signals directed to the second terminal of each of the plurality of branch CRLH transmission lines for output at the first terminal of each of the plurality of branch CRLH transmission lines, respectively.