The short answer is, yes. A RF splitter and combiner are the same passive network devices, and to use a splitter as a combiner, the input signals are placed in the combining ports of the splitter, where the combined output is then available at the splitter input port. Typically, power divider/combiners are designed and packaged in such a way that the splitter input port/combiner output port are clearly designated as isolated (often on the opposite side of the package) from the splitter output ports/combiner input ports. With surface mount technology (SMT) or highly compact divider/combiners, the ports may be less clearly designated, but port designations should be clearly labeled or otherwise indicated in the documentation.
In many applications, a power divider/combiner is used for both functions. An example of this is with a phased array antenna system that uses a hybrid or analog architecture. With these architectures the RF source is divided, and that energy is split to several antenna elements with phase shifters and possibly attenuators during transmission. During reception, the phase shifted energy is combined through the power combiner and sent to the receiver.
As power divider/combiners are non-ideal passive networks, there is some insertion loss and imperfect isolation between the ports. Amplitude and phase balance are also a common electrical specification parameter for RF power divider/combiner components. Lastly, a given power divider/combiner circuit will typically only operate over a set frequency range, with a finite bandwidth less than that of the interconnect interface used in the packaging of the component.
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Peter McNeil | Dec 07, 2022 | RF Combiner Splitter
RF Power Combiners/Splitters, sometimes referred to as either RF combiners, RF splitters, or RF dividers, are a fundamental passive RF component used to combine power from multiple inputs to a single output or split RF power from one input to multiple outputs. RF Power Combiners are often used to combine the output powers of several amplifiers to realize a higher output power level than is possible or viable with a single amplifier. An example of this is replacing high power traveling wave tube amplifiers (TWTAs) with a combined gang of solid-state power amplifiers (SSPAs).
Other applications include adding redundancy to critical transmission systems where the high-power output amplifiers may fail. Using a RF Power Combiner with several redundant amplifiers, only one of which is active at a time, can enable continuous transmission even in the event of an amplifier failure. Other use cases include splitting the input from an antenna or other source to multiple RF signal paths for the purpose of filtering or feeding different radio systems with the same antenna/source.
RF Combiner/Splitter
More recently, there are also emerging applications for RF Power Combiners/Splitters with modern advanced/active antenna systems (AAS). One such case is splitting the power from a single RF source to feed multiple AAS antenna elements in an analog phased array antenna. Another is using an RF Power Combiner/Splitter to divide/split the RF power from a single local oscillator (LO) and feed that RF source to the two sides of a quadrature demodulator.