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A CAT6 cable has 4 balanced pairs, each at 100 Ohm. I'm wondering if I can make a 50-Ohm coax unbalanced input and split the power to 4x 100-Ohm balanced output (and then merge it back together the same way on the other side).

How would you design a power divider with a 50-Ohm input and 100-Ohm outputs? This is not an "uneven-power" splitter: we want the power split to be the equal, just change the port impedances and switch from unbalanced to balanced (and back on the other end of the cable).

  • Can a power splitter like this be realized without a balun? There exist microstrip unbalanced-to-balanced power splitters without an obvious balun, but can it be done with lumped elements?
  • How do you generalize an N-Way splitter where the input impedance is different from the output impedance in terms of R/L/C values for the circuit? (but maybe start with a 2- or 3-port example?)
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    \$\begingroup\$ Why use a splitter if they are equal 100 ohm loads \$\endgroup\$
    – Tony Stewart EE75
    Jul 22, 2021 at 2:23
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    \$\begingroup\$ A 'Wilkinson' has equal input and output impedances, so something else is not a Wilkinson. Perhaps you mean a splitter having some of the other Wilkinson propoerties? The main thing about a 'wilky' is the port to port isolation, that you've not mentioned, that's different in other splitter designs. Perhaps you'd present a full matrix of the power transfer between all ports so that we can see what you want in this new unnamed splitter. \$\endgroup\$
    – Neil_UK
    Jul 22, 2021 at 5:17
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Neil_UK, I updated the question to be more detailed. I was going to break these into two questions, but maybe it makes sense to put my thoughts all in the same place. \$\endgroup\$
    – KJ7LNW
    Jul 23, 2021 at 1:37
  • \$\begingroup\$ @TonyStewartEE75, because I meant to mention, that it must also be unbalanced-to-balanced. I updated the question with more detail... \$\endgroup\$
    – KJ7LNW
    Jul 23, 2021 at 1:38
  • \$\begingroup\$ What do you hope to gain? If each pair gives say 20dB loss, splitting the signal across 4 pairs and combining still gives 20dB loss. Are you trying to increase the power handling? \$\endgroup\$
    – Tesla23
    Jul 23, 2021 at 2:42

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