In this article, the shunt open-circuit dual composite right/left-handed (DCRLH) cell is initially proposed and one dual-band branch-line coupler based on the proposed cells is designed. It is found that, compared with DCRLH cell, the frequency selectivity, matching condition and adjustment range of the shunt open-circuit DCRLH cell improve greatly. Moreover, the shunt open-circuit DCRLH cell exhibits two adjustable frequency points with -90degrees phase shift within its first two passbands. In order to explore this exotic property effectively, the influence of the primary geometrical parameter is investigated through parametric analysis. Thus, one dual-band branch-line coupler based on the shunt open-circuit DCRLH cells is designed. Both simulated and measured results indicate that comparative performance is achieved. Different from part of previous dual-band branch line couplers, for the proposed coupler, the signs of phase difference of two output ports within the two operating frequency bands are identical with each other. This branch-line coupler is quite suitable for the application which is sensitive to the variation of phase difference and its effective area is compact.
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