Design of a bidirectional adaptive coupler for spread spectrum power line communications

This paper presents the new power line coupler which is applicable to spread spectrum power line communications. The proposed coupler maintains the adequate value of a capacitor between the transmitter mode and the receiver mode using a switch. In the transmit mode, the relatively high value of the capacitor is chosen to minimize the attenuation of transmitted signals. In the receiver mode, the value of the capacitor is chosen to be small enough so that the coupler attenuates power line noises. This coupler reduced the magnitude distortion due to having a high Q value and the power consumption caused by the AC current flowing into the capacitor. The simulation and measurement results show the improved performance in the transmitter and receiver mode, respectively.