Critical length of a PCB trace and when to treat it as a transmission line

SAW filter PCB with SMA connectors for 1090 MHz (ADS-B). Mismatched input and output traces (Z=100 Ohms, l=3,5mm) have been deemed acceptable.

Ideally, the impedance of PCB traces should be matched to the load and source impedances. This becomes especially important in high-frequency and high-speed digital PCB designs. Various rules of thumb are available to determine the critical length at which a PCB trace should be treated as a transmission line. Below this critical length, an impedance mismatch can safely be ignored. Or can it?

Lumped-Element Wilkinson Splitter / Combiner Design

Ugly construction 28 MHz Wilkinson divider

This article will show how to design a 2-way equal split lumped-element Wilkinson power divider with 50 Ω impedance for 28 MHz. Lots of big words; reread just to make sure you read it correctly and you don’t have to read through this article just to realize it’s not what you need. The Wilkinson works both as splitter and combiner.