IEEE MICROWAVE AND WIRELESS COMPONENTS LETTERS, VOL. 17, NO.

12, DECEMBER 2007

849

Compact Dual-Band Bandstop Filters

Using Stepped-Impedance Resonators
Kuo-Sheng Chin, Member, IEEE, Jun-Hong Yeh, and Shuh-Han Chao

AbstractThis work presents a compact dual-band bandstop

filter (DBBSF) that features two controllable stopbands at desired
frequencies. Stepped-impedance resonators are utilized to realize
the dual-stopband characteristics, and reduce size. The synthesis
method is developed. An experimental circuit is fabricated and
evaluated to validate the design concept. Measurements correlate
well with the simulation results, and the size is 12.6% less than that
of a standard DBBSF.
Index TermsBandstop filter (BSF), dual-band (DB) filter, filter
synthesis, stepped-impedance resonator (SIR).

I. INTRODUCTION

ICROWAVE bandstop filters are highly desired for

their effective suppression of spurious signals in wireless communication applications. Dual-band bandstop filters
(DBBSFs) are attractive due to their ability to treat the unwanted double-sideband spectrum of high power amplifiers
and mixers using one single filter to decrease the size and cost
of the circuit [1][4]. Other benefits of DBBSFs are their low
passband insertion loss and group delay, since their resonators
resonate in the stopband rather than in the passband [1], [3].
Some effective approaches to DBBSF design have been proposed [1][5]. The dual-stopband response can be produced by
applying a two-step frequency-variable transformation to the
low-pass prototype [1]. Tseng and Itoh implemented composite
right/left-handed metamaterial transmission lines to replace the
microstrip lines of conventional bandstop filters, yielding dual
stopbands [2]. Cameron et al. [3], applied the cul-de-sac synthesis technique to design DBBSFs with direct-coupled configuration, preventing performance degradation that is caused by
the use of a transmission line between resonators. Parallel-connected different-length open stubs have recently been presented
as composite shunt resonators to obtain dual-band performance
[4], [5]. However, further size reduction that is achievable by
applying stepped-impedance resonators (SIRs) [6], [7] in filter
design.
This study synthesizes DBBSFs with controllable center
frequencies and bandwidths. Since the filter design adopted
a single SIR instead of two parallel-connected stubs, as in
standard designs, the total length of the resonators can be
reduced up to 24% or more. Synthesis equations are derived,

Manuscript received May 27, 2007; revised August 22, 2007. This work was
supported in part by the National Science Council of Taiwan, R.O.C., under
Grant NSC 96-2221-E-182-002.
K.-S. Chin and J.-H. Yeh are with the Department of Electronic Engineering,
Chang Gung University, Tao-yuan 333, Taiwan, R.O.C. (e-mail: kschin@mail.
cgu.edu.tw).
S.-H. Chao is with the Department of Computer and Communication, Diwan
College of Management, Tainan 72153, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LMWC.2007.910481

Fig. 1. (a) Schematics of proposed DBBSF with shunt SIRs (order N

2).
(b) Equivalent circuit using all shunt-connected series LC resonators and an
ideal J inverter.

and the design curves are given. A prototype is fabricated and

measured as a demonstration.
II. SYNTHESIS OF DBBSF
A standard DBBSF includes two parallel-connected different-length open stubs (a quarter wavelength long at the
respective mid-stopband frequencies) for resonating at dual
anti-resonance frequencies. Fig. 1(a) shows the proposed
2 by replacing
configuration of the DBBSF with order
the parallel-connected stubs with SIRs. Fig. 1(b) presents
the equivalent circuit of Fig. 1(a), in which the composite
shunt resonator structure [4] is adopted to establish the two
resonators
anti-resonance frequencies. When the series
,
in Fig. 1(b) resonate at the first mid-stopband frequency,
resonators behave as an open circuit, since their
the series
series resimpedances significantly exceed those of the
onator, which only slightly affects the first stopband response.
resonate
A similar operation occurs when the resonators
at , which is the center frequency of the second stopband.
Hence, the circuit in Fig. 1(b) operates as a DBBSF.
and
and the
Based on the dual-band frequencies of
and
, the frequency
associated fractional bandwidths of
mapping from low-pass prototype to the bandstop [8] yields the
elements in Fig. 1(b)
(1)
where the subscript has the value of either or , denoting the
is the elefirst and second rejection band, respectively, and
ment value of the low-pass filter prototype. The port impedance
in (1) was normalized to unity. The shunt-connected series

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IEEE MICROWAVE AND WIRELESS COMPONENTS LETTERS, VOL. 17, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2007

Fig. 2. (a) Equivalence of shunt-connected series LC resonators and openended SIR. (b) Configuration of dual-band admittance inverter.

resonators are realized using dual-band SIRs, as shown in

Fig. 2(a). The input impedance of the SIR is given by
(2)
0 can be used to charwhile the resonant condition
and
. The input
acterize the resonant frequencies of
resonators in Fig. 2(a)
impedance of the composite series
is derived as

(3)
Moreover, the proposed SIR and its equivalent circuit must exhibit the same reactance slope to obtain the required bandwidths.
2
[9]
Thus, the reactance slope parameter
can be applied for the analysis. By equating the reactance slopes
substituted with (2) and (3), and based on the resonant condition
0 at
and , thus four simultaneous equations are
obtained

Fig. 3. (a) Design curves of  and  with respect to frequency ratio r .

1.4142 and
70%.
(b) Design curves of normalized Z and Z with g

1 =

(4a)
(4b)

(4c)

( + )

Fig. 4. Electrical length 

 of proposed SIRs normalized with the total
electrical length of the conventional parallel-connected quarter-wave stubs.

(4d)
where
is the frequency ratio
to
, and has an upper
and
in (4) are specified at the
limit of three. Notably,
. The four design parameters
first mid-stopband frequency
, and can then be calculated simultaneously using
a simple root-searching program. Equation (4) clearly indicates
that both the center frequencies and bandwidths are controllable
by varying the impedance and the lengths of the hi- and losegments.
Fig. 3(a) plots the design curves of and with respect to
for
1, 1.5, and 2, where
represents the bandto
. The figure reveals that
and the
width ratio
increases with
or
, but
in
difference
1 (meaning that the absolute bandthe special case of
widths at both bands are the same). Fig. 3(b) plots the design

curves of
and , which were normalized by . The figure
, such that the upper section
indicates that in all cases
of the SIR in Fig. 2(a) has a narrower line width than the lower
section. Because of the constraint of line width in microstrip
is restricted mainly by the refabrication, the lower limit of
alizable impedance of .
Since the dual-band SIR is compact, Fig. 4 presents the total
of the proposed SIRs, normalized
electrical length
to the total electrical length of the conventional parallel-connected quarter-wave stubs with respect to various values of .
As shown in Fig. 4, the normalized length of the SIR is always
increases. Additionally, a smaller
less than one, and falls as
leads to a larger percentage reduction in the
product of
and reduced
penalty associated with increased impedance of
realizable range of . The minimum length ratio of 0.76 can be
2.9 and
1.
achieved in Fig. 4 when

CHIN et al.: COMPACT DUAL-BAND BANDSTOP FILTERS USING STEPPED-IMPEDANCE RESONATORS

851

35%, respectively. The full-wave electromagnetic simulator IE3D was used for circuit simulation. Solving (4) with
1.4142 and
2.1 yields the design parameters of SIR
49.05
57.15
126.55 and
59.0 .
as
From (5), the design parameters of the dual-band admittance in58.92 , and
58.06 . (The
verter were calculated as
and , were omitted.)
open stubs, defined by
Fig. 5(a) plots the simulated and measured responses, indicating that both responses have good agreement. The measured
shows that two mid-stopband frequencies were 1.57 and
3.16 GHz with respective 3 dB-down bandwidths of 56.7% and
28.2%. Both the first and the second stopband bandwidths were
decreased by the ignoring the open stubs of the inverter. The rejection level was more than 46 dB at the center frequencies. Detailed data show that the passband insertion losses were less than
0.9 dB, and were therefore acceptable for circuits fabricated in
such a lossy substrate. Fig. 5(b) displays a photograph of the circuit, with the SIR stubs further folded to conserve space. When
the ordinary quarter-wavelength stubs were employed, a total
length of 132.86 was required for the same specifications. The
electrical length of the proposed SIR was only 116.15 , corresponding to a size reduction of 12.6%. The circuit area in
Fig. 5(b) was approximately 28 23.8 mm .
Fig. 5. (a) Simulated and measured responses of fabricated DBBSF. (b) Photo49.05
;  = 57.15 ; Z = 126.55
;  =
graph of fabricated circuit. Z
59.0 ; Z = 58.92
, and  = 58.06 .

For the admittance inverter to have a dual-band performance,

the structure of two open stubs with a transmission line in between [5], [10] is adopted as indicated in Fig. 2(b). Setting
0 and
, where and represent the entries of the
matrix of the dual-band admittance inverter yields circuit parameters
(5a)
(5b)
(5c)
where and are specified at , and
and
have been
and , their
normalized with . When the SIRs resonate at
and
input admittances are close to infinite at frequencies near
. Since the open stubs of the inverter have a much smaller
input admittance than the SIRs, they behave as open circuits and
and . Howhave little influence on the response around
ever, the effect becomes noticeable at a frequency that is away
from the mid stopbands. In practice, the open stubs of the inverter may be approximately neglected to save space, at a cost
of reducing the bandwidth.
III. ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE
To validate the design concept, the DBBSF with two stages
and maximally flat response was synthesized and fabricated on
4.3, tan
0.02, and a thickness
a FR-4 substrate with
of 1.524 mm. The dual center frequencies of the filter are de70% and
signed at 1.5 and 3.15 GHz with bandwidths of

IV. CONCLUSION
This study presents the synthesis of the DBBSF with order
2. The circuit has two stopbands with controllable center
frequencies and bandwidths. Dual-band performance and compact size are attained simultaneously by using the SIRs instead
of the ordinary quarter-wavelength open stubs. Synthesis formulae are developed, and demonstrated by synthesizing an
experimental filter. Since the design applies the proposed SIR
stubs, it achieves a size reduction of 12.6%.
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