Design of wide-stopband microstrip

bandpass filter with assistance of spur lines

Consequently, the design equations can be expressed as

C.W. Tang, C.H. Teng and J.M. Sun

A novel microstrip bandpass lter with compact size is proposed. With
two short-circuited stubs, one open-circuited coupled line using symmetrical feeding, and two spur lines, a wide passband can be obtained.
Detailed design and synthesis procedures are provided for lter development. Moreover, the electromagnetic simulator IE3D is used; the
prototype of the bandpass lter is consequently fabricated and
measured. Agreement between measured results and the theoretical
prediction validates the proposed structure.

Introduction: Bandpass lters have been widely used in many microwave and wireless communication systems. Planar lters with printed
circuit technology are particularly attractive because of their easy fabrication, compact size, and low cost [1]. Because of its planar structure
and easy design procedures, the parallel-coupled microstrip bandpass
lter has been one of the most commonly used lters for the RF front
end. However, the rst harmonic of the conventional microstrip parallel
coupled lter appears at twice the fundamental passband. Therefore, the
rejection level in the upper stopband will be decreased.
Various methods have been developed to improve the performance in
the stopband of the planar microstrip bandpass lter. The sinusoidal rule
is used to eliminate spurious harmonics by continuously perturbing the
width of the coupled lines in the microstrip wiggly-line lter [2]. In [3],
capacitors are utilised to slow down the odd-mode phase velocity. In
addition, with the stepped-impedance resonators adopted for planar
microstrip bandpass lters [4], the second harmonic can shift to a
higher frequency band and a wide stopband will appear. Moreover, harmonic suppression can be carried out as well by employing the split-ring
resonator [5], and the open stub and spur line [6].
In this Letter, we propose a novel microstrip bandpass lter, as shown
in Fig. 1a. With the assistance of two short-circuited stubs, one opencircuited coupled line using symmetrical feeding, and two spur lines,
the harmonic resonances are suppressed and a wider stopband comes up.

Y0e3
J12
=1
cotu3
Y3
Y3

(1)

Y0o3
J12
=1+
cotu3
Y3
Y3

(2)

J01 = J23






















Y0F FBW b1A
=
g0 g1

B1A = B2A =

Y2 (Y2 tanu2 + Y3 tanu3 )

Y1 cotu1
Y2 Y3 tanu2 tanu3

(4)

B1B = B2B =

Y2 (Y2 tanu2 Y1 cotu1 )

+ Y3 tanu3
Y2 + Y1 cotu1 tanu2

(5)

where Yis is the inverse of Zis and Y3 is the corresponding admittance

of the symmetrical open-circuited coupled line.
Y1A

Y1B
Y2, q2

J01

G1

W2

L3

L1

W1

L4
W3

a
S
L5

Y2B

Y2A
Y2, q2

J12

J23
RL

RS
Y1, q1

Y3, q3

Y1, q1

Y1, q1

Fig. 2 Equivalent circuit of simplied wide-stopband bandpass lter

With the short-circuited stubs and the open-circuited coupled line

employed for the bandpass lter, multiple transmission zeros show up
so that a wide stopband appears. As for transmission zeros, fz1 and fz2
result from the open-circuited coupled line and the short-circuited
stub, respectively. Besides, transmission zeros are located at
900
, n = 1, 2,
u3

(6)

1800
, n = 1, 2,
u1

(7)

fz1 = nf0

fz2 = nf0

L2

(3)

where f0 is the central frequency of the passband.

Moreover, 2.4 GHz, 0.01 dB, and 15% are adopted for the central frequency, ripple, and fractional bandwidth, respectively, to develop the
simplied lter mentioned above with Chebyshev response as an
example. In addition, set the transmission zeros fz1 and fz2 at 4.5 and
9 GHz, respectively. Furthermore, electrical length 2 and characteristic
impedance Z2 are set as 24o and 110 , respectively. Consequently
according to (1)(7), the design parameters are shown in Table 1.
Accordingly, theoretical responses of the simplied bandpass lter are
presented as in Fig. 3. In addition, Fig. 3 shows the electromagnetic
(EM) simulated responses converted from Table 1, with Rogers
RO4003, the substrate whose dielectric constant, loss tangent, and
thickness are 3.55, 0.0027, and 0.508 mm, respectively.

W4
W5

spur line
theory
EM simulation

10

Fig. 1 Proposed wide-stopband bandpass lter

a Schematic layout
b Spur line employed for input and output port

0
magnitude of S11 and S21, dB

L6

S11

10
S21

20
30
40
50

Filter design: If both the input and output impedance of the spur line
shown in Fig. 1b are 50 , the analysis of the proposed wide-stopband
microstrip bandpass lter shown in Fig. 1a can then be simplied as two
short-circuited stubs and one open-circuited coupled line with symmetrical feeding. With the assistance of the immittance inverter, the equivalent circuit of the simplied lter can be obtained, as in Fig. 2.

fz1

fz 1 fz 2

fz 1

fz 1

fz2

60
0

10

12

14

16

18

20

frequency, GHz

Fig. 3 Theoretical and EM simulated responses of simplied bandpass lter

and effect of spur line

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 17th January 2013 Vol. 49 No. 2

Table 1: Parameters of simplied wide-stopband bandpass lter

Z1
1
Z2
2
Z0e3
Z0o3
3
32.57 48o 110 24o 135.14 69.44 48o

Experimental results: Fig. 3 indicates that harmonics appear at 14.5 and

19 GHz. The spur line introduced in Fig. 1b is thus connected at the
input/output port for harmonic suppression. Consequently, Table 2
shows the dimensions of the proposed wide-stopband bandpass lter
including two spur lines, fabricated on Rogers RO4003.

Table 2: Dimensions of fabricated bandpass lter

L1
L2
L3
L4
9.52 5.75 9.81 1.5
W2 W3
0.25 0.25

W4
0.3

L5
3

C.W. Tang, C.H. Teng and J.M. Sun (Department of Communications

Engineering, National Chung Cheng University, Chiayi, Taiwan)

unit: mm

Fig. 4 presents the fabricated lter and compares EM simulation and

measurement. In particular, the harmonic suppression reaches the level
of 20.5 dB and the stopband extends to 20 GHz.

magnitude of S11 and S21, dB

10
20
30
40
50
60
EM simulation
measurement

70
80
2

Acknowledgment: This work was supported in part by the National

Science Council, Taiwan (grants NSC 100-2628-E-194-007-MY3 and
NSC 101-2221-E-194-041).
The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2013
23 September 2012
doi: 10.1049/el.2012.3384
One or more of the Figures in this Letter are available in colour online.

L6 W1
2.1 2.4

W 5 G1
D
S
0.4 0.18 0.4 0.2

Conclusion: A new approach to generate a wide stopband in the microstrip bandpass lter has been proposed. Methods for lter design and
analysis have been introduced. The fabricated lter has demonstrated
the potential for harmonic suppression with the assistance of two shortcircuited stubs, one open-circuited coupled line using symmetrical
feeding, and two spur lines. Moreover, good agreement between
theoretical and measured results has validated the proposed structure.

10

12

14

16

18

20

frequency, GHz

E-mail: cwtang@ccu.edu.tw
References
1 Cohn, S.B.: Parallel-coupled transmission-line-resonator lters, IRE
Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., 1958, MTT-6, (4), pp. 223231
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Garde, M.J., Sorolla, M., and Guglielmi, M.: New microstrip wigglyline lters with spurious passband suppression, IEEE Trans. Microw.
Theory Tech., 2001, 49, (9), pp. 15931598
3 Bahl, I.J.: Capacitively compensated high performance parallel coupled
microstrip lters. Dig. IEEE MTT-S, Long Beach, CA, USA, 1989,
pp. 679682
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lters with open-loop resonators for suppression of spurious responses,
IEEE Microw. Wirel. Compon. Lett., 2005, 15, (11), pp. 802804
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6 Tu, W.H., and Chang, K.: Compact microstrip bandstop lter using open
stub and spurline, IEEE Microw. Wirel. Compon. Lett., 2005, 15, (4),
pp. 268270

Fig. 4 Comparison between EM simulation and measurement of proposed

wide-stopband microstrip bandpass lter

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 17th January 2013 Vol. 49 No. 2