2013 Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference Proceedings

[P2-4]

Short Stub Band-pass Filter Using Stepped Impedance Resonator

for Size Reduction
Jaegook Lee #, Ki-Cheol Yoon*, Hyunwook Lee #,
Tae-Sung Jung#, Tae-Young Kim#, and Jong-Chul Lee#G
*

RFIC Research Center, Kwangwoon University,

447-1 Wolgye-Dong, Nowon-ku, Seoul, 139-701
#
Dept. of Radio Science & Engineering, Kwangwoon University,
447-1 Wolgye-Dong, Nowon-ku, Seoul, 139-701
leejaegook0918@gmail.com, jclee@kw.ac.kr
Abstract This paper shows a short stub narrow bandpass
filter using a stepped impedance resonator (SIR). A SIR is
adopted instead of transmission line to reduce the size of the
BPF on the low dielectric substrate. The size of the conventional
narrow BPF is reduced by more than 30 % of its length of the
transmission line within the inverter. The experimental results
show that the insertion loss is 1.6 dB, return loss is 16 dB, and
the fractional bandwidth is 10% at the center frequency of 5.8
GHz. The size of the filter is 22 8.7 mm2.
Index Terms short stubs, bandpass filter, SIR, reduced size

experiment results, the new narrow BPF has been reduced in

size by 30% in length as compared with the conventional
narrow BPF in the transmission line.
II. BASIC STRUCTURE OF SIR
A half-wavelength SIR is composed of two sections of low
impedance at both sides and high impedance in the middle as
shown in Figure 1 [6].

I. INTRODUCTION
In wireless communication systems, band pass filter (BPF)
is an essential component, which is usually used in both
receivers and transmitters. The important factors for
designing the band pass filters are the characteristic of
response, size reduction, and low cost [1]. To reduce the size
of a band pass filter (BPF), high dielectric ( r) substrate can
be used while the cost is high. To get compact size [1] and
lower cost filter, several types of resonators such as U-shape
resonator, SIR (Stepped Impedance Resonator) [2], and stubs
components, have been proposed to design different kinds of
BPFs [3].
Among these popular filters, a stub BPF shows very wide
bandwidth [4]. If a stub BPF is designed to get narrow
bandwidth (<10%) characteristic, the impedances of the stubs
would be too low and the stubs can hardly be realized. The
BPF with stubs in which narrow bandwidth can be obtained,
has been suggested by adjusting the position of stubs using
the external quality factor, Qe without changing the
impedance of the stubs [5]. In this paper, a narrow BPF with
quarter-wavelength short stubs is suggested to further reduce
the horizontal-transmission line. In this case, the SIR can be
used instead of transmission line to reduce the size of the BPF
on the low dielectric substrate. Then, the quarter wavelength
short stubs of the BPF can be used instead of half-wavelength
open stubs to reduce the size of the BPF, too. From the

Rz =

Z2
<1
Z1

r <
Figure 1. Structure of the stepped impedance resonator

The input admittance Yin seen from an open-end is given as

[6],
(1)
2( R z tan 1 + tan 2 )( R z tan 1 tan 2 )
Yi = jY2

R z (1 tan 2 1 )(1 tan 2 2 ) 2(1 R z2 ) tan 1 tan 2

The resonant conditions are Yi=0 and Rz=Z2/Z1=tan 1 tan 2,

where the = 1= 2. Equation (1) is simplified as
Yi = jY2

2(1 + Rz )( Rz tan 2 ) tan

R z 2(1 + Rz + Rz2 ) tan

(2)

From the equation, the resonant condition can be rewritten

as

= 0 = tan1 Rz .

(3)

The open-circuited half-wavelength SIR is expected

to behave as a parallel resonant circuit in terms of
magnitude of its input impedance |Zin| [6] and to be of
the form as shown in Figure 2.

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2013 Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference Proceedings

S-Parameter [dB]

-10

Figure 2. Input impedance magnitude |Zin| of the half-wavelength

open-end circuited SIR vs. Frequency

-20

-30

Simulation Insertion loss [dB]

Simulation Return loss [dB]
Measurement Insertion loss [dB]
Measurement Return loss [dB]

-40

-50
4.8

III. A NARROW BANDWIDTH BAND-PASS FILTER WITH

QUARTER-WAVE LENGTH SHORT STUBS
A BPF with quarter-wavelength short stubs consists of
series quarter wavelength transmission lines and shunt
quarter-wavelength short stubs [6]. In general, if a BPF with
stubs is designed to get narrow bandwidth (<10 %)
characteristic, the impedances of the stubs would be too low
and the stubs can hardly be realized [6]. Therefore, this type
of BPF can be a candidate for wide-band BPF application [6].
The BPF suggested in this paper, however, has flexibility in
bandwidth by adjusting the position of stubs using the
external quality factor, Qe without changing the impedance of
the stubs as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Structure of the BPF with quarter-wavelength short stubs

for narrow bandwidth

The filters such as interdigital, combline, and hairpin filters

are generally designed with tapped type, in which the position
of tapping, lt is the important factor to determine the
bandwidth of filters [7]. The external quality factor, Qe can be
obtained by phase response of the stubs ( o/ 90) with
variation of the position ( lt ) of the stubs [6,7]. The external
quality factor, Qe is determined by the EM simulation with
the physical dimensions and the locations of stubs. The
external quality factor Qe can be redefined as a function of
location of stubs, lt which is defined as the fractional
bandwidth [7].
Figure 4 shows the simulation and measurement results for
the flexible narrow bandwidth BPF with quarter-wave length
short stubs.

5.0

5.2

5.4

5.6

5.8

6.0

6.2

Frequency [GHz]

6.4

6.6

6.8

Figure 4. Experiment results for the narrow BPF with quarterwavelength short stubs and FBW=10 %

From the figure, the insertion losses of less than 1.61 dB

and 2.48 dB and the return losses of better than 23.2 dB and
14.5 dB with 10 % bandwidth at the center frequency of 5.8
GHz are obtained, respectively.
IV. PROPOSED SHORT STUB BPF WITH SIR
The new narrow bandwidth BPF with quarter-wavelength
short stubs is suggested in Figure 5. Then, the SIR can be
used instead of transmission line to reduce the size of the BPF
on the low dielectric substrate. The quarter wavelength short
stubs of the BPF can be used instead of half-wavelength open
stubs to reduce the size of the BPF, too. Table 1 shows the
horizontal size of the conventional and proposed narrow BPF,
respectively.

Figure 5. Proposed narrow compact-size BPF with quarterwavelength short stubs using SIR
Table 1

The size comparison of a narrow BPF with quarterwavelength short stubs.

Whole size of filters
Length of
Kind of filters
Horizontal length
T.L [mm]
[mm]
Conventional
5.70
25.3
New type
4.01
22.0

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2013 Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference Proceedings

Figure 6 shows the simulation and measurement results of

the proposed BPF with SIR, and these results are listed in
Table 2.
0

S-Parameter [dB]

-10

-20

Then, the quarter wavelength short stubs of the BPF can be

used instead of half-wavelength open stubs to reduce the size
of the BPF, too. The proposed BPFs inverter has half-length
compared with one of the conventional narrow BPF. The
experimental results show the insertion loss of 1.6 dB and
return loss of 16 dB with bandwidth of 10 % at the center
frequency of 5.8 GHz. This filter can be fabricated with IPD
(Integrated Passive Device) because of its entirely planar
structure and reduced size.

-30

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

-40

Simulation Insertion loss, S21 [dB]

Simulation Return loss, S11 [dB]

-50

Measurement Insertion loss, S21 [dB]

Measurement Return loss, S11 [dB]

This work was supported by the National Research

Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by Korea
government (MEST) (No. 2011-0029625)

-60
4.0 4.2 4.4 4.6 4.8 5.0 5.2 5.4 5.6 5.8 6.0 6.2 6.4 6.6 6.8 7.0

Frequency [GHz]

Figure 6. Simulation and measurement results of a proposed

BPF sith SIR

Table 2
Simulation and measurement results of a proposed
BPF with SIR
Simulation
Measurement
fo
FBW
Results [dB]
Results [dB]
[GHz]
[%]
Insertion
Return
Insertion
Return
5.8

10

loss S21

loss S11

loss S21

loss S11

1.22

15.8

1.60

16.0

There are some differences in simulation and measurement

results due to dielectric loss, the effect of load resistance, and
cable loss included from the measurement system. Figure 7
shows a photograph of the proposed BPF with SIR. IE3D
simulator is used for EM simulation and the filter is
fabricated on the Teflon substrate with the height of 0.54 mm,
conductor thickness of 0.018mm, and relative dielectric
constant of 2.54. The HP-8510 C vector network analyser is
used for the measurement of the filter. The entire size of the
2
proposed BPF is 22 h 8.7 mm .

REFERENCES
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[6] M. Makimoto and S. Yamashita, Microwave resonators and
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Figure 7. The proposed BPF with SIR

V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a short stub BPF with SIR has been
suggested. The SIR can be used instead of transmission line
which acts an inverter in a conventional short stub BPF to
reduce the size of the BPF on the low dielectric substrate.

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