1184 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 18, NO.

6, JUNE 2019

Bandpass FSS With Zeros Adjustable

Quasi-Elliptic Response
Zhenzhen Zhao , Anxue Zhang , Xiaoming Chen , Senior Member, IEEE, Gantao Peng, Jianxing Li ,
Hongyu Shi , and Ahmed A. Kishk , Fellow, IEEE

Abstract—In this letter, a frequency selective surface (FSS) with

quasi-elliptical bandpass filtering response and high-frequency se-
lectivity is proposed. The structure consists of two arrays, i.e., a
hollow metal pipe array and a metal disk array printed on a thin
substrate layer. The FSS exhibits a flat transmission in the pass-
band and fast roll-off. By investigating the electric fields and us-
ing equivalent circuit models, physical insights into the generation
of the transmission/reflection zeros and operating principle of the
whole FSS are obtained. The positions of the transmission zeros
can be independently changed by adjusting the corresponding pa-
rameters that tune the bandwidth of the passband. A prototype is
fabricated and measured to verify the simulation.
Index Terms—Bandpass filter, frequency selective surface (FSS),
high-frequency selectivity.
I. INTRODUCTION
REQUENCY selective surfaces (FSSs) are usually two-
F dimensional arrays consisting of periodically arranged
metallic elements, exhibiting bandstop or bandpass responses
[1]–[6]. Bandpass FSS requires a flat transmission response
and low insertion loss in the passband and fast decay out of
the passband. To meet this requirement, Al-Joumayly and Be-
hdad [7], Salehi and Behdad [8], and Liu et al. [9] investi-
gated multilayer FSSs and realized a second-order Butterworth
filtering response. The Butterworth response has a flat pass-
band transmission but suffers from slow roll-off. To solve this
problem, the three-dimensional (3-D) FSS has been proposed.
For bandpass FSS, the 3-D FSS usually consists of periodi-
cally arranged waveguide elements [10]–[12], microstrip lines
[13]–[16], etc. In [10]–[12], substrate integrated waveguide
combined with etched slots was adopted to realize bandpass
with fast roll-off. Through the coupling between the resonating
modes, out-of-band transmission zeros are obtained for high-
frequency selectivity. In [13]–[16], multiple transmission zeros
at one side of the passband are formed, which improves the fre-
quency selectivity. However, the transmission zeros outside the
passband in these designs are not close to the passband, resulting
in slow roll-off. The behaviors of the dual-cylinder FSS were in-
vestigated in [17]. The authors realized closely spaced stopband
Manuscript received March 21, 2019; revised April 13, 2019; accepted April
14, 2019. Date of publication April 18, 2019; date of current version May 31,
2019. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of
China under Grant 61601360 and Grant 61501365. (Corresponding authors:
Anxue Zhang and Xiaoming Chen.)
The authors are with the School of Electronic and Information Engineering,
Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China (e-mail: zzzhaoxjtu@126.com;
anxuezhang@mail.xjtu.edu.cn; xiaoming.chen@mail.xjtu.edu.cn).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LAWP.2019.2911908
Fig. 1. Geometry of the proposed FSS.
and passband by using dual-cylinder FSS of equal height. How-
ever, the obtained passband in [17] has poor flatness and low-
frequency selectivity at the right side of the passband. Singh and
Srivastava [18] investigated a single 3-D cylindrical structure
and achieved stopband/passband with different heights. Both
[17] and [18] did not realize flat passband with fast roll-off at
passband edges.
In this letter, to realize efficient filtering and restraint out-
of-band (OOB) interference at normal incidence, we propose
a novel and simple bandpass FSS based on a judicious com-
bination of 3-D metal cylindrical pipes and disks, as well as
appropriate dielectric loading. The proposed FSS has two res-
onators, which produce reflection and transmission zeros. The
reflection zeros ensure a flat passband, and the transmission ze-
ros reduce the OOB emission. The proposed structure realizes
quasi-elliptical filtering and shows high-frequency selectivity
at normal incidence. Compared with the traditional FSS, the
present structure realizes several OOB transmission zeros with
only two resonators. Furthermore, the bandwidth of the proposed
FSS can be tuned by adjusting the positions of the transmission
zeros. Due to these superior features, the proposed FSS can be
used as a radome of a directional antenna to realize filtering
antenna.
II. ELEMENT DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
The proposed FSS structure consists of two arrays, i.e., arrays
A and B, as shown in Fig. 1. Array A is composed of periodically
inserted hollow metal pipes (with a thickness of h1 = 4.5 mm) in
a substrate (i.e., layer 1) through drilled holes. Array B comprises
periodic metal disks printed on a thin substrate (i.e., layer 2). The
unit cells of arrays A and B are also illustrated in detail in Fig. 1.
The metal and the substrate are denoted in brown and light blue

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ZHAO et al.: BANDPASS FSS WITH ZEROS ADJUSTABLE QUASI-ELLIPTIC RESPONSE
Fig. 2. Transmission and reflection responses of the proposed FSS.
TABLE I
COMPARISON BETWEEN THE PROPOSED FSS AND OTHER DESIGNS
color, respectively. The metal pipe is hollow (full of air) with
inner radius R1 = 3.5 mm and outer radius R2 = 5.5 mm, while
the radius of the metal disk is R3 = 3.1 mm. The dielectric
substrates in arrays A and B are F4B with a relative permittivity
of εr = 2.65 and tangential loss of δ = 0.0025. Their thicknesses
are h1 = 4.5 mm and h2 = 0.8 mm, respectively. The period of
the elements is Dx = Dy = 12.9 mm.
Fig. 2 shows the simulated transmission and reflection re-
sponses at normal incidence for y-polarization. In the pass-
band, there are two reflection zeros at 14.4 and 15.3 GHz. The
3 dB bandwidth of the passband is from 14 to 16.3 GHz, with
a center frequency of f0 = 15.15 GHz and a relative band-
width of 15.2%. Out of the passband, the transmission curve
shows a high-frequency selectivity on both sides of the pass-
band due to the three transmission zeros at 13.5, 16.5, and
20.2 GHz.
The rectangle coefficient k = (B1+Δ)/B1 is used to describe
the frequency selectivity, where B1+Δ and B1 are the −10
and −3 dB bandwidth, respectively, with Δ being the transi-
tion bandwidth. A smaller k means better frequency selectivity.
k = 1 means perfect filtering. k = 1.12 is achieved in this design.
However, it is noted that k depends not only on the roll-off but
also the bandwidth. Compared with the traditional FSSs, this
structure realizes three OOB transmission zeros and higher se-
lectivity with only two resonators. For better comparison, the
numbers of resonators, OOB transmission zeros, the coefficient
k, stopband peak values, and angle stability of various works
are listed in Table I. It can be seen that the proposed FSS has
lower angle stability, yet fewer resonators and more transmis-
sion zeros than most of the previous works (except for [15]). The
FSS in [20] has a slightly smaller k but higher stopband peak.
1185
Fig. 3. Transmission and reflection responses of the (a) TLR-FSS and
(b) RDR-FSS.
Fig. 4. Electric field distributions at transmission and reflection zeros.
(a) fr = 16 GHz. (b) ft = 16.7 GHz.
Through a comprehensive comparison, it can be concluded that
the proposed FSS has the highest frequency selectivity at normal
incidence.
III. OPERATING MECHANISM
For analysis, the proposed FSS structure is divided into two
parts. One part consists of pipes and two substrates layers, form-
ing a transmission line resonator FSS (TLR-FSS). The other part
is composed of disks and rings from the bottoms of the pipes,
forming a ring-disk resonator FSS (RDR-FSS).
A. Analysis of TLR-FSS
Fig. 3(a) shows the transmission/reflection responses of the
TRL-FSS at normal incidence. As can be seen, there is one
reflection zero at fr = 16 GHz within the band and one OOB
transmission zero at ft = 16.7 GHz. The TLR-FSS displays a
flat passband and fast roll-off at the right side of the passband.
It is found that the passband in Fig. 3(a) is very consistent with
the right side of the passband in Fig. 2. It can be concluded that
the TRL-FSS plays a crucial role in forming a reflection zero at
fr2 and transmission zero at ft2 in Fig. 2.
To gain more insights, we illustrate the electric field distribu-
tions around two halves of nearby TLR-FSS elements (in the x-y
plane) at fr and ft . As shown in Fig. 4(a), the electric field mainly
concentrates in the slots between the pipes at fr = 16 GHz. In
this case, adjacent pipe walls form a waveguide with a simi-
lar working mechanism as parallel-plate waveguide. Hence, it
forms a transmission line resonator supporting TEM wave prop-
agations. Fig. 4(b) shows that at ft = 16.7 GHz, the electric
field in the slot center points to the negative y-direction, while
the electric field at slot sides points to the positive y-direction.
1186
Fig. 5. Equivalent circuit of the TLR-FSS.
Fig. 6. Electric field distribution at transmission and reflection zeros.
(a) fr = 16.7 GHz. (b) ft1
 = 13.17 GHz. (c) f  = 22.45 GHz.
t2
These electric fields in opposite directions are propagating out
of phase, resulting in the transmission zero at ft .
An equivalent circuit is demonstrated in Fig. 5. The TRL-FSS
element can be regarded as two transmission line sections. One
section is composed of pipe walls and the medium in between,
denoted as TL1 , where the pipe wall is represented by the series
inductances Lp. The other section TL2 results from the substrate
layer 2, which is equivalent to the series inductance Ls and the
two shunt capacitances Cs. Due to the presence of the metal
pipes, there are discontinuities at the two ends of TL1 , which
can be represented by metal rings. The equivalent circuit of the
whole TLR-FSS is shown in Fig. 5, where Crr is the equivalent
capacitance between the rings and Lr is the equivalent induc-
tance.
B. Analysis of RDR-FSS
Fig. 3(b) shows the responses of the RDR-FSS at normal
incidence. It can be observed that there is one reflection zero
(fr = 16.7 GHz) in the band, which helps to form the passband.

Meanwhile, two transmission zeros ft1 = 13.17 GHz and

ft2 = 22.45 GHz appear out of the band. Compared with the
transmission curve of the proposed FSS, it can be found that
these zeros are close to fr1 , ft1 , and ft3 in Fig. 2. However, the
frequencies of these zeros in Figs. 2 and 3(b) are not identical be-
cause the substrate and the mutual coupling between the whole
pipe and disk are omitted. Based on the analysis above, it is safe
to conclude that the reflection zero fr1 and transmission zeros
ft2 and ft3 in Fig. 2 are mainly determined by the disks and the
bottom of the pipes.
Similar to Fig. 4, the electric field distribution of the RDR-
FSS at fr , ft1

, and ft2
is shown in Fig. 6. At fr = 16.7 GHz,
the electric field mainly concentrates in the slots between the
ring and disk, so the ring and disk can be regarded as an aper-

ture resonator. At ft1 = 13.17 GHz, the electric field concen-
trates mainly in the slot between the ring and disk, and the slot
IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 18, NO. 6, JUNE 2019
Fig. 7. Equivalent circuit of the FSS. (a) RDR-FSS. (b) Whole FSS (Crr1 =
0.15 pF, Lr = 0.27 nH, Lp1 = 1.01 nH, Lp2 = 0.161 nH, Ca = 0.397 pF, Ld =
4.16 nH, Crd = 0.025 pF, Ls = 0.8 nH, Cs = 0.04 pF).
between neighboring elements. The electric field in these two
positions is out of phase, producing the transmission zero. At

ft1 = 22.45 GHz, the electric field concentrates mainly in three
positions. One is the slot between the ring and disks, another
one is the slot center between elements, and the last one is the
slot sides between elements. The electric field in the two former
positions has opposite directions to that in the latter position.

Thus, a transmission zero at ft2 is produced.
A simple equivalent circuit of the RDR-FSS is shown
in Fig. 7(a), marked with a black dotted box. In the cir-
cuit model, Crr and Lr have the same meaning as those
in Fig. 5. Crd denotes the equivalent capacitance between
the ring and disk, and Ld denotes the equivalent inductance
of the disk. The equivalent circuit of the whole FSS can be ob-
tained by replacing the circuit marked by the bottom black box
in Fig. 5 with the circuit marked by the black box in Fig. 7(a).
The substrate layer 1 and the air in the pipe are equivalent to
a series inductance and two shunt capacitances, which are de-
noted by Ls1 , Cs1 , La, and Ca, respectively. After simplifying
the model, the final circuit is shown in Fig. 7(b), where Lp1 is
Lp//Ls1 , Lp2 is Lp//La, and Crr1 is Crr//Cs1 . The corresponding
circuit parameters are extracted by curve fitting.
IV. BANDWIDTH TUNABILITY AND OBLIQUE INCIDENCE
Through the analysis in Section III, it is learned that the trans-
mission zeros of the response are determined by specific struc-
ture components. Thus, the zeros can be independently changed
by changing the corresponding parameters. The bandwidth of the
passband will also be changed accordingly. As seen in Fig. 8(a),
the second transmission zero shifts to the left with increasing
Dx, leading to a bandwidth reduction. As analyzed before, the
TLR-FSS can be regarded as a waveguide. In this case, while
increasing Dx, the equivalent size of the waveguide increases, de-
creasing the working frequency. Effects of the inner radius R1 of
the pipe and radius R3 of the disk are investigated in Fig. 8(b) and
(c), respectively. It is demonstrated that, as R1 and R3 increase,
the first transmission zero will shift toward the left, increasing
the bandwidth. According to the circuit in Fig. 7(a), increasing
R1 and R3 will increase Lr and Crd, respectively. Thus, the fre-
quency of the first transmission zero decreases. Fig. 8(d) displays
that increasing h2 decreases frequencies of all the three trans-
mission zeros because increasing h2 contributes to the increase
ZHAO et al.: BANDPASS FSS WITH ZEROS ADJUSTABLE QUASI-ELLIPTIC RESPONSE
Fig. 8. Transmission responses of the proposed FSS with different parameters.
(a) Element period Dx. (b) Inner radius of the pipe R1 . (c) Radius of the disk
R3. (d) Thickness of the substrate layer2, h2 .
Fig. 9. Transmission of the proposed FSS at oblique incidence. (a) TE polar-
ization. (b) TM polarization.
of the equivalent dielectric constant of the whole structure. In
addition, the first zero shifts to the left more than the second one,
causing a bandwidth enhancement.
Fig. 9 shows the transmission responses under oblique in-
cident angles. It can be seen that for TE and TM polarizations,
under the incident angle of 10° and 20°, a flat passband and three
transmission zeros are still observed, but high-order resonances
and reflection/transmission zeros appear out of the passband.
Thus, this FSS is not suitable for radome exposed to oblique
incident waves. However, it can be used as a filter of a direc-
tional antenna to realize filtering antenna thanks to its superior
frequency selectivity.
V. FABRICATION AND MEASUREMENT
To validate the design, the FSS prototype shown in Fig. 10
is fabricated. The prototype consists of 20 × 20 elements and
is 258 × 258 mm2 in size. The material of the metal structure
is copper, and the substrate is F4B. The whole FSS is shown in
Fig. 10(a). An image of four elements marked by the red box is
zoomed to the top right corner of Fig. 10(a). In the fabrication
procedure, the holes in layer 1 are drilled using the printed circuit
board drilling technology. Then, the small pipes are manually
1187
Fig. 10. Prototype of the fabricated FSS and measurement setup. (a) Fabricated
FSS. (b) Measurement setup.
Fig. 11. Comparisons between the simulated and measured responses together
with that from the equivalent circuit model.
inserted into the layer. Finally, layer 1 and layer 2 are pressed
together, and the FSS is obtained.
We measured the fabricated FSS in an anechoic chamber, as
shown in Fig. 10(b). Two high-gain horn antennas are placed in
the far field of the FSS. Two absorber blocks are placed beside
the FSS to avoid the edge diffraction. The Agilent E8389B vector
network analyzer is used and the measurement results are given
in Fig. 11. Compared with the simulated transmission response,
the measured one has slightly larger insertion loss in the pass-
band, and the passband shifts a little to a higher frequency. For
the reflection response, frequencies of the first and third trans-
mission zeros are slightly lower than those of the simulated ones,
while the frequency of the second transmission zero is slightly
higher than that of the simulated one. This is because these trans-
mission zeros are relatively independent. The small discrepan-
cies between the measurement and simulation are mainly caused
by the manufacture tolerance and measurement errors. Never-
theless, there are reasonable agreements between the calculated,
simulated, and measured results.
VI. CONCLUSION
A novel FSS with quasi-elliptical bandpass filtering response
has been proposed. This FSS has achieved a flat transmis-
sion performance in the passband and sharp roll-off, thanks
to the reflection zeros and transmission zeros. These transmis-
sion/reflection zeros work together to form the superior fre-
quency. In addition, the bandwidth of the passband can be
tuned by independently adjusting the positions of the trans-
mission/reflection zeros. Finally, the fabricated prototype has
been measured to verify the simulation. Good agreements are
observed.
1188
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