Compact Ultra-wideband bandpass Filter Using Radial-Stub Loaded Resonator

Q.-X.Chu and X.-K.Tian

School of Electronic and Information Engineering
South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
E-mail: qxchu@scut.edu.cn
xukun.tian@mail.scut.edu.cn

Introduction

Since the release of the frequency band covering 3.1-10.6 GHz by the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) in early 2002 [1], the ultra-wideband (UWB) radio system has received great
attention from both the academic and industry fields. As one of the key passive components in a
UWB radio communication system, various types of UWB bandpass filter (BPF) have been
investigated extensively. In [2], the UWB BPF has been presented by combining low- and high-
pass filters. Another intuitive idea of realizing UWB BPF is to use multiple-mode resonator
(MMR), which was detailed in [3]. The pseudo-interdigital stepped impedance resonators (PI-
SIRs) were proposed in [4] to develop a UWB BPF. In [5] multi-stubs loaded resonator was
constructed to make up a UWB BPF showing improved out-band performance but slow increase
of attenuation in the stopbands. To further miniaturize the size of the UWB BPF, an open and
short stubs loaded crossed resonator was introduced in [6] for UWB BPF application. In [7],
UWB BPFs based on inductance-loaded Y-shaped resonator with parallel-coupled and multilayer
broadside-coupled structure were developed. In this paper, a novel compact radial-stub loaded
resonator (RSLR) is proposed to design a UWB BPF. It is able to generate three resonances over
the UWB frequency band while the forth resonance stays away from them. By feeding the
proposed RSLR with two aperture-backed parallel-coupled feed lines at the two sides, a
predicted UWB BPF is then constituted to exhibit very good in-band performance and high skirt
selectivity. Finally, the proposed filter is fabricated to experimentally verify the predicted design.

Filter Design

The configuration of the proposed UWB BPF is shown in Fig.1. The UWB BPF consists of
radial-stub loaded resonator (RSLR) and two aperture-backed parallel-coupled lines at the left
and right section. It can been observed that the RSLR is constructed by a traditional half-
wavelength resonator loaded with a radial stub in the central plane. Since the RSLR is
symmetrical in structure, odd- and even-mode analysis can be adopted to characterize it.

For odd-mode excitation, the central plane will be short-circuited, whose equivalent circuit is
shown in Fig.2.(a). The characteristic admittance Υino can be given by
Yino = − jY1 cot θ1 (1)
From the resonance condition Υino= 0, the fundamental odd-mode resonant frequency ƒ0 can be
obtained as

978-1-4244-7092-1/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE

 c
f0 = (2)
4 L1 ε eff
For the even-mode excitation, we can obtain the equivalent circuit of Fig.2.(b). The
characteristic admittance Υine can be written as
jB ( R, ϕ ) + jY1 tan(θ1 + θ 2 )
Yine = Y1 L (3)
Y1 − BL ( R, ϕ ) tan(θ1 + θ 2 )
where Υ1=Υ2/2 is assumed for simplicity and jBL(R,φ) is the admittance of radial section with the
out radius R and angle φ. The even-mode frequencies are determined by the resonance condition
Υine= 0. This RSLR can generate a lower and higher fundamental even-mode resonant frequency
ƒ1 , ƒ2 than the fundamental odd-mode resonant frequency ƒ0, as shown in Fig.3.

Fig.4.(a) and (b) plot ƒ1 , ƒ2 normalized with respect to ƒ0 , respectively , versus the out radius R
as a function of the angle φ. It should be noted that both ƒ1/ƒ0, ƒ2/ƒ0 are shifted down within a
wide range by increasing the out radius R. Moreover, as the angle φ increases, the normalized
frequency ƒ1/ƒ0 decreases while ƒ2/ƒ0 enlarging instead after R≥3mm. This property can provide
an important basis of the resonator design for relocating the three resonances equally in the
UWB frequency band. As have been discussed in [3]-[6], if the RSLR is fed with suitable
coupling structure, a UWB passband can be made up. The input/output coupling structures of the
proposed UWB BPF are achieved through two interdigital coupled lines with apertures etched
out on the ground, which can get high coupling coefficient and widen the coupling gap [8].

Simulated and Measured Results

According to the above discussion, the proposed UWB BPF is designed, simulated and
optimized using HFSS. The substrate used in this design has a relativity permittivity of 2.55 and
thickness of 0.8mm. To verify the proposed approach, the UWB BPF is fabricated and measured.
Fig.5.(a) and (b) show the S-parameter and group delay of the UWB BPF, respectively. Good
agreement between the simulation and measurement can be observed. In the measurement, the
insertion loss from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz is less than 1.5dB against the counterpart insertion loss less
than 1.0 dB in simulation. The measured 3-dB passband is from 3.0 to 11.2GHz with return loss
lower than -10 dB in the most part. Moreover, due to loaded radial-stub, two transmission zeros
at both low and high stopband can be constructed [9], which results in steep skirt selectivity.
Meanwhile, the measured upper-stopband with more than 20 dB attenuation has been extended
to 16.9GHz. The measured group delay is small (<0.5ns) and flat in the passband, as depicted in
Fig.5.(b). Some minor discrepancies between simulation and measurement may due to
unexpected tolerances in fabrication. In addition, the total size of the fabricated UWB BPF is
around 0.55λg*0.52λg (λg is guided-wavelength at the central frequency of 6.85 GHz), indicating
the proposed filter exhibits the property of compact size.

Conclusion

In this paper, a UWB BPF has been investigated through quasi-equal allocation of the first three
resonant frequencies of a radial-stub loaded resonator (RSLR) with aperture-backed parallel-
coupled feed lines. The measured results validate the predicted design with good agreement,
demonstrating that this proposed UWB BPF has very good in-band performance and steep skirt
selectivity with a compact size.

References:

[1] “Revision of Part 15 of the Commission’s rules regarding ultra-wideband transmission

system,” FCC, Washington, DC, Tech. Rep. ET- Docket 98-153, Apr.2002.
[2] C.-L.Hsu, F.-C.Hsu, and J.-T.Kuo, “Microstrip bandpass filters for ultra-wideband (UWB)
wireless communications,” in IEEE MTT-S Int. Microw.Symp.Dig., Jun. 2005, pp.679-682
[3] L.Zhu, S.Sun, and W.Menzel, “Ultra-wideband (UWB) bandpass filter using multiple-mode
resonator,” IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol.15, no.11, pp.796-798, Nov. 2005.
[4] M.-Z.Ji, Q.-X.Chu, “Compact UWB bandpass filter using pseudo-interdigital stepped-
impedance resonators,” Proc. China Micro. Millimeter-Wave Conf., Oct.2007, pp.1096-1098.
[5] Q.-X.Chu, S.-T.Li, “Compact UWB bandpass filter with improved upper-stopband
performance,” Electron. Lett., vol.44, no.12, pp.742-743 , Jun. 2008
[6] L.Han, K.Wu and X.-P.Chen, “Compact ultra-wideband bandpass filter using stub-loaded
resonator,” Electron. Lett., vol.45, no.10, pp.504-506, May. 2009.
[7] K.Song and Q.Xue, “Inductance-loaded Y-shaped resonators and their applications to filters,”
IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol.58, no.4, pp.978-984, Apr. 2010.
[8] L.Zhu, H.Bu, and K.Wu, “Broadband and compact multi-pole microstrip bandpass filters
using ground plane aperture technique,” Proc.Inst. Elect. Eng., vol. l49, no.1, pp.71-77, Feb.
2002
[9]L.Zhu and W.Menzel, “Compact microstrip bandpass filter with two transmission zeros using
a stub-tapped half-wavelength line resonator,” IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett.,vol.10,
no.1, pp.16-18, Jan. 2003.

Fig.1. Configuration of the proposed UWB BPF

(a) (b)
Fig.2. (a) Odd-mode equivalent circuit of the RSLR, (b) Even-mode equivalent circuit of the RSLR
 Fig.3. Simulated frequency response of weakly coupled RSLR (L1=7.5mm, L2=7.12mm, W1=0.4mm,
0
W2=0.8mm, R=6.0mm, φ=150 ).

(a) (b)
Fig.4. Normalized resonant frequencies versus the out radius R with the angle φ=900, 1200, 1500, 1800
by setting L1= L2=7.5mm, W1=0.4mm, W2=0.8mm. (a) ƒ1/ƒ0 , (b) ƒ2/ƒ0.

(a) (b)
Fig.5. Simulated and measured frequency response of the proposed UWB BPF, L1=8.0mm, L2=7.12mm,
L3=7.5mm, L4=6.5mm, W1=0.4mm, W2=0.8mm, W3=0.95mm, W4=3.6mm, S=0.21 mm, d=0.4mm,
0
R=6.5mm, φ=150 . (a) S11- and S21-magnitude. (b) Group delay.