Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 7(6): 571-577, 2013

ISSN 1991-8178

Design of a Coupled-Line Bandpass Filter for Satellite Dish Antenna Receiver

1
Md. Rokunuzzaman, 1M.T. Islam, 1R. Azim, 1Radial Anwar and 2Mhd Fairos Asillam
1
Institute of Space Science (ANGKASA) UniversitiKebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi,
Malaysia.
2
National Space Agency of Malaysia.

Abstract: In this article a filter is proposed forreceiver antenna specification which communicates
with the geostationary satellites transmitting television signals. Two-line coupled resonators of 4 stages
are proposed for the filter. The designed filter has a bandpass response filtering frequencies from 10.2
GHz to 11.7 GHz. The filter is designed on Rogers RT/Duroid 5880 substrate with dielectric constant
of 2.2 and a thickness of 0.762 mm. It is designed using Agilent Advanced Design System (ADS)
Momentum software. At the pass band the filter gives an insertion loss of less than -2.5dB. The result
found for the filter is by using 4 coupled lines in parallel with very simple design details. The average
S11 at the passband is less than -13.145 dB. This filter specification can be used for filtering frequency
ranging from 10.2 GHz to 11.7 GHz. The filter can be collaborated with other MMIC circuit designs. It
is quite small compared to other coupled-line filters. The proposed filters dimension is 40 × 14.3 mm2.

Key words: Bandpass • Coupled-line • Filter • Microwave frequency •Receiver •Satellite• television.

INTRODUCTION

One of the key components in the microwave communication system is filter. Vast advance in wireless
communication systems has increased the demand of research regarding bandpass filters with higher accuracy.
When it comes to a specific frequency, it is all about a bandpass filter. While designing a bandpass filter,
consideration of parameters such as center frequency, bandwidth, low pass frequency, high frequency etc. needs
to be made. As communication devices are getting smaller day by day and due to rough use, robustness and
compact size of the filter are another important design consideration. Coupled-line filter is a good choice to start
with for the design of bandpass filter. Coupled-line bandpass filters are easy to design for narrow bands, but for
relatively large band, it becomes complex, as more parameters are need to be considered. Microstrip parallel-
coupled-line bandpass filter is a general choice when it comes to GHz frequency range. A disadvantage the
microstrip parallel-coupled-line bandpass filter suffers is the presence of spurious passbands at the harmonics of
the bandpass filters operational frequency.A good number of literatures regarding the matter can be found [Park
et al., 2002; Garcia et al., 2004; Lopetegi et al., 2001; Wang et al., 2005; Kim et al., 2005]. Day by day the
interest in coupled line bandpass filters is increasing.For different types of antenna applications [Azim et al.,
2011; Azim et al., 2011; Shakib et al., 2010; Mobashsher et al., 2010; Islam et al., 2009] filter is a very
important tool. These filters are being used for diverse microwave and millimeter wave applications [Chin et al.,
2008; Shaman &Hong, 2007; Kuo et al., 2006; Sun & Zhu 2007; Chiang & Hsue, 2002; Hung et al., 2007;
Shaman & Hong, 2007; Ahn et al., 2003]. Other than microstrip lines, coplanar wave guides are also used in
designing coupled line filter [Ahn et al., 2003]. Some can be found which are designed using striplines. But
these types of designs are complex and hard to fabricate compared to microstrip lines. Softwares and initial
information to start with the design, found for the uniplanar structures or strip lines are,comparatively less
accurate and bears calculation difficulties and errors than those of the microstrip line tech. Optimization in
microstrip line using different algorithms such as genetic algorithm is easier compared to other technologies at
this high frequency.PCB fabricated parallel coupled-line microstrip filter usually consists of narrow bandwidth
[Pozar, 2004]. It is one of the main drawbacks of the coupled line filter design. This type of error occurs mostly
for width, spacing, length accuracy and substrate material limitations while fabrication is on process. The
substrate material should be taken into consideration while designing because of different effects on
environment [Faruqueet al., 2011; Faruque et al., 2011; Faruque et al.,2010; Misran et al., 2011] In many
coupled line filter designs, wideband is achieved by drilling holes or using different patterns in ground plane
[Shobeyri&Vadjed-Samiei, 2008; Wu et al., 2008; Wei et al., 2008; An et al., 2009; Naghshvarian-Jahromi
&Tayarani, 2008]. Such designs face packaging problems and sensitivity problems in MMICs. There are many
other filter designs proposed which give very good band response [Li & Zhu, 2007; Sun &Zhu, 2006; Zhu et al.,
2005], but while comparing the size, it gives negative response as the size of the filters are big compared to the
usable dimensions. So, while designing microwave filters, size is a crucial matter. In this paper, a coupled-line
bandpass filter with reasonable size and frequency response is proposed.Coupled-line technology can be

Corresponding Author: Md. Rokunuzzaman, Institute of Space Science (ANGKASA) UniversitiKebangsaan Malaysia,
43600 UKM Bangi, Malaysia.
E-mail: robelhk@yahoo.com
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designed easily using Agilent Advanced Design System (ADS) software. For the ease of use ADS is selected as
design tool. By using coupled line technology a frequency range from 10.2 GHz to 11.7 GHz is found.

Modeling of the Design:

The coupled-line filter is quite small compared to the coupled-line filters found nowadays. The proposed
filter is designed by using Agilent Advanced Design System (ADS) software. After the design, the filter was
simulated using Agilent ADS Momentum which simulates circuit based on Method of Moment (MOM).

Fig. 1: Coupled-line bandpass filter layout.

A Low Pass Prototype (LPP) is designed for designing the bandpass filter as an initial step. The steps for
designing the prototype are given below: The Fractional Bandwidth (FBW) ∆ is given by:

From the butterworth LPP response table the values of g0, g1,g2, g3, g4 and g5 are found to get the desired
attenuation. Then the calculations for the desired coupled-line bandpass filter are done by using equations given
below:

The next formulas are to find the even (Zoe) and odd (Zoo) mode characteristic impedance of the coupled
lines:

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By using the odd and even mode impedance, the width, length and spacing between the coupled lines can
be calculated. After finding a basic structure, it is optimized using the built in optimization tool of ADS
Momentum.

Dimention of the Filter:

The filter ports are situated at the two corners of the coupled-line filter. The gap between the coupled-lines
is stated 0.4 mm to have the result. 0.4 mm is large enough to achieve between microstrip coupled-lines with no
error. If the gap between coupled-lines becomes smaller, better performance can be achieved with a drawback in
design fabrication which is hard to achieve. As the gap between coupled-lines is fixed, the performance depends
on the length and width of the coupled-lines. The width and length of the lines which are coupled are the same.
The microstrip lines at the two corners of input and output ports widths and lengths are chosen to have better
isolation at the rejecting band and better through at the desired band which is 10.2 GHz to 11.7 GHz.The design
layout of the proposed filter is shown in Fig.1, where W1, W2, W3, W4, W5 and W6 show the width of
polygons; L1, L2, L3, L4, L5 and L6 show the length of polygons; S3, S4, S5 and S6 show the gap between
coupled-lines. They have the following values:
W1=4.25436 mm, L1=11.4463 mm, W2=0.8 mm, L2=5.3818368 mm, W3=1.614917 mm, L3=4.00352885
mm, W4=1.6329495 mm, L4=5.31807 mm, W5=0.431525 mm, L5=4.213648 mm, W6=3.5142 mm,
L6=10.5296 mm,S3=0.4 mm, S4=0.4 mm, S5=0.4 mm, S6=0.4 mm.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The performance of the proposed filter is analyzed using the Agilent Advanced Design Systems (ADS)
Electromagnetic Simulator Momentum which simulates planar circuits using Method of Moment (MOM).

(c)
(a)

(b)

Fig. 2: S-parameters for (a) S11, (b) S21 and (c) S22.

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(c)
(a)

(b)

Fig. 3: Phase of S-parameters for (a) S11, (b) S21 and (c) S22.

In Figure 2 (a), for the S11, a bandwidth from 10.2 GHz to 11.7 GHz is found to have magnitude response of
less than -13.145dB. Figure 2 (b) shows the S21 response of the filter. S21 has a value above -3 dB within the
frequency from 10.2 GHz to 11.85 GHz. Figure 2(c) shows the S-parameter response of port 2. S22 gives a
bandwidth from 10.2 GHz to 11.7 GHz with a magnitude of less than-12.605 dB.
From the phase response of S11, S21 and S22 in Figure 3 (a), (b) and (c) it can be seen that S21 gives a smooth
phase change response, where for the S11 and S22 phase response, they shows slow irregularity at the pass band
of the bandpass filter.The slope of S11 and S22 falls rapidly at the passband in Figure 2 (a) and (c) which is a
good design consideration. Also the phase response is not changed much than the default response for the
bandpass response.In the smith charts presented later, the impedance responses of S-parameters are shown. In
the smith chart of S11 in Figure 4 (a), from the marker “m1” (situated at the frequency 10.2 GHz), by traveling
clockwise over the plotted graph to marker “m2” (situated at the frequency 11.7 GHz), it can be seen that the
impedance performance graph is surrounded very close to the 50+j0Ω point within the frequency band 10.2
GHz to 11.7 GHz with a starting impedance of 83.3-j24.3 Ω at 10.2 GHz and finishing impedance of 53.9+j14.7
Ω at 11.7 GHz.In the Figure 4 (b), the impedance characteristic of S22 is shown in the smith chart to visualize
the impedance behavior throughout the passband of the filter. In the graph, starting from the marked point “m3”
(situated at the frequency 10.2 GHz) till the marked point “m4” (situated at the frequency 11.7 GHz) going
clockwise from m3 to m4, the impedance characteristics of the passband at port 2 can be found. From the
frequency 10.2 GHz, the graph starts to follow the center point 50+j0 Ω very closely till the end of the passband
which is 11.7 GHz. The real part of impedance at 10.2 GHz which is 29.8 Ω and the real part of impedance at
11.7 GHz which is 72.7 Ω shows promising results and by following the graph from one marker point to the
other, it can be concluded that the graph is surrounded close to the 50 Ω point (which is ideal point).Figure 4 (c)
shows the impedance characteristic within the filter from port 1 to port 2. By going clockwise, it can be
observed, in the smith chart, the impedance graph is going as far away as possible from the center point which is
50+j0 Ω, which is to show that the impedance, in another sense the obstacle between two ports are minimized.
So, through between two ports is maximized. At 10.2 GHz, the impedance is as low as 15.1+j45.1 Ω, at 11.7
GHz the impedance is 2.16+j32.6 Ω and for the frequencies between these two points, by referring to the graph
in Figure 4 (c) can be concluded to be showing low impedance.

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(a)
m1:
Freq=10.2 GHz; S(1,1)=0.304/-25.787
Impedance=83.301-j24.3 Ω
(c)
m2:
m3:
Freq=11.7 GHz; S(1,1)=0.145/67.069
Freq=10.2 GHz; S(2,2)=0.337/123.444
Impedance=53.905+j14.696 Ω
Impedance=29.868+j18.923 Ω
m2:
Freq=11.7 GHz; S(2,2)=0.220/-26.366
Impedance=72.737-j14.938 Ω

(b) Impedance=15.106+j45.130 Ω
m5:
Freq=11.8 GHz; S(2,1)=0.842/81.237
Impedance=10.052+j57.289 Ω
m6:
Freq=10.2 GHz; S(2,1)=0.720/92.982

Fig. 4: Impedance response characterization in smith chart for (a) S11 (b) S21 and (c) S22

Conclusion:
This paper demonstrates a size minimizedbandpass filter with coupled lines in Rogers RT/Duroid 5880
substrate. The substrate is well known for designing MMIC circuits. The designed filter can be attached to other
MMIC designs and work together flawless. Compact size, ease of design, simplicity in the process was the main
concern while designing this filter. The design dimensions are very easy to achieve in any types of fabrication
process. The bandpass response of the filter is very good from the frequency 10.2 GHz till 11.7 GHz. At the stop
bands of the filter, it shows good isolation of close to 0 dB. The proposed filter can be used for the specified
microwave frequency with good passband response.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors would like thank Institute of Space Science (ANGKASA), UniversitiKebangsaan Malaysia and
Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation, Malaysia, science fund no.: 01-01-02-SF0608 for sponsoring
this work.
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