Tunable bandstop filter with high
suppression and wide tuning range
Qun Li, Xiong Chen and Tao Yang✉
A tunable bandstop filter (BSF) with high suppression and wide tuning
range is presented. The tunable BSF includes nine pairs of coupling
microstrip resonators. Each coupling microstrip resonator contains a
back-to-back varactor pair and the voltage bias circuit is placed at
the cathode of each varactor. Moreover, the back-to-back varactor
pair is connected to an inductive terminal with two parallel metallised
vias. Compared to a single metallised via, the inductance of two paral-
lel metallised vias is reduced which can be beneficial to increase the
stopband resonant frequency and improve the suppression level of
the tunable BSF. Finally, a tunable BSF prototype with the tuning
range of 3.8–9 GHz (81%) is fabricated. The measured suppression
level is larger than 40 dB, over the entire tuning range.
Introduction: Tunable microwave filters such as tunable bandpass
filters (BPFs) and tunable bandstop filters (BSFs) are important com-
ponents in reconfigurable microwave front ends. Tunable BSFs are the
counterparts of tunable BPFs [1, 2]. A well-designed tunable BSF
should have high suppression level and wide tuning range. The micro-
strip resonators are extensively applied in tunable microwave BSF
designs [3–5]. In [3], the varactor-based microstrip resonators with
defected ground structure are used to design a tunable BSF. However,
the defected ground structure can create electromagnetic leakages and
leads to a complex packaging. In [5], the varactor-based microstrip reso-
nators using a doublet configuration are used to design tunable BSFs.
The suppression level can be increased by cascading more doublets,
but the frequency tuning range is narrow. Besides the microstrip resona-
tors, tunable BSFs based on the coaxial stepped-impedance resonators
(SIRs) [6] and the substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) resonators [7]
are presented. However, the designed tunable BSFs suffer from low sup-
pression level and narrow frequency tuning range.
To achieve high suppression level and wide tuning range, the coupling
microstrip resonators are used to design a tunable microwave BSF in this
Letter. The suppression level can be increased by cascading multiple
coupling microstrip resonators. Each coupling microstrip resonator con-
tains a back-to-back varactor pair and two parallel metallised vias are
placed at the terminal. Compared to a single metallised via, the inductance
of two parallel metallised vias is reduced which can increase the stopband
resonant frequency and improve the suppression level.
Design of tunable BSF: The topology of the tunable microwave BSF
with a pair of coupling microstrip resonators is shown in Fig. 1. It
shows that the two coupling microstrip resonators are symmetrically
placed at opposite sides of the microstrip line with 50 Ω characteristic
impedance. Each coupling microstrip resonator consists of a coupling
microstrip line, a back-to-back varactor pair and a voltage bias
network. The length L1 of the coupling microstrip line can be used to
adjust the centre frequency of the tuning range. By reducing the
length L1, the centre frequency of the tuning range can be increased,
but the coupling is reduced. The voltage bias circuit is placed at the
cathode of the back-to-back varactor pair. Two parallel metallised vias
are placed at the terminal of the back-to-back varactor pair. The induc-
tance of a single metallised via can be given by [8]

 
4h
L = 5.08h ln +1 (1)
d
In this equation, the unit of the inductance L is nH and the parameters
h and d represent the height and diameter of the metallised via, respect-
ively, with the unit of inch. Compared to a single metallised via, the
inductance of two parallel metallized vias is reduced, which can increase
the stopband resonant frequency and improve the suppression level. The
design procedures are summarised as follows.
The first step is to design the tunable BSF with a pair of coupling
microstrip resonators. The length L1 of the coupling microstrip line
is used to adjust the centre frequency of the tuning range. The
MA46H201 varactors from the MACOM Corporation are applied in
the design. The capacitance range of the varactor is 5–0.22 pF and the
corresponding voltage range is 0–25 V. Then, the frequency tuning
range can be determined. Fig. 2 shows the simulated frequency tuning
range which is 3.95–9 GHz of the tunable BSF with a pair of coupling
microstrip resonators. When the capacitance is 5 pF, a parasitic stopband
ELECTRONICS LETTERS 8th August 2019 Vol. 55 No. 16 pp. 910–912
exists at 9.32 GHz due to the packaging capacitance of the varactors.
However, the tunable BSF using a pair of resonators has a low sup-
pression level. At the capacitance of 0.22 pF, the simulated suppression
level is 9.2 dB, whereas the simulated suppression level is 8.7 dB when
the two vias in the terminal are merged into a single via. Thus, the
second step is to improve the suppression level by cascading multiple
pairs of resonators. As a result, high suppression level can be realised
without changing the frequency tuning range.
Vbias2
R4
R3
W1
L1
d1
port 1 port 2
W3
R1
L2
R2
W2
Vbias1
Fig. 1 Layout of tunable BSF with pair of resonators
0
S21
magnitude, dB
–10
–20
S11
0.22 pF 5 pF
–30
2 4 6 8 10 12
frequency, GHz
Fig. 2 Tuning range of tunable BSF with pair of resonators
Experimental results: The tunable BSF with nine pairs of coupling
microstrip resonators has been designed and fabricated on a substrate
with a relative dielectric constant of 2.2 and the substrate thickness of
0.508 mm. Fig. 3 shows a photograph of the fabricated tunable BSF.
The final dimensions are: L1 = 7.5, L2 = 2, W1 = 0.8, W2 = 1.5,
W3 = 1.54 and d1 = 0.1, all in mm. The resistors R1 = R2 = R3 = R4 = 1
MΩ.
Fig. 3 Photograph of fabricated tunable BSF
The simulated S11 and S21 of the tunable BSF are shown in Figs. 4a
and b, respectively. The simulated lower stopband centre frequency is
3.95 GHz when the capacitance is 5 pF, while the simulated upper stop-
band centre frequency is 9 GHz when the capacitance is 0.22 pF. Hence,
the simulated frequency tuning range is 3.95–9 GHz (78%). The simu-
lated suppression level is larger than 50 dB over 3.95–9 GHz. The
measured S11 and S21 of the fabricated tunable BSF are shown in
Figs. 5a and b, respectively. The measured lower stopband centre fre-
quency is 3.8 GHz when the bias voltage is 0 V, while the measured
upper stopband centre frequency is 9 GHz when the bias voltage is
25 V. Hence, the measured frequency tuning range is 3.8–9 GHz
(81%). The measured suppression level is better than 40 dB over the
entire tuning range. Moreover, the measured insertion loss of the pass-
band is <1 dB. Table 1 compares performances of the tunable BSFs with
four reported tunable BSFs, which shows that this work has realised Table 1: Comparisons with other tunable BSFs
high suppression and wide tuning range. Ref. Resonator type Tuning range, GHz Suppression level, dB
[3] Microstrip 0.66–0.99 (40%) 27
0 [5] Microstrip 1.73–2.2 (24%) 50
[6] Coaxial SIR 2.15–2.75 (24%) 15
–10
[7] SIW 2.8–3.4 (19%) 25
–20 this work Microstrip 3.8–9 (81%) 40

–30
S11, dB

Conclusion: A tunable BSF using coupling microstrip resonators

–40 has been presented. Each coupling microstrip resonator consists of a
coupling microstrip line, a back-to-back varactor pair and a voltage
–50
bias network. The suppression level can be increased by cascading
–60 multiple coupling microstrip resonators. Two parallel metallised vias
5 pF 1.5 pF 0.8 pF
0.5 pF 0.35 pF 0.22 pF
are placed at the terminal of the back-to-back varactor pair. Compared
–70 to a single metallised via, the inductance of two parallel metallised
2 4 6 8 10 vias is reduced which can increase the stopband resonant frequency
frequency, GHz
and improve the suppression level. A prototype tunable BSF with the
a tuning range of 3.8–9 GHz (81%) and suppression level larger than
0 40 dB has been fabricated and measured. The presented tunable BSF
has advantages of high suppression level and wide tuning range and
is well suited to the reconfigurable microwave front ends.
–20

–40 © The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2019

S21, dB

Submitted: 24 May 2019 E-first: 2 July 2019

doi: 10.1049/el.2019.1855
–60
One or more of the Figures in this Letter are available in colour online.
–80
Qun Li, Xiong Chen and Tao Yang (Department of Microwave
5 pF 1.5 pF 0.8pF Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of
0.5 pF 0.35 pF 0.22 pF China, Chengdu 611731, People’s Republic of China)
–100
2 4 6 8 10 ✉ E-mail: yangtao8314@uestc.edu.cn
frequency, GHz
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S21, dB

–40

–60
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–80
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b

Fig. 5 Measured results of tunable BSF

a S11
b S21

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 8th August 2019 Vol. 55 No. 16 pp. 910–912