New Coupled Microstrip SIR Bandpass Filters with Transmission Zeros

Houle Gan, Dongxiao Yang and Dongwu Lou Laboratory of Radio Frequency and Microwave Technology, Dept. of Information Science & Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China
Abstract A new configuration of coupled half-wavelength microstrip stepped impedance resonators (SIR) is presented. This back-to-back configuration can be used alternatively with faceto-face configuration to form bandpass filters. Tapped-line input and output are used to create transmission zeros. The coupling configurations used in the filter and corresponding number and positions of zeros are summarized, so as to provide guidance for design of filters with specific requirements. A fourth-order bandpass filter with alternant face-to-face and back-to-back configurations is fabricated and measured, and the result agrees well with the theory. Index Terms Bandpass filters, coupled transmission lines, microstrip resonators.

I. INTRODUCTION In modern hybrid microwave integrated circuits, planar bandpass filters with compact structure, high quality and low cost are always an important component. Bandpass filters in microwave communication systems are often used to eliminate image frequencies, and this application requires them to have steep passband-to-stopband transition, high stopband attenuation, wide stopband range, and spurious resonant frequencies far away from center frequency. Traditional parallel-coupled microstrip bandpass filters, consisting of a cascade of several coupled half-wavelength resonators, can give satisfying performance [1]. The size of this configuration, however, is somewhat too large if better performance is desired and more stages are cascaded. In addition, spurious passbands exist at harmonics. Stepped impedance resonators (SIR) are composed of transmission lines with different characteristic impedances. They provide an effective way to minimize circuit space and push spurious resonant frequencies away from passband [2]. Tapped-line is another useful configuration to save circuit size and optimize filter performances [3]. It is shown in [4] that tapped-line input and output can be incorporated into parallelcoupled SIR bandpass filters, and create transmission zeros. Tapped-line can save space of traditional input and output sections, and create tunable transmission zeros, which could be deliberately positioned at harmonics, and push spurious passband beyond 6 f 0 . In [5], coupled SIRs, tapped-line input and output, and lumped capacitors constitute a 3-layer bandpass filter which has two transmission zeros, each of which is located on either side of passband, resulting in a very selective passband-to-stopband transition. In [6], several SIRs are multiple-coupled, forming a stacked structure, and tapped-

lines are used again as input and output ports, as well as to create transmission zeros. In this paper, new back-to-back coupled SIR is investigated. This structure, performing as a bandpass filter with tappedline input and output, is proposed in section II, and comparison with the classical face-to-face configuration in [6] is also given. When more SIRs are stacked in a vertical sequence, it is shown in section III that back-to-back and faceto-face configurations can be used alternatively, resulting in different performances, especially the number and locations of transmission zeros. In section IV, simulated and measured results of a 2.2GHz bandpass filters with both face-to-face and back-to-back structures are presented. II. FACE-TO-FACE AND BACK-TO-BACK COUPLED SIR The half-wavelength microstrip SIR structure is shown in Fig. 1. At its resonant frequencies,

tg1tg 2 = Z 2 / Z1 = RZ .

(1)

Fig. 1.

Basic structure of a half-wavelength SIR stage.

The locations of spurious resonant frequencies depend on the values of 1 , 2 and RZ . In order to minimize the size of the circuit, RZ smaller than 1 and appropriate 1 / 2 value are commonly used in practice [2]. Half-wavelength SIRs can be stacked vertically to form bandpass filters, as shown in Fig. 2. In Fig. 2(a), the face-toface configuration was proposed in [6] as a second-order stacked-SIR bandpass filter. The couplings between adjacent resonators of this structure result from their coupled end sections. While in Fig. 2(b), the back-to-back configuration consists of a whole length of coupled lines. The coupled center sections can result in significantly different performances.

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Fig. 2. Two configurations of coupled SIR bandpass filters with two possible feeding forms. (a) Face-to-face configuration. (b) The proposed back-to-back configuration. back-to-back - - - - face-to-face

resonators. The positions of transmission zeros can be predicted with multiple-port network analysis described in [6], considering the whole structure as a cascade of several multiple coupled microstrip lines (MCML) stages. By adjusting the position l p of tapped-line input and output, the frequencies of transmission zeros can be tuned without any variation in passband. The simulated results of filters with the two coupling configurations and two feeding configurations are shown in Fig. 3. Here, the simulator is EMSight [8]. In Fig. 3(a), when both configurations are symmetrically fed, the response of back-to-back structure has one zero on the left of passband, while that of face-to-face structure has one on the right. When both of them are skew-symmetrically fed, back-to-back structure gives one zero on the right of passband, while face-to-face structure gives one on the left and two on the right. It is to be noted that their responses in passband are same. III. MULTIPLE-COUPLED SIR BANDPASS FILTERS More half-wavelength SIRs can be added into the structure to form various bandpass filters with better performances. Face-to-face and back-to-back coupling configurations can be used alternatively, resulting in different number and positions of transmission zeros. Two possible forms are shown in Fig. 4. A b-f configuration in Fig. 4(a) denotes a third-order bandpass filter, whose first and second resonators are coupled in a face-to-face way, and second and third resonators are coupled in a back-to-back way.

(a) back-to-back - - - - face-to-face

Fig. 4. (b) Fig. 3. Simulation results of single face-to-face and back-toback bandpass filters designed at 2.4GHz. (a) Symmetric feed. (b) Skew-symmetric feed. It is also shown in Fig. 2 that two feeding structures are possible: one is symmetric feed and the other is skewsymmetric feed [7]. Tapped-line input and output are responsible for creating transmission zeros. The design procedures of the two configurations are similar, consisting of choosing proper SIR parameters 1 , 2 and RZ , and determining the spacing between each pair of adjacent

Various stacked-SIR bandpass filters with face-to-face and back-to-back structures. (a) A b-f configuration. (b) An f-b-f configuration.

It is to be noted that the ends of resonators are multiple coupled, while the middle sections are much narrower, and they can not be coupled with more than two stages. Namely, b-b, f-b-b, or b-b-f configuration can not be realized. There is, however, f-f configuration, in which the middle section of the second SIR is put at the center of the width, rather than at the top or bottom to form back-to-back coupling with previous or next SIR. By multiple-port network parameters analysis or EM simulators, the number and positions of transmission zeros are predicted. When such filters are to be used in microwave

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communication systems, it is often critical either to reject signals at certain frequencies, or to obtain high attenuation level in a frequency range, or both. Because the positions of zeros can be tuned by tapped-line input and output, the number of zeros and their positions relative to the passband are then of significant importance. They are summarized in Table I for up to fourth-order filters. TABLE I SUMMARY OF NUMBER AND POSITIONS OF ZEROS
Order Configuration 2 f b b-f/f-b f-f f-b-f f-f-f b-f-b Symmetric Feed 1 right 1 left 2 right 1 left, 1 right 1 left, 2 right 1 right 1 right Skew-Symmetric Feed 1 left, 2 right 1 right 1 left, 1 right 2 right 3 right 1 left, 2 right 1 left, 2 right

V. CONCLUSION Various coupled microstrip SIR bandpass filters can be designed based on two basic coupling configurations. The face-to-face and back-to-back coupling configurations provide different choices when building stacked-SIR filters. The number and positions of transmission zeros, which are of major concern in the design of such filters, significantly depend on the configurations adopted in the structure. To obtain zeros at certain positions, one can choose proper configurations accordingly from table I. An f-b-f filter at 2.2GHz is fabricated. Simulated and measured responses are in well agreement and exhibit optimized stopband harmonics suppression and good selectivity.

3 4

From table I, filters with appropriate configurations can be chosen according to specific transmission zero requirements. Tapped-line can then be further adjusted to exactly locate zeros. A design example is given in the next section. The design process includes determining the lowpass prototype, choosing appropriate SIR resonator parameters, and obtaining physical dimensions of each microstrip section. The locations and dimensions of two tapped lines could be determined by the Q-values of the first and last resonators using the method presented in [4]. The curves between coupling coefficients and gaps of resonators coupled in either face-to-face or backto-back configuration could be obtained by EM simulators using the method described in [9]. IV. SIMULATION AND MEASUREMENT RESULTS A bandpass filter with f-b-f configuration (shown in Fig. 4(b)) and symmetric feed lines is designed at 2.2GHz with a passband of 150MHz. The parameters of substrate are r =2.25, H=0.5mm. For SIR stages, Z1 =50 , Z 2 =25 , and 1 = 2 . The simulated result obtained by the full-wave EM simulator IE3D [10] and measured response are shown in Fig. 5. The first-order harmonic frequency of SIR stages could be calculated to be at 2.55 f 0 . In this case, tapped-line input and output are tuned to locate a transmission zero exactly at 2.55 f 0 , so as to provide optimized stopband suppression. It can be seen from Fig. 5 that simulated and measured results are in well agreement. This filter provides a wide stopband with S21 lower than -30dB over an almost 7GHz frequency range, and pushes its first harmonic frequency up to beyond 4.1 f 0 . The size of the filter is apparently smaller than typical input and output tapped parallel coupled SIR filters. It also exhibits good selectivity due to the two zeros near the passband.

simulation measurement

Fig. 5. Simulated and measured responses of an f-b-f filter at 2.2GHz. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This work was supported by NSFC under Grant No. 60477033. D.X. Yangs e-mail address is yangdx@zju.edu.cn. REFERENCES
[1] T. C. Edwards, Foundations for Microstrip Circuit Design, Chichester: J. Wiley & Sons, 2nd Ed., 1992. [2] M. Makimoto and S. Yamashita, Microwave Resonators and Filters for Wireless Communication Theory and Design, Berlin, Germany: Springer, 2001. [3] J. S. Wong, Microstrip tapped-line filter design, IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory & Tech., vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 44-50, January 1979. [4] J. T. Kuo and E. Shih, Microstrip stepped impedance resonator bandpass filter with an extended optimal rejection bandwidth, IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory & Tech., vol. 51, no. 5, pp. 1554-1559, May 2003. [5] J. Huangfu, L. Ran, and K. Chen, A new microwave SIR bandpass filter with input and output tapped lines, J. of Circuits and Systerms, vol. 8, no. 5, pp. 76-78, October 2003.

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[6] E. Shih and J. T. Kuo, A new compact microstrip stacked-SIR bandpass filter with transmission zeros, 2003 IEEE MTT-S Int. Microwave Symp. Dig., pp. 1077-1080, 2003. [7] S. Y. Lee and C. M. Tsai, New cross-coupled filter design using improved hairpin resonators, IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory & Tech., vol. 48, no. 12, pp. 2482-2490, December 2000.

[8] Applied Wave Research, Inc., EMSight, 2001. [9] J. S. Hong and M. J. Lancaster, Couplings of microstrip square open-loop resonators for cross-coupled planar microwave filters, IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory & Tech., vol. 44, no. 12, pp. 2099-2108, December 1996. [10] Zeland Software, Inc., IE3D, 2002.

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