where Z,, and r are the same as in eqn.

2 and

k = 0.45 - 0.01 I( y ) - 11 '-OI

The validity range of eqns. 2 and 3 is 0 5 u I 0.99 for coaxial

cables with outer-inner conductor radius ratio l.4iblai 10. The
accuracy is >1YO.

1
80

c
U I I I I I.
N 0 04 08
40 weo
Fig. 5 Relative errors of odd mode impedance
Key as in Fig. 2
ratio is between 1.4 and 10. This iacihtates the industrial apphca-
tions of the coupled lines such as for the design and optimisation
0 0.4 0.8 of a cost-effective, high-performance directional coupler.
emo
0 1EE 1995 26 July 1995
fig. 3 Comparison of odd mode impedance Electronics Letters Online No: 19951363
Key as in Fig. 2 Hongmin An (Radio Transmitter and Receiver Division, Bell-Northern
Research Ltd., PO Box 3511 Station C, Ottawa, Ontario, K1 Y 4H7,
Figs. 2 and 3 show the comparison of the calculated results by Canada)
eqns. 2 and 3 and the finite element technique for the coupled line Tongqing Wang, R.G. Bosisio and Ke Wu (POLY-GRAMES
constructed with commercially available semi-rigid UT series Research Center, Ecole Polytechnique de Montre'al, CP 6079, Succ.
Centre Ville, Montreal, Quebec, H3C 3A7, Canada)
coaxial cables (er = 2.03). For different cables the agreement is
very good. To evaluate the accuracy of eqns. 2 and 3, an error
function is defined as References
22)( U ) - zg'( U ) 1 AN, H., MONTI, o., wu, K., and BOSISIO, R.G.: 'A novel type of low-
err(u) = (4)
2 0 cost high-performance coaxial cables coupler'. 25th European
Microw. Conf. (EuMC'95), 1995
where Z,(")(u) and Z,m(u) are the impedance values from eqns. 2
2 AN, H., BOSISIO, R.G., and wu, K.: 'Ultra-wideband directional
and 3 and the finite element method, respectively, and subscript m couplers with coaxial cable'. Canadian Conf. Electr. and Comp.
becomes e and o for even and odd modes. Eng., 1995

I
A Canonical microstrip filter using square
open-loop resonators
J.S. Hong and M.J. Lancaster

Indexing term: Microstrip filters

A configuration for the realisation of canonical microstrip elliptic

function narrow-band bandpass filters is proposed. The new filter
1 1 1 1 I configuration consists of two identical arrays of microstrip square
0 0.4 0.8 open-loop resonators. The two resonator arrays are proximately
emo placed on the same plane so as to allow nonadjacent electric and
Fig. 4 Relative errors of even mode impedance magnetic couplings to be realised and ajusted. A theoretical
investigation has confirmed the feasibility.
Key as in Fig. 2
Introduction: High performance narrow-band bandpass filters hav-
Figs. 4 and 5 present the errors of the calculations in Figs. 2 ing a low insertion loss and a high selectivity together with a linear
and 3. It is obvious that the relative errors for both the even and phase or flat group delay in the passband are important for mod-
odd mode impedance of all the coupled lines are within 0.8% in ern microwave communication systems. These criteria could be
the range 0 5 u 5 0.99, indicating the good accuracy of the given fulfilled using filters with an elliptic function response. It is known
closed form expressions. that the elliptic function response realisable by a multiple coupled
cavity structure can be reduced to a canonical form containing the
Conclusions: This Letter presents a set of accurate closed-form for- mimimum number of coupling elements. Such a canonical filter is
mulas for the even and odd mode characteristic impedances of a usually realised using waveguide cavities because of the low loss
coupled line made from two cut coaxial cables, with an accuracy [1, 21.However, recent advances in hightemperature superconduct-
of >1% for a wide range of cut depths. A number of calculations ing (HTS) thin films have stimulated renewed interest in micro-
and a comparison with a rigorous solution obtained using the wave planar circuits as they can provide not only performance
finite element method show that these expressions are valid for all comparable to that of waveguide cavity filters, but also considera-
coupled lines with cables whose outer-inner conductor diameter ble miniaturisation and low fabrication cost [3, 41. One difficulty

2020 ELECTRONICS LETTERS 9th November 1995 Vol. 31 No. 23

Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Leeds. Downloaded on January 15, 2010 at 07:21 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 in realising the canonical filter in the planar structures is to iden- Any coupling in the proposed filter is that of the proximity cou-
tify the required electric and magnetic couplings for the nonadja- pling, which is, basically, through fringe fields. The nature and the
cent resonators. In this Letter we propose a microstrip canonical extent of the fringe fields determine the nature and the strength of
filter configuration, which is based on two identical arrays of the coupling. At the centre frequency, each of the open-loop reso-
microstrip square open-loop resonators. This filter configuration is nators has the maximum electric fringe field at the side with an
able to identify and adjust the electric and magnetic couplings for open-gap, and the maximum magnetic fringe field at the opposite
nonadjacent resonators within a single plane. The feasibility of the side. Because the fringe field exhibits an exponentially decaying
proposed filter configuration has been confirmed theoretically, character outside the region [5], the electric cross coupling can be
and the results are presented. obtained if the open sides of two nonadjacent resonators are prox-
imately placed, whereas, the magnetic cross coupling can be
obtained if the sides with the maximum magnetic fringe field of
the two nonadjacent resonators are proximately placed. Shown in
Fig. 2 are field patterns of the electric and magnetic cross cou-
plings, which are simulated using a full-wave electromagnetic sim-
open-loop J/: * . ulator [6]. For the cascade couplings, although the electric and
resonator magnetic fringe fields at the coupled sides may have comparative
distributions, the electric and magnetic couplings are different.
Assuming a pair of coupled microstrip lines having the same width
W and a separation S on a substrate with relative permittivity E,,
permeability F~and a thickness h, the electric and magnetic cou-
plings may be estimated by [7]

Km = P, exp[-(AzS/h +
B2W/h)] (2)
ground where P , and P, are the electric and magnetic weights, respec-
plane tively, which should take into account the practical field distribu-
tions when the particular boundary or excitation conditions are
input imposed on the ends of the coupled lines with a finite length, and
v m
Fig. 1 Proposed canonical microstrip filter configuration A1 = 1 + 0.251n (-
+;I) B1 = 0 . 1 m

New canonical filter: The proposed configuration for the realisa- A2 = 1 + 0.251n ( p_r ;_1) Bz = 0.1-
tion of a canonical microstrip elliptic function filter is shown in
Since E, > 1 and pr = 1 for most microstrip substrates, and for a
Fig. 1; it is constructed from two identical arrays of microstrip reasonable assumption of P, = P, in our case, it can be seen from
square open-loop resonators. Each of the square open-loop reso- eqns. 1 and 2 that the magnetic coupling is dominant. Thus it
nators has a perimeter about one half-wavelength at the centre fre- would seem that the required couplings for realisation of canoni-
quency. One of the arrays consists of resonator 1 to resonator n/2 cal filters can be achieved using the proposed filter configuration.
with the input port located in resonator 1, while the other consists This has also been verified by the computer simulations.
of resonators n/2 + 1 to n with the output port located in resona-
tor IZ, where n indicates the number of the filter poles and must be
Computer simulation: To confirm and demonstrate the elliptic
even. Following its waveguide counterpart, the corresponding res-
function response of the proposed filter configuration, serveral fil-
onators between the two arrays, such as resonators 1 and n should
ters of this type have been simulated using the full-wave EM sim-
be referred to as the nonadjacent resonators and the couplings
ulator [6], whose prediction has been proved to be quite accurate
between them should be referred to as the cross couplings. For the
as compared with experiments [8], and shown to have desired
canonical realisation, the cascade couplings between consecutively elliptic function responses. Shown in Fig. 3 is the performance of a
numbered resonators must have the same sign, which can be pro- four-pole filter with a fraction bandwith of 2% at a centre fre-
vided for example by all magnetic couplings. In addition, the cross quency 2.53GHz, exhibiting two attenuation poles at finite fre-
couplings between resonators 1 and n, 2 and n - 1, ... etc. must quencies, which is a typical charateristic of the elliptic function
have arbitrary signs, which can be electric or magnetic couplings. filters.
0 I I $ ,I I
0

-1 0

0 10
P -4 0

E-

b Conclusions: A configuration for realisation of canonical micro-

Fig. 2 Field patterns of couplings strip elliptic function narrow-band bandpass filter has been
a Electric coupling described. The feasibility has been confirmed by a theoretical
b Magnetic coupling investigation. The new filter configuration, which is based on

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microstrip square open-loop resonators, not only makes the Letter outlines the first results obtained using an unoptimised pla-
canonical realisation possible, but also makes both the design and nar tripling circuit employing the MSQBV diodes at W-band.
fabrication easy. The implementation of the proposed filter using
HTS thin films would be expected.

1 - I1
InGaAs
Acknowledgments: The authors wish to acknowledge the support contact laver
undoped
barrier
of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
(EPSRC), United Kingdom.
n=10
0 IEE 1995 15 September 1995
Electronics Letters No: 19951370 \
J.S. Hong and M.J. Lancaster (School of Electronic and Electrical
Engineering, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15
2TT, United Kingdom)

References

WILLIAMS, A.E., and ATIA, A.E.: ‘Dual-mode canonical waveguide

filters’, ZEEE Trans., 1977, MTT-25, pp. 1021-1026
PFITZENMAIER, G : ‘Synthesis and realization of narrow-band
canonical microwave bandpass filters exhibiting linear phase and InP substrate
transmission zeros’, IEEE Trans., 1982, MTT-30, pp. 1300-1311
YAO, s.J., BONEITTI, R.R.,and WILLIAMS, A.E.:‘Generalized dual-plane
multicoupled line filters’, IEEE Trans., 1993, M’IT-41, pp. 2182-
2189
HEDGES, s.J., and HUMPHREYS, R.G.: ‘An extracted pole microstrip
Fig. 1 Mesa structure of multistack quantum barrier varactor
elliptic function filter using high temperature superconductors’.
Proc. 1994 European Microwave Conf., pp. 517-521
CO“, s.B.: ‘Shielded coupled-strip transmission line’, IRE Trans.,
Design approach: Harmonic generation is a nonlinear phenome-
1955, MTT-3, pp. 29-38 non. In order to generate maximum power output, optimal load-
EM User’s Manual, Sonnet Software, Inc., Version 2.4, 1993 ing at input and output terminals should be present. Optimal
RAL, s., BHATTACHARYA, D., and CHAKRABORTI, N.B.: ‘Empirical loads can be deduced knowing the large signal impedance of the
relations for capacitive and inductive coupling coefficients of diode at the fundamental and the 3rd harmonic. Using the
coupled microstrip lines’, ZEEE Trans., 1981, MTT-29, pp. 386-388 MSQBV diode, no idler circuit is required and therefore design
HONG, J.s., and LANCASTER, M.J.: ‘Development of new microstrip
optimisation at the fundamental and 3rd harmonic is possible.
pseudo-interdigital bandpass filters’, IEEE Microw. Guid. Wave
Lett., 1995, 5, pp. 261-263 Using a harmonic balance simulator [5] in conjunction with a
table based model of the diode it is possible to calculate the
embedding impedances at input and output for maximum 3rd har-
monic generation. Once the embedding impedances are known,
the design problem reduces to matching these values to a 50Q sys-
tem load. A double stub circuit is used to realise the matching at
Planar multi-stack quantum barrier varactor both the diode input and output. The diode is connected in shunt
tripler evaluation at W-band between the input and output circuits with filters to separate the
fundamental and 3rd harmonics. Since classical square patched
A. Rahal, E. Boch, C. Rogers, J. Ovey and low pass filters (LPF) have undesirable responses at harmonics, a
R.G. Bosisio quasi-elliptic LPF is used at the input to present high reflection at
the 2nd and the 3rd harmonics. At the output a coupled resonator
band pass filter (BPF) rejects the fundamental harmonic with the
Indexing terms: Frequency multipliers, Microwave devices appropriate phase. Transitions to the waveguide interfaces used in
testing are realised with antipodal fin line transitions in conjunc-
The authors report a planar W-band frequency tripler based on a tion with tapered microstrip baluns. The losses in the transitions
symmetrical multi-stack quantum barrier varactor (MSQBV). The
were measured back-to-back on a scalar network analyser as
circuit is realised using a standard hybrid circuit fabrication
procedure. A prototype is fabricated and tested, a +3dBm of having 0.3dB and 3dB of insertion loss per transition at Ka and
output power is obtained at 90GHz. W bands, respectively. The planar circuit is fabricated using a 5ml
quartz substrate. The diode is bonded to the tiles using a l o p
Introduction; Frequency multipliers are used in different hetero- gold wire. A photograph of the realised tripler is shown in Fig. 2.
dyne receivers at millimetre-wave frequencies and almost all were
constructed in waveguide [l]. Such multipliers are useful for appli-
cations in millimetre-wave personal communication networks
(PCNs) and intelligent vehicular high-way systems (IVHSs). Com-
pared to a waveguide construction, planar multiplier circuits have
the advantage of being more rugged and more cost effective. In
this work we have used a high quality MSQBV diode to build a
planar frequency tripler at W-band. The device employs a 10 stack
heterostructure as shown in Fig. 1. The device fabrication and
modelling are detailed in [2].The MSQBV diodes have symmetri-
cal I-V and C-V characteristics at zero bias. This leads to the
effective generation of odd harmonics at zero bias operation. The
presence of only odd harmonics simplifies the design of frequency
triplers since no idler circuit is needed at the 2nd harmonic. High
tripling efficiency using a three stack structure at lower (Ka-band)
frequencies indicates the usefulness of this type of device in fre-
quency tripling [3]. Although it has been shown that planar tri-
plers using conventional asymmetrical varactors are possible [4],
practical design trade-off, needed to accommodate fabrication
contraints, is expected to reduce the multiplying efficiency. This Fig. 2 Photograph of W-band planar tripler prototype

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