A Novel Microstrip Triple-Mode Wideband

Bandpass Filter Using Radial-Line Stubs

L. Zhang, Z.-Y. Yu, and L. Guo
Institute of Applied Physics
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Chengdu 610054, China
Email: [email protected]

Abstract- This paper presents a novel approach for designing angle T but different radius are symmetrical with respect to
microstrip triple-mode wideband bandpass filter with good the dashed line A-B. The resonator is fed by a pair of
selectivity. The triple-mode resonator is composed of an open-
ended microstrip line with length of half-wavelength ( O 2 ) and orthogonal 50 : microstrip lines and each microstrip line is
two center loaded radial-line stubs. The mode characteristics of connected to a coupling arm. The filter is fabricated on the
the resonator are discussed. Also, an equivalent lumped circuit is substrate of Rogers TMM 10 with thickness of h = 1 mm and
proposed, including the parameters extracting. To verify the relative permittivity of H r = 9.2. The structural parameters are
proposed method, an experimental filter is implemented. The as follows: w = 0.4 mm, w1 = 1 mm, g = 0.2 mm, l = 15.1 mm,
measured results exhibit good agreement with the simulation.
l1 = 11.1 mm, T = 30 deg, r1 = 15.4 mm, r2 = 7.7 mm.

r2
I. INTRODUCTION
l1
Microwave bandpass filters with compact size and high
performance are highly desired in modern communication
l
systems. They are widely studied and different kinds of
bandpass filters have been proposed [1-9]. To make the filters w T
more compact, one of the effective ways is to modify the
traditional resonator to generate additional modes, causing the g r1
resonator to have multiple resonant frequencies, thus one
resonator in physical can be treated as multiple resonators in w
electrical [3]. In [4], the design of dual-mode filter using a
O 2 center stub-loaded resonator is introduced. A O 2 w1
transmission line resonator with a pair of center loaded stub is
used to design triple-mode filters [5-7]. All this kind of filters
that using stub-loaded structure has a good selectivity for the Fig. 1. Layout of proposed triple-mode filter
transmission zeros are close to the passband. The radial-line
stubs have been found to work better than low impedance
rectangular stubs when an accurate localization of a zero-point
impedance is needed, it can maintain the lower impedance
level over a wide frequency range and a smaller outer
dimension [8-9].
In this article, the design of microstrip triple-mode
wideband bandpass filter is investigated. Compared to the
traditional stub-loaded filters, a wider passband can be
obtained for the introduction of radial-line stubs. Meanwhile,
an equivalent lumped circuit for this kind of filters is proposed,
including the parameters extracting. At last, the triple-mode
filter is fabricated and measured to validate the design.

II. DESIGN AND ANALYSIS

Fig. 2. Mode resonant characteristic of the triple-mode resonator
As illustrated in Fig. 1, a O 2 microstrip line resonator with
length 2l is simultaneously loaded at its center point with a A commercially available full-wave electromagnetic
pair of radial-line stubs. The two radial-line stubs with same simulator (EM) is used to characterize the frequency response

978-1-4244-5708-3/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE 741 ICMMT 2010 Proceedings

of the triple-mode filter. By using weak coupling, the stub; Mode-II is determined by the length of the O 2
simulated result is plotted in Fig. 2. As can be seen, three microstrip line [4]. It provides a convenient way to design the
modes and two transmission zeros are obtained for the filter. triple-mode bandpass filter with good selectivity.
The simulated modal resonant frequencies and the position of Fig. 4 is an equivalent circuit model of the proposed triple-
transmission zeros against the radii of r1 and r2 are shown in mode filter. The two center loaded radial-line stubs are
Fig. 3. As can be seen from the figures, for mode-II, its equivalent to two series LC resonant circuits, L3 and C3 denote
frequency keeps invariable when the radii of the radial-line the larger radial-line stub, L4 and C4 denote the smaller radial-
stubs r1 and r2 are changed. In Fig. 3(a), when r1 increases line stub, L1 and C1 denote the coupling arm, L2 and C2 denote
from 14.0 mm to 20.4 mm, the frequency of Mode-I declines the O 4 resonator, C0 denotes the port coupling. The EM
while the frequency of Mode-III nearly has no change. simulated results and circuit simulated results are shown in
Meanwhile, the location of transmission zero f Z 1 is declines Fig. 5. The circuit parameters are extracted as follows: L1 =
while the location of transmission zero f Z 2 nearly has no 1.27 nH, C1 = 2.95 pF, L2 = 2.21 nH, C2 = 2 pF, L3 =1.72 nH,
change. In Fig. 3(b), when r2 increases from 4.0 mm to 7.2 C3 = 6.04 pF, L4 = 0.88 nH, C4 = 3.76 pF, C0 = 3.85 pF. A
mm, the frequency of Mode-III declines while the frequency good agreement between the EM simulations and circuit
of Mode-I nearly has no change. Meanwhile, the location of simulations can be observed. Two transmission zeros are
transmission zero f Z 2 also declines while the location of produced in stopband, which can improve the selectivity of the
transmission zero f Z 1 nearly has no change. filter. For the resonance of the two series LC circuits that
connected to the center of the O 2 microstrip line, so no signal
can be transmitted from source to load in some frequencies,
two transmission zeros are generated.

C4

L4
C1 L1 C0 L2 L2 C0 L1 C1

C2 C2
L3

C3
(a)

Fig. 4. Equivalent circuit model of the proposed triple-mode filter

(b)

Fig. 3. Simulated mode frequencies and transmission zero location. (a)

Against radius r1 of the larger radial-line stub for r2 = 7 mm. (b) Against Fig. 5. Simulated results of the proposed triple-mode filter
radius r2 of the smaller radial-line stub for r1 = 15.4 mm.

From above analysis we can get that, Mode-I and

III. SIMULATED AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
transmission zero f Z 1 are mainly controlled by the radius r1 of
the larger radial-line stub; Mode-III and transmission zero f Z 2 Depending on the discussion above, a triple-mode bandpass
are mainly controlled by the radius r2 of the smaller radial-line filter is fabricated, as shown in Fig. 6(a). The simulated and

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experimental frequency responses of the proposed triple-mode filter is fabricated to verify the design. A good agreement is
filter are shown in Fig. 6(b). The simulated results show that obtained between simulation and measurement.
the triple-mode filter operated at 2.0 GHz has a 3 dB fractional
bandwidth of 30.6%. A pair of transmission zeros are located
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
at 1.58 GHz with 49.37 dB attenuation and 2.76 GHz with
52.42 dB attenuation respectively, which provide a better This work is supported by the National Natural Science
cutoff rate in the stopband and improve the selectivity. The Foundation of China (NSFC) under grant 60871058.
measured minimum insertion loss is about 1.13 dB in the
passband, which is mainly due to the conductor and dielectric REFERENCES
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(b)

Fig. 6. (a) Photograph of the fabricated filter. (b) Measured and simulated
frequency responses of the filter.

IV. CONCLUSION
A novel approach for designing microstrip triple-mode
wideband bandpass filter is presented in this article. For the
using of radial-line stubs, the design of filters is easy and
accurate, and a wide passband can be obtained. Associated
with equivalent circuit model, the characteristics of triple-
mode bandpass filter are investigated. At last, an experimental

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