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Design of a Compact Dual-Band Band-Pass Filter for Global Positioning

System and Fixed Satellite Applications

Conference Paper · December 2014

DOI: 10.1109/ICECE.2014.7026853

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 8th International Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering 572
20-22 December, 2014, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Design of a Compact Dual-Band Band-Pass Filter for

Global Positioning System and Fixed Satellite
Applications
Md. Rokunuzzaman1,* Mohammad Tariqul Islam,2 Md. Samsuzzaman2, Md. Rasheduzzaman3 Rezaul Azim1 and
Afaz Uddin Ahmed1
1
Center for Space Science (ANGKASA), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
2
Department of Electrical, Electronic and Systems Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
3
Department of Electrical Electronics and Communication Engineering, Military Institute of Science and Technology
Dhaka-1216, Bangladesh
*
robelhk@yahoo.com

Abstract—In this article, a dual-band band-pass filter is
developed for Global Positioning System (GPS) and Fixed
Satellite (FS) applications. The filter is a planar structure
composed of parallel coupled lines with reduced length. The dual
band filter is developed using the cascaded coupled lines. High
isolation between two pass-bands is achieved. Compared to the
previous works, the proposed filter has lower insertion loss at 1.5
GHz and 7.5 GHz. A compact size of 15.7 mm × 33.4 mm is
achieved for the proposed filter using Arlon DiClad 880
substrate with a thickness of 0.508 mm.
Index Terms—Bandpass filter (BPF), Dual-band, Global
Positioning System (GPS), Fixed Satellite (FS).
I. INTRODUCTION
With the rapid growth of microwave applications and
services of communication, the desire for multi-frequency
equipment is increasing. Moreover, the frequency is divided
into categories for different applications. To separate one
frequency from another, filter is an essential element. Low
cost, compactness and heavy duty products are in great need
for the present microwave applications. High performance
multi-band filters such as in [1, 2] are making their marks
towards the use of multi-band. In recent years, a number of
journals are published focusing on multi-band filters for
microwave frequencies [3-6]. Currently, there are a large
number of literatures promoting multi-band antennas such as
[7-9]. To use multi-band antennas it is required for the
backend of the antenna to be developed for multi-band
accessibility.
To design band-pass (BPF) filter, a transmission line
varying continuously is used to match the impedance in [10].
Non-uniform coupled filter design method is shown in [11]
realizing arbitrary transmission line filters. While designing
dual-band BPF filter, the challenge for microwave circuit
designer is to design the filter in a compact area with high
performance. Previously, microwave circuit designers used to
develop two individual BPF filters to achieve dual-band BPF
response from a filter [12]. To combine the performance of
the two filters, diplexer type structures are introduced to
match the impedance of both filters and hence resulting larger
dimension for the filter design. In the later version of dual-
band BPF filter design, open-stub cascaded structures are used
to achieve the performance increasing the complexity of the
circuit and size increment [13].
In this paper, a planar dual band filter is proposed with
band pass characteristics. The two centre frequencies of the
filter are 1.5 GHz and 7.5 GHz. High transmission
characteristics is achieved at both bands by utilizing cascaded
coupled lines. The proposed antenna is well matched for 50 Ω
impedance microwave circuits. At both pass-bands low
insertion loss is achieved. The presented dual-band BPF is
designed at a compact dimension of 524.38 mm2 with a
substrate thickness limited to 0.508 mm.
II. DESIGN OF THE FILTER
Fig. 1 shows the layout of the dual-band BPF. Arlon
DiClad 880 substrate with a thickness of h = 0.508 mm is used
to design the filter. The dielectric constant and loss tangent of
the selected substrate are r = 2.2 and tan δ = 0.0009. the
basic structure of the filter consists of two tapered I/O paths
and a coupled structure in the middle. The coupled structures
shown in the fig. 1 follows a pattern that can be described as
stepped impedance resonators. By using the coupling
mechanism between the microstrip lines, the higher order
mode resonances of the filter can be omitted or shifted to
another resonance point [14]. Two identical microstrip
structures are coupled with each other at the middle of the
BPF filter. The arms of the coupling structures are folded to
decrease the total size of the filter which makes the filter
design more compact. At the edge of each microstrip coupling
structure, a cascaded structure is introduced to cope with the
different impedance characteristic. It can be observed from
the layout that two different thickness microstrip lines are
coupling with each other. It is valid for both identical
microstrip coupled structures. The irregularity of the thickness
can be expressed as: for the long length (2θ1) in the middle of
a cascaded structure the higher impedance is (Z1) and at both
end of the long length, two short length (θ2) with an
impedance (Z2) lower than the impedance (Z1), the resonance
condition for both even and odd mode can be derived as
followed [15]:
K *cot θ 2 = − cot θ1 (Even-mode) (1)
K *cot θ 2 = tan θ1 (Odd-mode) (2)

978-1-4799-4166-7/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE

 573

Where, K = (Z2/Z1) the ratio between two impedances [14].
The length θ2 is corresponding to the physical length of the
stepped impedance resonator. The ratio ‘τ’ of the total length
of the cascaded structure can be expressed as follows:
θ2
τ=
(θ1 + θ 2 )
By substituting (3) into the equation (1) and (2) where θ1+θ2
= θt we find:
K *cot (τθt ) = − cot (θt (1 − τ ) )
from 7.1 GHz till 7.8 GHz with the FBW of 10% centred at
7.5 GHz. The -10 dB bandwidth of S11 and S22 at the first
resonance starts from 1.3 GHz till 1.7 GHz and at the second
resonance, the bandwidth starts from 7.3 GHz until 7.7 GHz.
(3)
(4)

K *cot (τθt ) = tan (θ t (1 − τ ) ) (5)

The resultant θt is dependent on the ratios τ and K where θt can

have several types of solution. For design presented in this
paper, the characteristics of this structure are changed
repeatedly to optimize the design to resonate at the
frequencies 1.5 GHz and 7.5 GHz respectively. The I/O paths
of the proposed filter are tapered so that the impedance of the Fig. 2 S-parameter responses of the BPF with respect to the frequency.
coupled structure can be matched with the 50 Ω impedance of
the backend structure it is mounted on. The feed-line of the
filter starts from two identical points at both sides of the filter.
After an increment of ‘a’ the feed-line is banded to reduce the
dimension of the filter from both sides. The bending of the
feed-line extensively decreases the total size of the filter,
making it an ideal filter device for any compact system. At the
end of the feeding, the line is tapered and the thickness is
increased until the length ‘d’ where, at the edge it touches the
excitation point.

Fig. 3 Phase response of the BPF at resonance frequencies.

Fig. 3 depicts the phase response at the resonance bands of

the BPF. It can be observed from the figure that the phase
response change with the frequency is smooth and there is no
irregularity of phase change within the pass-bands of the BPF.

Fig. 1 Layout of the proposed BPF filter. The filter dimensions are: L = 33.4
mm, W = 15.7 mm, a = 4 mm, b = 1.4 mm, c = 12.8 mm, d = 13.4 mm.

III. RESULTS
The proposed dual-band BPF is designed using the
commercially available software High Frequency Structural
Simulator (HFSS) version 15.0. A plane copper layer is
assigned at the bottom of the substrate and assigned as the
ground plane of the filter. The calculation is carried out using
two lumped ports assigned 50 Ω impedance so that the filter
can be assembled with 50 Ω microwave structures. Fig. 2
shows the S-parameter response of the proposed filter. It can
be observed from the figure that an insertion loss of less than -
39 dB is achieved at 1.5 GHz and -23.8 dB is achieved at 7.5
GHz. The S11 and S22 response are almost identical to each Fig. 4 Group delay within the I/O of the BPF.
other and overlaps each other throughout the frequency span.
The S21 response of the filter shows that at the first resonance Fig. 4 shows the group delay between two I/O ports of the
of the BPF, the transmission loss is as low as -0.11 dB and the filter. From the figure, it can be perceived that the group delay
-3 dB bandwidth starts from 1.2 GHz till 1.8 GHz with a 40% is not constant throughout the frequency. However, within the
fractional bandwidth (FBW) centred at 1.5 GHz frequency. At resonance bandwidths, the average group delay is below 1 ns.
Although some ripples can be noticed, nonetheless, the
the second resonance the transmission loss is lower at 7.5
GHz with a value of -0.53 dB and the -3 dB bandwidth starts fluctuation of time is very narrow which can be ignored.

Fig. 5 Current distribution pattern of the BPF at (a) 1.5 GHz and 0° phase, (b)
1.5 GHz and 90° phase, (c) 7.5 GHz and 0° phase and (d) 7.5 GHz and 90°
phase.
Fig. 5 shows the current distribution pattern of the filter at
both resonance frequencies. The current distribution shows a
peak of 9.8248×e2 Amp/meter at all the current distribution
patterns. In fig. 5 (a) the current distribution is shown for 1.5
GHz at a phase of 0°. It can be observed that the current
density is at its peak over the feed-lines. The current
distribution in Fig. 5 (b) depicts that the current density is
increasing at the band lines connecting the coupling hands of
the filter for 90° phase difference at 1.5 GHz. At 7.5 GHz 0°
phase, current is dense mostly at the edge of the feeding point
and the coupling hands shown in Fig. 5 (c). Fig. 5 (d) presents
the current distribution pattern of the filter for 7.5 GHz 90˚
phase. One side of the coupled hands are excited with more
current compared to the other side. The connecting line of the
coupling hand also shows highly dense current distribution.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
A compact, low loss novel dual-band BPF is presented by [15]
means of coupled structures. The filter is designed for GPS
and FS system for which the frequency mostly comes from
satellites and filter is required for high cancellation from noise.
The proposed filter shows good frequency responses at 1.5
GHz and 7.5 GHz with a bandwidth of 600 MHz and 700
MHz respectively. The filter has a very low transmission loss.
Good isolation between two operating bands is achieved. The
phase response gives a stable performance at both operating
bands. An average group delay of less than 1 ns is achieved
between two I/O ports. The proposed filter comprises a
dimension of 15.7 mm × 33.4 mm and the Arlon Diclad 880
substrate thickness of 0.508 mm.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Centre for Space Science
(ANGKASA) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia for
sponsoring this work.
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