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# Cambridge University Press and the European Microwave Association, 2017


doi:10.1017/S1759078717000939

research paper

Microstrip band-pass filter with 267 dB stop


band up to 8.8 times the pass-band center
frequency
frederick huang

Step-impedance resonators and step-impedance capacitor coupling pads are introduced to microstrip band-pass filters to sup-
press spurious stop-band responses up to the ninth order, thereby providing a very wide stop band. Combined with improve-
ments in existing suppression techniques, the overall suppression in one of the filters, with 1 GHz center frequency and 42%
bandwidth, is 254 dB, up to 8.9 GHz. By also using suitably placed resistors, spurious levels are now depressed to 267 dB up
to 8.8 GHz, with only 0.03 dB extra pass-band loss.

Keywords: Filters, Passive components and circuits, Suppression of harmonic responses

Received 28 March 2017; Revised 11 August 2017; Accepted 16 August 2017

I. INTRODUCTION In the present work, the rectangular capacitive coupling


pads in [1] are replaced by step-impedance pads, providing
The stop-band upper limit of distributed filters, including up to an estimated 12 dB of further attenuation in the upper
microstrip band-pass filters, is determined by harmonic or part of the broad stop band where there are more resonances,
other spurious responses. A previous work on wide pass-band a substantial improvement in its own right. They also provide
filters [1], which employed quarter-wave resonators where for a more compact filter. The previous nearly symmetrical
even-order resonances are already absent, combined four layouts were sacrificed. Furthermore, the existing stagger
methods to suppress the odd-order harmonics to produce a tuning is used to much greater effect, extending suppression
wide stop band with high rejection. to the ninth order; in [1], it was underutilized as it provided
First, resonators with additional stubs, which had the same mainly reduced sensitivity to fabrication and simulation
fundamental but different higher order resonances, that is, errors, together with only 2 dB improvement in suppression.
stagger-tuned resonators were employed. Previously [2–9], Finally, replacing uniform lines with step-impedance resona-
stubs or stagger tuning were not used in combinations of tors (SIRs), the higher order resonances are shifted upwards
several techniques. In [10], the stagger tuning was effected by [5, 24], which widens the stop band.
additional open-ended stubs. The type of main resonators Instead of designing new filters, the two sixth-order,
can be chosen independently from the stubs, for compactness, quarter-wave microstrip 42% bandwidth filters centered at
or low loss, or insensitivity to over-etch, a feature retained in [1] 1 GHz described in [1] were upgraded, fabricated, and mea-
and in the current work. In the second suppression technique, sured; this was necessary to allow direct comparisons. The
the overlap between two parallel-coupled resonators was design process depends heavily on iterative simulations
adjusted for minimal coupling at the spurious frequencies, as because of the microstrip dispersion at the high-end of the
previously done in [11–16]. Thirdly, as in [17–19], wherever stop band, the large number of step discontinuities, the near-
two quarter-wavelength resonators were coupled with a capaci- neighbor spurious interactions, and the wide bandwidth pre-
tive pad or stub, higher order responses were suppressed or the clude useful simplifying approximations. However, the initial
stop band improved generally, since the pad is like a short design involved simulating smaller groups of pads and resona-
circuit at higher frequencies. Finally, resistive attenuation tors instead of the whole filter, which is one or two orders of
that is significant only in specific resonator modes [20–22] magnitude faster; together with a qualitative knowledge of
was adopted in one filter. A contrasting work on harmonic stub behavior and faster computers, it is a viable design
suppression is [23]: narrow band filters are designed and procedure.
shorted stubs are used, showing the wide range of this field. Both filters have the form given in Fig. 1. Coupling from
input to resonator A, from B to C, from D to E, and from F
to output are via capacitive step-impedance pads, while
Department of EESE, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, there is parallel coupling from A to B, C to D, and E to F. In
UK
Corresponding author:
filter 1, with no resistors, stop-band attenuation was improved
F. Huang from 33 [1] to 54 dB, while the stop-band width (previously
Email: f.huang@bham.ac.uk 1.4–6.3 GHz) was improved (to 1.5–8.9 GHz); this is a

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2 frederick huang

width increase of 1.5 times. For filter 2, with resistors, the


improvement in attenuation was from 50 to 67 dB, and the
stop-band width was 1.8 times wider. According to one
figure of merit to be discussed, the filters are 2.4 times better
than [1].

II. RESONATING STEP-IMPEDANCE


COUPLING PADS

The coupling pads (Fig. 1) are labeled A, BC, DE, and F


according to the resonators to which they are connected.
They have the shape of a T and an inverted T with their
bases connected to the resonators. In the pass band, they act
approximately as capacitances. A single, inverted T-shaped
pad is inset in Fig. 2.
In a simulation, the substrate thickness h is 0.3 mm, and
there is an overlay of h2 ¼ 1 mm [1] so that the medium is vir-
tually homogeneous, to avoid a complication of variable
effective permittivity. Dielectric constant is 10.2, and losses
are ignored. For comparisons, the effective pad areas should
Fig. 2. Normalized notch fractional bandwidth obtainable with rectangular
and step-impedance pads.

be equal for approximately equal pass-band coupling, in this


case 50 mm2. Due to the fringing electric fields, the effective
dimensions are larger than the physical sizes, accounted for
by adding an additional border of width h around the pad [1].
SONNETw simulations for step-impedance pads are com-
pared with rectangular pads [1] in Fig. 2. Notch center fre-
quency is varied by varying the pad dimensions. Yeff differs
significantly from a quarter wavelength as explained in [1]
for the rectangular pads and because of the step impedances
here. For each center frequency, Xeff and Yeff are not equal
among the different pads, but extreme sizes are Xeff ¼
2 mm, Yeff ¼ 33 mm on the left-hand side of the graph, and
Xeff ¼ 16 mm, Yeff ¼ 5 mm on the right. The normalized
notch fractional bandwidth is (1/S21B) (B/f0) as defined in
the inset. For h ¼ 0.3 mm, this differs from the normalization
in [1] by (coincidentally) a factor of 10.0.
Step-impedance pads can create a wider notch, up to 1.5
times that of the rectangular pad to suppress spurious reso-
nances. Equivalently, they can be said to be 3.5 dB deeper
over quite a large frequency band, as discussed in Section 4,
where the cumulative effect of more than one pad at any
single frequency can be large. The frequency at which the
maximum notch width occurs can be adjusted by varying
xeff ; for example, for yeff/Yeff ¼ 0.25, increasing xeff from
0.25Xeff to 0.5Xeff (changing from the blue to the green
curve). Small values of yeff are preferable, but may have to
be compromised by other design considerations. The notch
width increases rapidly toward the right-hand side of the
graph, but this is not useful because the depth of the notch
suddenly decreases and the pad is then sensitive to fabrication
errors.
At the higher order resonances, the step-impedance pads
resemble radial stubs [25, 26], but with step changes in
width. Using a larger yeff and forfeiting some of the available
suppression gives a narrow waist, which allows neighboring
Fig. 1. Layout of filter 1. In filter 2, the waists in stubs B to E are removed, with
resonators to overlap with the pads, making a more
the gaps to be bridged by chip resistors. Dimensions in mm. Gray squares show compact filter. They are shorter (in the Y direction) than the
positions of vias forming the side walls. uniform rectangles, which also reduces filter size.

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microstrip band-pass filter with 267 db stop band up to 8.8 times the pass-band center frequency 3

III. STAGGER TUNING USING order resonance, such as the fifth order illustrated, the stand-
STUBS ing wave pattern is subsumed by the pad, as shown, so these
resonances occur at lower frequencies than in the shorted
An isolated resonator, resonator C, for example (Fig. 3(a)), is ana- microstrip. In the extreme case, where the pad and microstrip
lyzed using transmission line theory, similar to [1, 10, 27, 28], widths are equal, the whole line becomes a uniform, half-wave
with the resistor and capacitor removed (shorted), and without resonator, and the higher order resonances occur at 2f0, 3f0,
resonator B. By selecting stub lengths and characteristic imped- 4f0,. . . instead of 3f0, 5f0, 7f0,. . . so the spacing between harmo-
ance, together with the tapping point, in trial and error calcula- nics is halved. In the resonator A, for example, the 11th-order
tions, the frequencies of the higher order resonances are resonance was shifted from 11 to 12.3 GHz because of the step
chosen. For one particular set of stubs, the resonances are impedance, then shifted back to about 9.1 GHz by the coup-
shown in Fig. 3(b). The resonance order is given for the resonator ling pads. Apart from widening the stop band, the SIRs may
with no stub, but for the others, the standing wave pattern is also enhance the stagger tuning by increasing the gaps
modified so it is not always easy to define the resonance order. between the resonances.
The effect on the first-order resonances at f0 is minimal, as Looking forward to the final design, the positions of the reso-
required. The third-order resonances near 3f0 are still close nances and zeroes found from simulations are given in Fig. 4,
together, but they will be attenuated by the other techniques. showing the expected significant deviation from Fig. 3. The
The higher order resonances are well spaced except in a few positions of the zeroes are adjusted to provide additional attenu-
cases especially near f/f0 ¼ 11, which will be dealt with by the ation. Higher order pad zeroes, and all the stub zeroes, are
step-impedance pads and with subsequent iterative adjustments. omitted because, with the pad and stub dimensions already
The capacitive coupling pads introduce a frequency change chosen, these zeroes are not under the control of the designer.
as illustrated in Figs 3(c) and 3(d). When one end of a micro-
strip resonator is shorted to earth, it resonates at a frequency f0
when it is a quarter-wavelength long (ignoring the impedance
step). However, when the short is replaced by a capacitor pad, IV. FILTER SIMULATIONS AND
the pad must have a finite voltage to absorb charge from the DESIGN
resonator, so the point of zero voltage is a short distance
along the microstrip, which must therefore be somewhat Two similar sixth-order filters with 1 GHz center frequency
longer for the same fundamental resonance. At a higher and 42% bandwidth were produced. As before [1], only the
second filter includes the resistive attenuation. For a new
filter, the design procedure would probably be similar to [1],
using design data from [29], but here, the device was produced
by substituting new pads and resonators into the previous
design. The substrate is 1.27 mm thick Duroid RT6010LM
with dielectric constant nominally 10.2 according to one
measurement technique [30], but as recommended by the
manufacturer’s latest data sheet [30], the dielectric constant
assumed is 1r ¼ 10.6 perpendicular and 13.33 parallel to the
surface. The input and output are 50 V lines with width

Fig. 3. (a) Transmission line approximation (resistor, capacitor, and Fig. 4. Zeroes and resonances of individual parts of the final filters. The
transmission lines) of resonators B and C. (b) Resonance frequencies of one combined response is shown in light blue. Squares in the resonator layouts
set of stagger-tuned resonators estimated analytically. Resonance order of indicate input and output. The vertical scale in dB applies only to the
the stub-free resonator is indicated. (c) Voltage standing wave patterns at combined response; vertical displacements of the points in the graph match
fundamental and fifth-order resonance for an earthed microstrip and (d) the legend. For resonators D and E, a blue cross at 2.3 GHz represents two
microstrip with one end connected to a pad. peaks which cannot be resolved.

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4 frederick huang

1.25 mm. The SIR resonators have two sections of widths


0.5 mm (72 V) and 2.25 mm (36 V), while the length of the
wide section is 5 mm and the total length is as shown
(Fig. 1). Stub dimensions are given in Fig. 3. The stubs have
narrow sections of width 0.5 or 1 mm and length 1 mm at
the taps, to minimize the magnetic field perturbation in the
main line. As in [1], the gap between C and D is 0.625 mm.
To avoid small simulation cell sizes, the separation between
resonators A and B is 0.25 mm over half the distance, and
0.375 mm over the other half, instead of a uniform
0.3125 mm.
The transmission zeroes introduced by the pads attenuated
resonances near 2.3, 5.8 and 7.8 GHz. When making stop-
band adjustments, the pad effective area was kept constant
to minimize the effect on pass-band coupling coefficient [1].
For example, xeff and yeff can be varied keeping xeffyeff,
Yeff2yeff and Xeff constant. This changes the pad inductance,
which has much more effect in the stop band than in the
pass band. Alternatively, Xeff and xeff can be changed, also
keeping the pad area constant.
For the pass band, external Qs (quality factors) and coup-
ling factors kBC and kDE were adjusted by varying the pad Fig. 5. Simulated and measured responses of filter 1, without resistors.
areas. When yeff ≈ Yeff/2, the stop-band variation is mini-
mized by varying yeff, while keeping Yeff constant, as implied
by data in [2]. From Fig. 1, the condition yeff ≈ Yeff/2 is not
well satisfied, but this assumption was acceptable considering suppression up to the ninth order, the stagger tuning
that the border to allow for edge effects changes Yeff but not yeff extends the stop band by 1.5 GHz. Use of the SIR contri-
(as seen in Fig. 2), that is, yeff ¼ y but Yeff . Y. This condition butes a similar amount, and the cumulative effect is
also leaves pads BC and DE with a sub-optimal value of yeff substantial.
(which should have been as small as possible, as previously A comparison between rectangular and step-impedance
described). pads in complete filters showed that the latter used only
The filter enclosures are modified by 0.5 mm2 vias as the 70% as much substrate area. It also showed a few dB of
side walls, extending from the ground plane to the roof, improvement, but the positions of the zeroes were completely
8 mm above the substrate. The positions are shown by the rearranged, so the improvement could well have been due to a
gray squares in Fig. 1. The minimum distance from a pad or different combination of resonances and zeroes; these incon-
resonator is 2.5 mm, while the maximum spacing between clusive results are not presented.
wires is 5.5 mm (a sixth of a wavelength at 8.9 GHz, the end Instead, the notches provided by pads A and F are com-
of the stop band), with smaller spacing near the convex pared in simulations with rectangular pads in Fig. 7. The rect-
corners where the field is maximum. According to simula- angular pads were adjusted iteratively to have the same notch
tions, this box resonates at 9.7 GHz, which gives a small frequency and the same pass-band center value of S21 as their
error margin. The enclosure is vital to avoid long-distance respective step-impedance replacements. The dominant
coupling, for example, between resonators A and F. Signal feature of a rectangular or step-impedance pad is the notch,
suppression is by reflection and absorption, not radiation: in but when they are compared, the subtraction leaves a broad
addition to the rows of vias, there is a rectangular, outer, band improvement by the new pads. The two pads combine
metal box provided by the software which completely encloses to give a maximum of about 12 dB at 8.2 GHz, in a region
each filter. A commercial implementation is more likely to be of less widely spaced resonances (Fig. 4), that is, where they
a metal-coated, plastic box with the same shape as the wire are not so well staggered and yet need a relatively broadband
skeleton box. suppression method to cover about 12 resonances, equivalent
The simulated response of filter 1 is shown as the blue to suppressing two harmonics in a filter with no stagger
dashed line in Fig. 5 (together with measured results to be dis- tuning. The average is 5 dB of the total 20 dB simulated
cussed in later sections). No spurious responses rise higher improvement over 1.5–9 GHz, a wider stop band than [1].
than 259 dB, up to 9.0 GHz. For filter 2 (Fig. 6(a)), the simu- Suppression by reduced resonator coupling is discussed
lated suppression level is 269 dB up to 8.9 GHz, assuming approximately in [10].
flip-chip resistors with the resistive film on the underside of For the spurious resonances at 2.3 and 2.6 GHz, a graph
the ceramic chips, and a 0.1 mm air gap between the resistive similar to Fig. 7 (not shown) suggests an improvement of
film and the copper tracks. Simulated pass-band S21 is shown 1 and 3 dB, respectively, by the combined effect of pads
in Fig. 6(b). The increase in attenuation due to the resistance is BC and DE. The overall improvement is difficult to estimate
shown for both inverted and non-inverted chips, showing that because it involves comparing deep higher order notches.
in both cases the additional resistors increase loss by an To summarize, the improved stagger tuning therefore con-
average of only 0.03 dB, half as much as [1]. tributes most of the improvement in suppression, with a sig-
The improvement contributed by each individual tech- nificant contribution from the pads A and F (Fig. 6(a)). The
nique was estimated approximately. Comparison with an transmission zeroes of pads BC and DE, together with the
earlier simulation (not shown) suggests that, by including overlap transmission zeroes, can be concentrated on the

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microstrip band-pass filter with 267 db stop band up to 8.8 times the pass-band center frequency 5

Fig. 7. Comparison between rectangular and step-impedance shapes for pads


A and F. Dotted green line in the layout shows the modified rectangle to
achieve a mean rectangle height of 4.9375 mm without using small cell sizes.

resonator in the small groove between screw and spacer, simu-


lated and measured results showing resonance at 7.5 GHz;
even a 1 mm deep groove has this resonance because (a) it
is a radial resonator, (b) the dielectric fills the gap, and (c)
the field can bulge outside the gap. This explains why the
spacers in [1] were replaced by wires. The remaining spacers
do not form part of the enclosure. The assumption that the
suppression is not due to radiation was confirmed by wrap-
ping the filter in aluminum foil: there was negligible change
in performance. (Contact between the foil and the rest of
the enclosure was unreliable, but tolerable for this single
measurement.)
The resistive films were originally on the top of each
3.2 mm × 1.6 mm chip, about 0.5 mm above the filter sub-
strate, making additional space for the magnetic field and
Fig. 6. (a) Simulated and measured responses of filter 2, with 4.7 V resistors.
(The legend in Fig. 5 also applies here.) Inset: skeleton representation of a shifting some of the resonances downwards, which compro-
flip-chip resistor. (b). Increase in pass-band loss due to resistors, and mised the stagger tuning. Therefore, on a second copy of
pass-band S11 and S22. filter 2, the chips were soldered upside-down as an approxi-
mation for flip chips.
The response of filter 1, without resistors, is given in Fig. 5.
lowest frequency spurious response, which was dominant in a Compared with [1], the stop-band level has been decreased
previous filter [1]. from 233 to 254 dB, and the upper pass-band limit
improved from 6.3 to 8.9 GHz. In filter 2, with 4.7 V resistors,
the attenuation is increased from 250 to 267 dB, and stop-
V. FILTER MEASUREMENTS band limit from 5.6 to 8.8 GHz. A 5% frequency error
present in [1, 10, 21, 22] has been resolved by using the new
The two filters were fabricated using standard PCB etching by values of relative permittivity.
a commercial supplier. A photograph of the complete filter is The average deterioration in pass-band loss due to the
given in Fig. 8. The vias are 0.56 mm diameter wires (24 SWG, resistors was confirmed to be 0.03 dB by comparing pass-band
British “Standard Wire Gauge”) and the roof is 150 m copper magnitude before and after changing from 0 V bridges to the
sheet. The inset shows a screw and a spacer forming a 4.7 V resistors (Fig. 6(b)), in the earlier run where the chips

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6 frederick huang

Dimensions in guided
wavelengths

0.21 × 0.05

0.29 × 0.25
0.07 × 0.08

0.29 × 0.25

0.85 × 0.18
1.5 × 0.15

1.0 × 0.17
0.5 × 0.5

0.4 × 0.5
0.7 × 0.4

1.5 × 0.4
Stop-band
limit†

5.2f0
4.5f0
2.5f0
3.0f0
3.2f0
4.3f0
9.4f0

2.4f0
2.8f0

5.6f0
8.8f0
Stop-band attenuation
Table 1. Some wide pass-band filters with harmonic suppression (partly taken from [1]).

(dB)

15
20
28
31
37
38
40

48
50

50
67
order
Filter

5
2
3
5
5
4
7

5
5

6
6
Pass-band width
(%)

95
28
30
97
22
46
20

30
22

42
42
Center frequency f0
(GHz)

5.8
2.2
3.3
6.6

2.5
1
1
1

1
1

Fig. 8. The fully assembled filter 2 (filter 1 is similar). Inset (blue) shows a
resonator formed in the groove between a screw and a spacer.
w/h or g/h∗

Smallest width-to-substrate-thickness or gap-to-thickness ratio.


0.08

0.11

0.13

were not inverted. This measurement was not repeated for


0.7
0.2
0.4
0.3

0.4

0.2
0.2
1§

}Stepped impedance resonator and interdigital capacitor.

flip chips because of likely damage from repeated soldering.


A typical network analyzer drift over the time taken to
2.5

3.6
4.7

4.4
1r

re-solder the resistors is 0.007 dB. The box walls were not
10
11

10

10

10
10
3

yet assembled, to allow rapid re-soldering of the resistors.


S11 and S22 are included in Fig. 6(b); they are not identical
Step impedance/capacitive

Stagger tuning with stubs/

because the filter is lossy and not perfectly symmetrical.


Stagger tuning with stubs

§Estimated from a small photograph.


Mechanism

†The center of the pass band is f0.


Position of tap input

Line width notches


Loaded 908 line

Loaded 908 line


Loaded 908 line

SIR and IDC}

‡DC band not suppressed.


Combination
Combination

VI. COMPARISONS WITH RECENT


resistors
loading

WORK

The filters were made similar to [1], so that valid comparisons


can be made. A crude figure of merit can be obtained consid-
This work

ering two reference filters each with stop-band width Bs and


[31]‡

[33]‡

attenuation as dB, separated by an isolator (which allows the


[32]

[34]
[10]
[35]
[24]

[36]
[28]
Ref

[1]

signal to pass in one direction only). If the two stop bands are

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microstrip band-pass filter with 267 db stop band up to 8.8 times the pass-band center frequency 7

adjacent, the combined stop-band width is 2Bs, and a new filter [2] Lin, S.-C.; Deng, P.-H.; Lin, Y.-S.; Wang, C.-H.; Chen, C.H.:
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strate area, subject to diminishing returns as noted in [1].
[14] Afkhami, A.; Askari, G.; Kordzadeh, A.; Sadeghi, H.M.: Second and
third harmonic suppression in parallel coupled line filter using
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VII. CONCLUSION 2010, 759–762.

Spurious responses for wide band microstrip filters were effect- [15] Sanchez-Soriano, M.A.; Torregrosa-Penalva, G.; Bronchalo, E.:
ively suppressed with a new combination of techniques, giving a Multispurious suppression in parallel-coupled line filters by means
of coupling control. IET Microw. Antennas Propag., 6 (2012),
greater stop-band width and attenuation. The advantage of a
1269–1276.
step-impedance pad was also discussed. The filters are larger
than chip filters, but compared with other distributed filters, [16] Huang, X.D.; Cheng, C.H.: A novel microstrip dual-mode bandpass
the resonators are significantly smaller than a quarter wave- filter with harmonic suppression. IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon.
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narrow waists which allow space for the resonators, shortening [17] Lee, J.-R.; Cho, J.-H.; Yun, S.-W.: New compact bandpass filter using
the filter compared with [1]. There is scope for reducing the microstrip l/4 resonators with open stub inverter. IEEE Microw.
width of the filter further by finding more compact pads. Guid. Wave Lett., 10 (2000), 526–527.

[18] Zhu, L.; Menzel, W.: Compact microstrip bandpass filter with two
transmission zeros using a stub-tapped half-wavelength line reson-
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combination of techniques. IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., 63 pass filter with tunable transmission zeros. IET Microw. Antennas
(2015), 3453–3461. Propag., 2 (2008), 373–377.

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using lossy parasitic resonators. IET Microw. Antennas Propag., 4 second harmonics suppression using open-stubs, in Proc. of the
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[21] Huang, F.: Suppression of microstrip filter spurious responses using [32] Nie, W.; Luo, S.; Guo, Y.; Fan, Y.: Compact bandpass filter with
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Propag., 6 (2012), 1128–1135. [34] Shaman, H.N.; Hong, J.-S.: Compact wideband bandpass filter with
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narrow band with an extended optimal rejection bandwidth. IEEE [35] Liang, C.-H.; Chang, C.-Y.: Compact wideband bandpass filters
Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., 62 (2014), 3380–3392. using stepped-impedance resonators and interdigital coupling struc-
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enhanced stopband performances. IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory [36] Marimuthu, J.; Esa, M.: Wideband and harmonic suppression
Tech., 53 (2005), 3774–3781. method of parallel coupled microstrip bandpass filter using
centred single groove, in Proc. of the 2007 IEEE Int. Conf. on
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Microw. Theory Tech., MTT-31 (1983), 488–491. Penang, Malaysia, 2007, 622–626.
[26] Giannini, F.; Sorrentino, R.; Vrba, J.: Planar circuit analysis of micro-
strip radial stub. IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., 32 (1984), Frederick Huang received the B.A. and
1652–1655. D. Phil degrees in Engineering Science
[27] Mondal, P.; Mandal, M.K.: Design of dual-band bandpass filters
from the University of Oxford in 1980
using stub-loaded open-loop resonators. IEEE Trans. Microw. and 1984. From 1989 to 2015, he was a
Theory Tech., 56 (2008), 150–155. lecturer with the University of Birming-
ham, where after retirement he became
[28] Huang, F.: Suppression of spurious responses in microstrip half- an honorary research fellow.
wavelength filters combining stagger tuning and resistive attenu- Previous research interests are sur-
ation. Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., 58 (2016), 1955–1957.
face acoustic wave (SAW) dot array
[29] Matthaei, G.; Young, L.; Jones, E.M.T.: Microwave Filters, pulse compressors, analogue voice scramblers, Langmuir-
Impedance-Matching Networks, and Coupling Structures, Artech Blodgett films, SAW and superconducting linear phase and
House, Norwood, MA, 1980, pages 100, 432–666. chirp filter synthesis using inverse scattering, slow-wave struc-
[30] General information of dielectric constant for RT/duroidw
tures, superconducting quasi-lumped element filters, switched
6010.2LM & RO3010TM High frequency circuit materials, http:// filters and delay lines, together with microstrip and waveguide
www.rogerscorp.com/documents/2379/acs/General-Information-of- discontinuities. The main current interests are spiral band-
Dielectric-Constant-for-RT-duroid-6010.2LM-RO3010-High-Frequ pass filters and filter harmonic suppression.
ency-Circuit-Materials.pdf. Accessed Sep 2014. Dr. Huang is a member of the IET (UK).

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https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1759078717000939

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