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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.
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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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microstrip band-pass filter with 267 db stop band up to 8.8 times the pass-band center frequency 5
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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∗
0.11
0.13
0.4
0.2
0.2
1§
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
WORK
[33]‡
[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.:
with width 2Bs should have twice the figure of merit of a refer- Wide-stopband microstrip bandpass filters using dissimilar quarter-
ence filter. If the two reference filters have coincident pass bands, wavelength step-impedance resonators. IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory
then the attenuation is 2as dB, and a new filter with this level of Tech., 54 (2006), 1011–1018.
attenuation should also have twice the figure of merit. The 2as [3] Chen, C.-F.; Huang, T.-Y.; Wu, R.-B.: Design of microstrip bandpass
dB applies only if the worst-case peaks of the two reference filters with multiorder spurious-mode suppression. IEEE Trans.
filters are coincident. If the isolator is also omitted, the reference Microw. Theory Tech., 53 (2005), 3788–3793.
filters are not terminated with 50 V (or other system imped-
[4] Makimoto, M.; Yamashita, S.: Half-wavelength-type SIR, in Itoh, K.
ance) in the stop band and the attenuation may be much less. and Sakurai, T. (eds.), Microwave Resonators and Filters for Wireless
Subject to these limitations, a figure of merit is asBs/f0, where Communications, Springer Verlag, Berlin, 2001, 65–106.
the pass-band center frequency could optionally be included
to allow comparison of frequency-scaled filters. [5] Makimoto, M.; Yamashita, S.: Bandpass filters using parallel coupled
One of the main original improvements of this work com- stripline stepped impedance resonators. IEEE Trans. Microw.
Theory Tech., MTT-28 (1980), 1413–1417.
pared with [1] is the introduction of the step-impedance pads
to the combination of suppression methods; on their own they [6] Tu, W.-H.; Li, H.; Michalski, K.A.; Chang, K.: Microstrip open-loop
contribute an estimated 37 GHz-dB (arbitrary units) of add- ring bandpass filter using open stubs for harmonic suppression, in
itional attenuation (Fig. 6(a)). This compares favorably IEEE MTT-S Int. Microwave Symp. Dig., San Francisco, 2006.
against a typical improvement by suppressing one harmonic
[7] Hsu, K.-W.; Tsou, M.-J.; Tseng, Y.-H.; Tu, W.-H.: Wide-stopband
using one suppression method, which offers a similar suppres- bandpass filter with symmetrical loaded-stub resonators, in Proc.
sion to the 0.8 GHz by 29 dB rectangle near 9 GHz in Fig. 6(a), Asia-Pacific Microwave Conf., Melbourne. Curran Associates, Inc.,
an area of 23 GHz-dB; the step-impedance pads increase Red Hook, NY, USA, 2011.
attenuation by one-and-a-half times more than this.
This figure is dwarfed by the overall improvement in the two [8] Griol, A.; Marti, J.; Sempere, L.: Microstrip multistage coupled ring
bandpass filters using spur-line filters for harmonic suppression.
filters, which have a figure of merit 2.4 times the corresponding
Electron. Lett., 37 (2001), 572–573.
filters in [1]. Except for the more complex shape, there are no
changes in technological requirements, for example, [9] Hong, S.; Chang, K.: A parallel-coupled microstrip bandpass filter
minimum line widths. Other previous harmonic suppression with suppression of both the 2nd and the 3rd harmonic responses,
techniques available in the literature are compared in Table 1. in IEEE MTT-S Int. Microwave Symp. Dig., San Francisco, 2006.
Some of the data are very approximate, having been read off [10] Huang, F.: Suppression of harmonics in microstrip filters with
graphs and photographs, or estimated from other data. In stagger tuning and voltage redistributions. IEEE Trans. Microw.
some cases, the stop-band limit is the highest frequency given Theory Tech., 62 (2014), 464–471.
in a graph, which may not do justice to the filter. The present
filter 2 has by far the highest stop-band attenuation, and [11] Kuo, J.-T.; Chen, S.-P.; Jiang, M.: Parallel-coupled microstrip filters
with over-coupled end stages for suppression of spurious responses.
nearly the highest stop-band limit. The relatively large size
IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., 13 (2003), 440–442.
and long, thin shape are a price for the higher performance.
Finally, in filter 1, the ratio of stop-band depth to pass-band [12] Cheong, P.; Fok, S.-W.; Tam, K.-W.: Miniaturized parallel couple-
loss (in dB) is 54. Cascading a second such filter, using an line bandpass filter with spurious-response suppression. IEEE
isolator as above, the stop-band and pass-band losses increase Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., 53 (2005), 1810–1816.
in the same ratio. However, when adding the resistors, the [13] Riddle, A.: High performance parallel coupled microstrip filters, in
ratio of the increases is 400:1; the resistors increase stop- 1988 IEEE MTT-S Int. Microwave Symp. Digest, New York, 1988,
band depth without unduly increasing pass-band loss or sub- 427–430.
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
sliding coupling, in Proc. 40th European Microwave Conf., Paris,
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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strip radial stub. IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., 32 (1984), Frederick Huang received the B.A. and
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[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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