Ku-band waveguide band-pass filter with iris radius

Lahcen yechou1,Abdelwahed Tribak1,Mohamed Kacim1 Jamal zbitou2, Angel Mediavilla3

1. National Institute of Posts and Telecommunications (INPT) 2 .Polydisciplinary faculty of Khouribga-Morocco
Rabat-Morocco 3 .University of Cantabria- Spain
Lahcen.yechou@gmail.com

Abstract—This paper presents the design, simulation, and II. DESIGN OF THE FILTER
implementation of band pass filters in rectangular waveguides We present the design procedure of the band-pass filters
with radius, having 0.1dB pass band ripple and 6.3% ripple at the based on rectangular waveguides by a using the parameters ai
center frequency of 14.2 GHz. A Mician microwave wizard
software based on the Mode Matching Method (MMM) was used of inverter impedance corresponding to discontinuities in
to simulate the structure of the filter. Simulation and measured waveguides from the elements of the prototype Chebyshev.
results show the validity of the waveguide band pass filter design
method. This method consists in determining the lengths li between
the discontinuities and its dimensions [2].
Keywords- waveguide rectangular filter; band pass filter; iris; The whole structure of the filter is modeled by shunt
radius element separated by cavities with the value of each shunt
element and lengths of the cavities are determined theoretically
I. INTRODUCTION on the next section.
The filtering is an electronic function having the function of The coupling sections are represented by impedance
eliminating a frequency or frequency band, and conversely, for inverters.
passing a frequency or a frequency band.
The waveguide technology is based on the use of
rectangular or circular waveguides, dielectric resonators or
metal cavities. These technologies are most suitable for
filtering high-power signals due to their low loss requirement.
There is s several filtering structures waveguide reported in
the literature among of them [1],[2]:
i. Filter resonator-coupled:
These filters are made of a series resonators type separated
by inductive or capacitive iris operating as an impedance
Figure 1. prototype low-pass filter with impedance inverters
inverter.
ii. filter evanescent modes: Waveguide representation:
These kinds are operating based on coupled resonator in a
sub cutoff waveguide.ie, not propagating for all
electromagnetic field modes inside the resonators.
iii. E-plan filters:
Generally, E-plan filters are the band-pass, they are
characterized by their high accuracy, operating in a judicious
chose of coupling elements or dimensions of the cavities, they
are characterized by a strong attenuation in the rejection band.
In this paper, we present the design procedure of the Figure 2. Equivalent circuit of a rectangular waveguide filter
rectangular waveguide filter with symmetric iris
discontinuities. It provides a very good performance along with The equation describing the parameter ai and li are given
a compact size as well as easy manufacturability. by:
 with
K 01  
 
Z0 2 g0 g11' g  g c c
g  2 1
, g  , ( f c )TE10 
2 f f 2a
0 2 2
c

K j , j 1   Where: a is the waveguide input port

  length, c  3.10 m / s and f is the frequency in GHz.
8
Z0 j 1, n 1
2 g j g j 11'
Up to now we have determining the whole geometry
With dimensions of the initial structure. The next step is
implementation of this geometry dimensions in the simulation
Ki , j 1 : Impedance inverters software in order to obtain the required specification.

g0 , g1 ,...g n : Value of Chebyshev prototype III. FILTER SPECIFICATIONS

Z 0 : Impedance of the rectangular waveguide The filter to be designed is a Tchebyshev band-pass filter in
the Ku-band [12-15] GHz frequency range. For this reason, the
1' : Parameter of Chebyshev prototype standard waveguide used for this purpose is WR75 with section
dimensions 19.05x9.525mm.
The values of g i are given in Table below: The central frequency of the filter was determined with
respect to single mode propagation. Hence, according to the
waveguide dimensions, the first propagating mode is the TE10
mode with a cutoff frequency of 7.869GHz. Finally, a
Lar  40dB rejection level was required:

a. The values of gi

While the lengths of the shunt reactors and cavities are

calculated from the following equations:

K j , j 1
X j , j 1 Figure 3. Band passes filter specifications.
Z0
 2

Z0  Kj , j  1  The frequency of the rejection band is determining by:
1  
 Z0  
f r  1.2.(1  ). f 0 
2
1  2 X j 1, j  1 
2 X j , j 1  
f 2  f1
 j     tan 1    tan     Where  is the filter relative bandwidth  
2  Z0   Z0  f0
f 2  f1
The distance between each pairs of discontinuities can be and f 0  .
obtained as: 2
The filter specifications are depicted in Figure 3.
g 0 The first design step consists in the determination of the
lj  . j 
2 order of the equivalent low-pass filter prototype, which is the
base-network for filter synthesis, whatever the filter type is, The first step of the design was done with the structure in
high-pass, band-pass or stop-band. rectangular waveguide in H plane symmetric iris.

It is well known that low pass prototype filter can be

transformed into band pass response using the frequency
substitution:

1  0
   (  ) 
'

 0 
Where  is the fractional bandwidth of the pass band, and
0 the center frequency. Application of this transformation
'
with   r , determining the value of
 t : Thickness of the waveguide.
The filter order is determined using charts [1], [2]:
Figure 6. Cross section of a rectangular waveguide with a symmetrical iris
l1 , l2 , l3 : lengths of the resonator.
a1 , a2 , a3 , a4 : dimensions of the iris.
1 .
After the determination of the dimensions that meets the
required specifications, we will find a new structure with radius
to facilitate the mechanical implementation.
The new structure becomes as follows: Radius

Figure 4. 0.10-db-ripple Chebyshev filter characteristics Figure 7. Cross section of a rectangular waveguide with radius

For the specified criterion a 5th-order filter is necessary. With: li  lold  2.r 
The base low pass prototype network is depicted in Fig.4.
r : Radius, lold : Value determining in figure 6.
Where normalized inductance and capacitance values
li : Value of the new structure
assumed to be the Chebyshev coefficients g i .

Figure 5. Low pass prototype filters for Chebyshev function

Thus, the elements of odd order, i.e., g1, g3, g5 are series Figure 8. Filter structure studied in 3D.
inductances and are in Henry, while the elements of even order
g2, g4, g6 are shunt capacitances and their values given by the The simulated results of waveguide filter mentioned in
formulas in Farad. figure.8 are shown in figure.9. There is a good agreement
g1 g2 g3 g4 g5 g6=g0 between the simulation results and our design goal expected by
1.1468 1.3712 1.9750 1.3712 1.1468 1 the theoretical method.
b.Element values for Chebyshev low pass prototype filter (Wc=1 for pass band ripple Lar=0.1dB)

Figure 9. simulated result of the waveguide band pass filter
The simulated S-parameters along with the measured
results are shown in figure 9 and 10 respectively.
The measured results are in good agreement with the
simulation prediction. The measured return and insertion losses
are about 30dB and 0.2747 in the entire frequency bandwidth
ranging from 13.7 GHz to 14.6GHZ which represents a
fractional band width of 6.3%.
Figure 10. measured results
To validate the previous concepts, a device prototype was
achieved for Ku-band by using milling technique based on
Alumina -6850. The measurement has been taken with a 2-port
network analyzer PNAE8364A from Agilent technology.
For this reason, a WR75 TRL (Thru-Reflected-Line) was
carried out to calibrate the VNA.
Comparing the two results, there was a slight augmentation
of parameter in case of the measured results due to mechanical
implementation and due to the non ideality of the materiel.
Figure 11. Photograph of band pass filter with radius in Ku-band.
CONCLUSION
In this paper, the design and fabrication of a waveguide
band-pass filter with radius at center frequency of 14.2 GHz
was described. The simulation and measured results verified
that the software based in the mode matching method is
efficient and accurate to design waveguide technology filter.
The resulting filter has extremely good performances which
can be achieved in mass-production. This is due to the
simplicity of its design. Moreover, a yield analysis has been
carried out allowing mechanical tolerance that validates the
compactness and robustness of the design in Ku-band.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank the staff members of the
STRS Laboratory of INPT in RABAT for providing the facility
and technical assistance in this research.
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