A New Triple-Mode Microstrip Bandpass Filter
Using a Patch-Loaded Cross Resonator
Runqi Zhang and Lei Zhu
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Abstract — A microstrip triple-mode bandpass filter using a
single patch-loaded cross resonator is reported in this work.
First, a square patch is added at the center of a cross resonator,
which separates the resonant frequencies of the first and second
modes. Then, a pair of slots is etched into the square patch, which
splits the first pair of degenerate modes. By appropriately
adjusting the patch size and the slot length, these three resonant
modes are individually controlled. To feed the proposed
resonator, two stub-loaded coupled lines are used to provide a
required coupling degree and to suppress the lowest harmonic
passband. Predicted results are well confirmed with the
experimental ones.
Index Terms — Microstrip bandpass filter, patch-loaded cross
resonator, stub-loaded coupled line, triple-mode resonator.
I. INTRODUCTION
Triple-mode bandpass filters for RF/microwave applications
have been intensively studied recently. Cavity types of triple-
mode resonators and filters are first been researched to
achieve both compact size and sharp rejection skirt near the
passband [1]. However, the cavity-based filter is still bulky
and difficult to be integrated with other planar microwave
circuits. To solve this shortcoming, planar types of triple-
mode resonators have been used to design bandpass filters
with relatively narrow fractional bandwidth [2]-[6]. In [2], a
cross resonator with two dissimilar vertical stubs has been
proposed to produce a passband with three transmission poles
and two transmission zeros above and below the passband. In
[3]-[4], two modified stub-loaded triple-mode resonators are
proposed to achieve an improved spurious rejection
performance. However, due to the cross-junction effect
involved with this type of resonators, the upper and lower
stubs are designed in dissimilar shapes to properly distribute
the locations of the three modes, which complicate the filter
design. In [5], a square loop resonator placed inside a metallic
cavity makes up an alternative triple-mode bandpass filter by
lowering down the TM210 mode of the cavity. However, the
multi-layer structure of this filter adds the complexity and
cost. A circular patch resonator etched by four radial-oriented
slots has been proposed in [6], where the first pair of
degenerate modes and the third-order mode are utilized. But
this filter has no DC-block effect and is difficulty with
bandwidth adjustment as the resonator is directly connected to
the feed lines.
In this paper, a new patch-loaded cross resonator, as shown
in Fig.1, is proposed for a triple-mode bandpass filter design.
Compared with the works in [2]-[6], the proposed resonator
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Ws
Ls
Wp Lc
Wc
Port 1 Port 2
Fig. 1. Schematic of the proposed patch-loaded cross resonator,
where Ls and Ws are the stub length and width of the initial cross
resonator, Wp the square patch width, Wc and Lc the width and
length of the slot.
has a symmetrical structure and concise layout, leading to a
simple filter design process. By loading a small square patch
in the center of a cross resonator, the first two modes can be
gradually separated. To excite the first pair of degenerate
modes simultaneously, a pair of slots is symmetrically etched
into the patch. Then, the proposed triple-mode bandpass filter
is analyzed and designed using the transversal coupling
scheme. Stub-loaded coupled lines are used to feed the
resonator and to suppress the lowest harmonic passband.
Finally, the prototype filter is fabricated and measured, which
verifies the design principle. The designs are on a substrate
with a relative dielectric constant of 10.8, thickness of 50 mils,
and copper thickness of 0.017 mm.
II. TRIPLE-MODE PATCH-LOADED CROSS RESONATOR
The schematic of the proposed patch-loaded cross resonator
with a pair of slots etched is depicted in Fig. 1. First, a square
patch is added on a uniform cross resonator (Lc=0 mm). Due
to the symmetrical topology, the electromagnetic fields of the
first pair of the two degenerate modes (Mode 1_1 and Mode
1_II) are distributed and oriented along the two orthogonal
strips. They resonate at the same frequency, but are isolated
with each other. For a uniform cross resonator (Wp=0 mm)
with the cross junction effect involved [7], the resonant
frequency of Mode 1 is higher than that of Mode 2. As Wp
increases, this cross junction effect is enlarged, causing the
spacing between the resonant frequencies of Mode 1 and
Mode 2 to increase gradually, as shown in Fig. 2(a). While,
978-1-4673-1088-8/12/$31.00 ©2012 IEEE
 2.5 3 M.W.

f3/f1 2.8 M.W.

2
f1
fi/f1, i=1, 2, 3

2.6

f1 (GHz)
1.5
2.4
f2/f1
(a) (b) (c)
1 Fig. 3. The current distributions of the first three modes (a) Mode
f1/f1 2.2 1_I. (b) Mode 1_II and (c) Mode 2. “⊙” and “⊕” represent the
points where the electrical fields are strongest, and they are
0.5 2 perpendicular to the paper but in reverse direction. “--” stands for the
0 2 4 6 8 10 M.W. (Magnetic Wall) and “←→” resembles the current flow
Wp (mm)
patterns.
(a)
MS1 1 ML1 Source/Load
Lc=0.6 mm
0 Lc=1.0 mm
1 Mode 1_I (Odd Mode)
Lc=1.4 mm S MS2 2 ML2 L
−10
2 Mode 1_II (Even Mode)
MS3 3 ML3
3 Mode 2 (Odd Mode)
|S21| (dB)

−20 Fig. 4. Transversal coupling scheme of the proposed triple-mode

filter.

−30 the center of the patch, the slots have little influence on its
resonant frequency as well.
−40
2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5
Frequency (GHz) III. FILTER DESIGN AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
(b) Fig. 4 shows the transversal coupling scheme of the
Fig. 2. (a) Resonant frequency ratios of Mode 1 (f1), Mode 2 (f2)
and Mode 3 (f3) over f1 and the resonant frequency of f1 versus patch proposed triple-mode filter design. As illustrated in Fig. 3(a-
size (Wp) (Ws=0.4 mm and Ls=27.2 mm). (b) |S21| responses of c), the current distributions of Mode 1_I, Mode 1_II and Mode
varied slot lengths (Lc) (Wc=0.4 mm and Wp=3.0 mm). 2 is odd-, even- and odd-symmetrical with respect to their
vertical symmetrical planes (or the feed ports), respectively.
Mode 3 drops down monotonously, which makes up the Accordingly, their coupling coefficients to source/load satisfy
spurious passband and would be discussed later. with the conditions: MS1 = -ML1, MS2 = ML2 and MS3 = -ML3.
Then, a pair of slots is etched into the patch to split the The coupling matrix of this triple-mode filter can be obtained
resonant frequencies of the degenerate pair of Mode 1. Fig. by [8]:
2(b) illustrates the transmission coefficients as the slots are
⎡ 0 0.681 0.539 0.607 0 ⎤
introduced into the patch. As the slot length increases, the ⎢0.681 0.935 0 0 − 0.681⎥
resonant frequency of Mode 1_I drops to a lower value M = ⎢0.539 0 − 3.83 0 0.539 ⎥. (1)
gradually, while the ones of Mode 1_II and Mode 2 keep ⎢0.607 0 0 −1.476 − 0.607⎥
⎢⎣ 0 − 0.681 0.539 − 0.607 0 ⎥⎦
almost unchanged. Therefore, by changing the patch size and
the slot length, Mode 2 and Mode 1_I can be adjusted,
Based on the characteristics of the transversal coupling
respectively.
scheme, as discussed in [3]-[6], the resonant frequency of a
Fig. 3(a) to (c) show the current distributions for the three
certain mode, fi, is usually different from the center frequency
modes described above. The current distributions of the two
of the filter, fo. These two values are used to determine the
degenerate modes are distorted by the slots, causing them to
diagonal element, Mii, in the coupling matrix by the following
rotate and distribute along both the crossed strips, as shown in
equation:
Fig. 3(a) and (b). For Mode 1_I, the slots block the surface
current, therefore brings down its resonant frequency, as M ii × Δf
f i = f o (1 − ), i = 1, 2, 3. (2)
depicted in Fig. 3(a). Meanwhile, the current distribution of 2 fo
Mode 1_II is hardly affected by the slots, as illustrated in Fig.
3(b). For Mode 2, whose current distribution concentrates in where △f is the absolute bandwidth of the filter.

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 0
|S11|
−10
|S21|

−20

|S11|, |S21| (dB)

Ws

Lst −30
S
Port 1 Port 2 −40
Lcl
−50 Measurement
(a) EM simulation
0 Coupling matrix calculation
−60
1 2 3 4 5 6
−10 Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 6. Frequency responses of the measurement, EM simulation

−20 and coupling matrix .
|S21| (dB)

−30
−40
−50 Lst=3.5 mm
Lst=5.5 mm
Lst=7.5 mm
−60
1 2 3 4 5 6
Frequency (GHz)
(b)
Fig. 5. (a) The layout and (b) Simulated |S21| responses of the stub-
loaded coupled line filters under different stub lengths (Lst).
Based on the above discussion on the patch loaded cross
resonator, the lowest three modes are used for the filter design
by properly selecting the patch size and the slot length to
quasi-equally distribute them in the passband. The prototype
filter uses two stub-loaded coupled lines as feed lines to both
achieve a desired coupling degree and suppress the lowest
harmonic passband caused by Mode 3 (seen in Fig. 2(b)). Fig.
5(a) illustrates the layout of the proposed filter, and Fig. 5(b)
shows the simulated |S21| responses under different stub
lengths. As the length Lst increases, a transmission zero is
moved towards the lower frequency, thus suppressing the
harmonic passband around 4.2 GHz.
The final dimension of the filter is Ws=0.4 mm, Ls=27.2
mm, Wp=3.0 mm, Wc=0.4 mm, Lc=1.4 mm, Ws=0.4 mm,
Lst=7.6 mm, Lcl=6.5 mm and S=0.2 mm. The measured
results agree well with the EM simulated and the coupling
matrix derived ones, as depicted in Fig. 6. The measured
results show a passband with a center frequency of 2.15 GHz,
3-dB fractional bandwidth of 11.1%, insertion loss less than
2.15 dB, and 35 dB rejection around the first harmonic band.
IV. CONCLUSION
A new triple-mode microstrip bandpass filter using a slotted
patch-loaded cross resonator has been proposed. The two
lowest degenerate modes and the third lowest mode are
excited by installing a slotted patch in the center of a cross
resonator. Based on the discussion of the proposed patch-
loaded cross resonator, a prototype bandpass filter fed by the
stub-loaded coupled lines is analyzed and designed. Measured
and simulated results are in good agreement, which verifies
the design principle.
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