Journal of Circuits, Systems, and Computers

Vol. 23, No. 6 (2014) 1450083 (21 pages)

.c World Scienti¯c Publishing Company
#
DOI: 10.1142/S0218126614500832

DESIGN OF MINIATURIZED BANDPASS FILTERS USING

¤
QUASI-LUMPED MULTILAYER RESONATORS

DEJAN M. MILJANOVIĆ
School of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade,
Bulevar kralja Aleksandra 73, P.O. Box 35-54, 11120 Belgrade, Serbia
m:tel Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Kneza Lazara 4, 74000 Doboj, Bosnia and Herzegovina
dejan.miljanovic@mtel.ba

MILKA M. POTREBIƆ and DEJAN V. TOŠIƇ

School of Electrical Engineering,
University of Belgrade,
Bulevar kralja Aleksandra 73,
P. O. Box 35-54, 11120 Belgrade, Serbia
†
milka_potrebic@etf.rs
‡
tosic@etf.rs

ZORAN STAMENKOVIĆ
IHP, Im Technologiepark 25,
15236 Frankfurt (Oder), Germany
stamenko@ihp-microelectronics.com

Received 30 April 2013

Accepted 20 January 2014
Published 25 March 2014

A novel design procedure for a compact multilayer bandpass ¯lter is proposed and examined.
The ¯lter is realized using quasi-lumped multilayer resonators. Based on the orientation of these
coupled-resonator pairs, a second-order bandpass ¯lter is realized with transmission zeros. In
order to achieve a low external quality factor, i.e., a wider ¯lter bandwidth, di®erent types of
feeder realization are considered. The design methodology with all relevant steps is presented
and the equivalent-circuit of the resonator is also derived and veri¯ed. The ¯lter design is
simulated using a 3D electromagnetic model and validated by measurements on the fabricated
¯lter. The simulation and experimental results are in good agreement.

Keywords: Bandpass ¯lter; double-sided microstrip; external Q-factor; multilayer resonator;

saw-toothed coupled structures.

*This paper was recommended by Regional Editor Piero Malcovati.

†Corresponding author.

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c et al.

1. Introduction
One of the essential front-end components in wireless communication systems is
bandpass ¯lter. In the era of continuous miniaturization of mobile devices, small size
is one of the most important requirements for microwave ¯lter design. Over the past
time, planar microstrip ¯lters have been designed applying various approaches. Even
these days many solutions rely on single layer implementation because of low cost
and easy fabrication.1–5 Using this single layer technique, the resonators have been
implemented as open-loop resonators,1,3,5 stepped impedance resonator (SIR),2 and
net-type resonators.4 Resonators based on open-loop resonator are synthesized by
means of relatively simple techniques. Use of branch-line resonators5 can generate
transmission zeros but at the cost of a greater footprint. SIR approach can adjust
resonant frequencies quite easily and can be used for suppressing unwanted reso-
nances, but it requires a lot of mathematical calculations, compared with the open-
loop approach. Net-type approach can further reduce the footprint.
In order to reduce the footprint of the ¯lter, the multilayer implementations6–13
have been considered. In this approach, the ¯lter components are positioned in a 3D
structure so the overall occupied area is reduced compared with the single layer
approach. In order to achieve inter-resonator coupling, the dual-layer structures like
SIR and defective ground structure (DGS) have been proposed.6 Compared to the
single layer realization, the solutions with aperture-coupled microstrip open-loop
resonators can reduce footprint up to 50%. These solutions retain inter-resonator
coupling through the apertures in the ground. However, modifying the ground layer
can be sensitive and it requires additional precision and attention during fabrication.
Also, DGS does not necessarily lead to the size reduction. Dual-layer structures with
SIR, but without the use of the DGS, have been reported in literature.8 Combination
of
=4 SIR on both sides of a double layer substrate,12 or combination of
=4 SIR on
one side and grounded spiral-shape resonator on the other side13 can contribute
to the size reduction. However, in those cases higher-order ¯lters are usually required
to achieve ¯lter speci¯cations. The patch-via-spiral resonators9–11 have been used to
further reduce the footprint. Patch-via-spiral resonators are usually implemented
with two types of feeders: tapped-line feeder and capacitively coupled feeder. Tap-
ped-line feeder with the DGS can be used to create transmission zeros.9 Position of
the tapped-line feeder a®ects external Q-factor of the resonator. Simpli¯ed, dual-
metal plane on the single substrate approach is also used as a solution for the size
reduction.10 In this case, transmission zeros can be generated as well. In order to
obtain a better selectivity, higher order ¯lters and/or cross coupling is necessary.11
In our earlier research14,15 we have proposed and implemented a compact mul-
tilayer bandpass ¯lter with resonators comprised of quasi-lumped elements. Capac-
itive coupling between the feeder and the resonator has been proposed. In order to
decrease the resonator external Q-factor, we have analyzed feeder modi¯cations and
introduced L-shaped coupling and interdigital coupling between the feeder and the

1450083-2
 Design of Miniaturized Bandpass Filters Using Quasi-Lumped Multilayer Resonators

resonator.14 The interdigital coupling has been realized as a saw-toothed structure

which achieved low external Q-factor, compared with the external Q-factor realized
with the tapped-line feeder.8–10,12 L-shaped coupling is found to be suitable for de-
signing ¯lters with improved selectivity and stopband suppression, especially for
narrowband ¯lters (approximately up to 5%).15
In our current research, presented in this paper, a novel design procedure for a
compact quasi-lumped bandpass ¯lter is proposed. The ¯rst step is optimal design of
the feeder, which is capable to achieve desired external quality factor. Next step is
¯nding optimal topology of coupled-resonator pairs, capable of creating transmission
zeros around the passband. Equivalent-circuit models of loaded and unloaded reso-
nators are derived for easier ¯lter design.

2. Quasi-Lumped Multilayer Resonator

A 3D EM model of the multilayer resonator, used in the bandpass ¯lter, is shown in
Fig. 1(a). The resonator comprises the three elements (a spiral inductor, a via-hole,
and a parallel-plate capacitor) fabricated on a two-layer substrate. The via connects
the inner end of the spiral coil at the top plane and the capacitor at the bottom plane.
The outer end of the coil is not connected. The via passes through the structure
without electrical connection to the common (mid) ground plane.
An approximate lumped-element circuit of the resonator is presented in Fig. 1(b).
For the square spiral inductor, the equivalent circuit parameters are inductance ðLÞ,
parasitic capacitances ðC11 , C12 Þ, and resistance ðRL Þ. The parameters of the cy-
lindrical via-hole are inductance (Lvia Þ and resistance (Rvia Þ. The parameters of the
capacitor are capacitance (CÞ and conductance (GC Þ.
The input admittance of the resonator given in Fig. 1(b) is de¯ned as:
1
Yin ¼ sC11 þ : ð1Þ
1
sL þ RL þ
1
sC12 þ
sLvia þ Rvia þ sCþG
1
C

(a) (b)

Fig. 1. (a) 3D EM model of the multilayer resonator and (b) the equivalent circuit (color online).

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c et al.

Fig. 2. Resonant frequency for di®erent coil (dL Þ and capacitor (dC Þ sizes.

Neglecting the values of Lvia , Rvia , RL , GC and adopting the approximation

C11 ¼ C12 , Eq. (1) is simpli¯ed to:

Yin
sC11 þ 1=ðsL þ 1=ðsðC þ C11 ÞÞÞ : ð2Þ

The parallel resonant frequencies occur as Yin ¼ 0, which yields the angular
frequency:
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
!r ¼ ðC þ 2C11 Þ=ðLC11 ðC þ C11 ÞÞ : ð3Þ

From Eq. (3) it can be seen that the resonant frequency is predominantly de-
termined by the coil inductance L and capacitances C11 and C . These values are
de¯ned by the size and geometrical shape of the quasi-lumped elements.

Fig. 3. Resonant frequency as a function of the coil length and capacitor size (dC ¼ 4:6 mm) (color
online).

1450083-4
 Table 1. Two cases for resonator design.

Extracted values of equivalent circuit

f 0 (GHz)
Footprint Normalized footprint Inductor Capacitor Via

Case dL ¼ dC (mm) dL /
g ¼ dC /
g L (nH) RL () C11 (pF) C12 (pF) C (pF) GC (S) Lvia (nH) Rvia () 3D EM Eq. (3)
1 4.6 0:036
g  0:036
g 35.1 1.8 0.35 0.25 0.50 7.4 1.8 0.25 1.7 1.72

1450083-5
2 3.6 0:046
g  0:046
g 20.5 0.61 0.22 0.17 0.34 4.2 1.8 0.25 2.8 2.79
Design of Miniaturized Bandpass Filters Using Quasi-Lumped Multilayer Resonators
D. M. Miljanovi
c et al.

The chosen substrate is RT/Duroid 5880 with following parameters: "r ¼ 2:2,
tg ¼ 0:001, substrate thickness of hL ¼ hC ¼ 1:575 mm (Fig. 1(a)) and metalliza-
tion thickness of t ¼ 18 m. The capacitor is characterized by means of the occupied
area dC  dC , while the coil is characterized by the number of turns N , the spiral line
width wS ¼ 0:4 mm, the turn spacing s ¼ 0:1 mm and the outer size dL  dL .
After the initial dimensions of the resonator have been chosen (taking into ac-
count the required central frequency from Fig. 2), further adjustments are easily
made by changing the capacitor size and/or the coil length. Dependency of the
resonant frequency f0 on the number of coil turns N for the two capacitor sizes is
shown in Fig. 3. The number of the turns is reduced by shortening the inner side of
the coil. The change of the coil length has signi¯cant in°uence on the resonant
frequency.
Large frequency range can be covered with this modi¯cation, ranging from
1.67 GHz to 2.78 GHz. For satisfying higher resonant frequencies, it would be better
to initially use smaller outer resonator dimensions rather than using greater reso-
nator and reducing the coil length to just one turn. Fine-tuning of the resonant
frequencies can be made by varying the coil length and capacitor size.
Our research is focused on the frequency ranges allocated to the mobile com-
munication systems (850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1.8 GHz, 1.9 GHz, 2.1 GHz), WiMax
(3.5 GHz), WLAN (2.4 GHz, 5.8 GHz) and GPS (1.6 GHz). It can be seen that wide
range of frequencies can be covered by means of the modest change of the size of
quasi-lumped elements (the frequency change of more than one octave for 1 mm
change of resonator size).
Data presented in Table 1 exemplify the applicability of the equivalent circuit
(Fig. 1(b)) and Eq. (3) for determining resonator dimensions. For the two selected
cases of the resonator, Table 1 shows physical and normalized resonator dimensions,
extracted parameters of the lumped-element circuit, resonant frequencies obtained
by full 3D EM simulation and using Eq. (3). There is a good agreement between the
results obtained in the previous analyses, hence the equivalent circuit can be used to
simplify the design of the resonators.

3. Filter Design
In this research a second-order bandpass ¯lter is designed, using coupled resonators
presented in the previous section. Our goal is to design a ¯lter with fractional
bandwidth (FBW) of about 10%. The ¯lter design procedure, introduced here, could
be summarized as follows. First, for required resonant frequency, initial dimensions of
the resonator are determined using approach presented in the previous section. The
second step is determining achievable external Q-factors for considered feeder types.
During this step, it may be necessary to ¯ne tune resonator dimensions, because
the feeder has in°uence on the resonant frequency. The third step is calculation of
the coupling coe±cients k that can be achieved between two resonators for various

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 Design of Miniaturized Bandpass Filters Using Quasi-Lumped Multilayer Resonators

Table 2. Required Q-factors and coupling coe±cients for second-order bandpass

¯lter.

Ripple (dB) 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5
FBW (%) 4 8 12 16 4 8 12 16
Qex1 ¼ Qex2 21 10.5 7 5.3 35 17.5 11.7 8.8
k 0.055 0.11 0.17 0.22 0.04 0.08 0.12 0.16

inter-resonator layouts, with respect to the inter-resonator distance. The fourth step
is ¯lter implementation using desired approximation, which will provide the required
Q-factors and coupling coe±cients k for speci¯ed FBW and the passband ripple
value. In Table 2, required Q-factors and coupling coe±cients are presented for
several cases of the second-order bandpass ¯lter with Chebyshev's approximation.
For FBW of about 10% and the ripple value of 0.5, required Q-factor is less than 15.
Prior to fabrication, ¯nal adjustments of the ¯lter dimensions might be required, in
order to meet the speci¯cation. Next, the measurements are carried out to verify the
¯lter performance.

3.1. External Q-factor

Quasi-lumped resonators are usually implemented using two types of feeders: tap-
ped-line feeder or capacitively coupled feeder. In general, tapped-line feeder can
provide lower Q-factors.
The tapped-line feeder (shown in Fig. 4) is realized as a microstrip line whose
width corresponds to the characteristic impedance of 50  (4.9 mm in this case).
Q-factor is measured with respect to the distance (lÞ of the feeder from the end of the
coil. For l ¼ 0  17:5 mm Q-factor has nearly constant value of about 15, because
there is no ground at the end of the coil. This makes outer coil winding almost
equipotential. Therefore, this type of feeder implementation does not have necessary
adjustability of the resonator external Q-factor.
The second proposed feeder (L-shaped) is coupled along the central and sidelong
parts with the two nearest sides of the resonator inductor (Fig. 5).

Fig. 4. Resonator with the tapped-line feeder (color online).

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D. M. Miljanovi
c et al.

Fig. 5. Resonator with the L-shaped feeder for the type 32 (color online).

To increase the coupling, a sidelong part is added. There are eight possible types
of coupling between the feeder and the resonator coil. Two numbers designate each
type. The ¯rst number denotes the number of coil segment coupled to the central
feeder and the second number denotes the number of coil segment coupled to the
sidelong feeder part. Figure 5 shows type 32.
Design curves of the external Q-factor are given with respect to the distance between
the feeder and the resonator coil (d0 Þ. The distance (d0 Þ is in the range from 0.05 mm to
0.4 mm, while the length (l0 Þ is used as a parameter and it is varied from 0 mm to 4.7 mm.
The most representative results for the external Q-factor, obtained for four se-
lected types (12, 21, 23 and 14) and four selected lengths (l0 Þ are shown in Fig. 6. By

Fig. 6. External Q-factor of the resonator with the L-shaped feeder (color online).

1450083-8
 Design of Miniaturized Bandpass Filters Using Quasi-Lumped Multilayer Resonators

Fig. 7. Resonator with the saw-toothed feeder (color online).

decreasing the distance between the resonators and increasing the length of the
feeder sidelong part, the lower values of external Q-factor are obtained.
When the feeder is coupled to the ¯rst and second segments of the coil, the
external Q-factor is less sensitive to the variation of the gap width. L-shaped feeder
type slightly decreases the resonant frequency and the most prominent change of the
resonant frequency occurs for the type 12. The minimum achieved Q-factor is 30
which does not satisfy our speci¯cation (Q-factor less than 15).
The third proposed feeder is realized by adding an interdigital structure, referred
to as the saw-toothed feeder. This feeder can provide lower values of the external
Q-factor. Figure 7 shows the details of the saw-toothed feeder. In order to obtain the
external Q-factor using this feeder, the distance between the teeth (dÞ is adopted to
be equal to 0.05 mm and 0.1 mm, while the width of a tooth (wÞ and non-overlapping
length of the teeth (lg Þ are varied. The number of teeth is denoted as Nt . The
achieved external Q-factors are shown in Fig. 8. The coupling is realized with the
fourth and the third coil segment, so according to the previously explained notation,
this con¯guration is denoted as type 43.
The minimal feasible value of the external Q-factor is 11.5, which can provide the
maximum FBW of 12% for the second-order ¯lter with the ripple value of 0.5 dB. If
the smaller Q-factor is desired, the denser teeth must be used with greater over-
lapping. The feeder shifts the resonant frequency up to 5%. This shift can be com-
pensated by reducing the length of the coil and/or size of the capacitor.
The approximate lumped-element equivalent circuit of the loaded resonator, with
the saw-toothed feeder, is shown in Fig. 9(b). The coil is divided into two parts: (i)
the part coupled to the feeder and (ii) the rest of the coil. The overall inductance of

1450083-9
D. M. Miljanovi
c et al.

Fig. 8. External Q-factor of the resonator with the saw-toothed feeder given in Fig. 7 (color online).

(a) (b)

(c)

Fig. 9. Resonator with the saw-toothed feeder: (a) 3D EM model, (b) equivalent circuit and (c) simulated
frequency response (color online).

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 Design of Miniaturized Bandpass Filters Using Quasi-Lumped Multilayer Resonators

the coil (LÞ approximately corresponds to the sum of inductances of the two parts,
i.e., L
L1 þ L2 . The extracted parameters of the lumped-element circuit are given
in Table 3. The resonant frequency can be obtained from Eq. (4), where Yin is input
admittance given by Eq. (5). Figure 9(c) shows the simulated response (i) obtai-
ned by 3D EM simulation (Fig. 9(a)) and (ii) obtained from the equivalent circuit
(Fig. 9(b)).
Y0  Yin
S11 ¼ ; ð4Þ
Y0 þ Yin

0 0
==
B B
Yin ¼ 1 @1 @sðC11 þ C21 þ C12 Þ þ 1

sL2 þ RL2 þ
1
sC22


0 0 111 1
=
B
þ1 B
B
B
=
@sL1 þ RL1 þ 1 @sC12 þ 1
1 CCC C
CCC þ 1 C þ sC11 : ð5Þ
AAA sC A
þ sLvia þ Rvia 
sC þ GC

3.2. Fine tuning of the loaded resonator

In both cases with capacitive coupling, the vicinity of the feeder decreases resonant
frequency. This is more important for the realization with saw-toothed feeder, be-
cause the coil length and the capacitor area have been reduced more. Figure 10 shows
necessary modi¯cations. In order to retain a central frequency of 1.6 GHz, the length
of the coil is reduced by 33% starting from the center of the coil, while the size of the
capacitor area is reduced by 37%, both compared with the initial resonator geometry
shown in Fig. 5.

3.3. Coupled-resonator pairs

Basically, the multilayer resonators can be coupled in two ways. In the ¯rst case, we
have coil-to-coil coupling on one side of substrate and capacitor-to-capacitor cou-
pling on the other side. This type of coupling is shown in Fig. 11(a) and will be
denoted as LLCC coupling (meaning coil L to coil L and capacitor C to capacitor C).
In the second case, we have coil-to-capacitor couplings on both sides of the layers.
This type of coupling is shown in Fig. 11(b) and will be denoted as LCLC coupling.
The LLCC coupling provides higher values of the coupling coe±cients. The LCLC
coupling creates two transmission zeros near the passband. These zeros are caused
solely by the type of the resonator coupling and are not a®ected by the feeders.
A coil of one resonator can be coupled to the adjacent coil or capacitor using
any of its four coil segments. Therefore, in the case of coil-to-coil coupling, there
are 16 possible combinations. Since the goal is to retain the symmetry of the struc-
ture, it is enough to analyze only four coupling types are analyzed — ¯rst-to-¯rst,

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 D. M. Miljanovi
c et al.

Table 3. Extracted parameters of the lumped-element circuit given in Fig. 9(b).

Loaded part of inductor Capacitor Via Unloaded part of inductor Interdigital feeder
L1 (nH) RL1 ðÞ C11 (pF) C12 (pF) C (pF) GC ðS) Lvia (nH) Rvia ðÞ L2 (nH) RL2 ðÞ C21 (pF) C22 (pF) C (pF) C11 (pF) C12 (pF)
21.85 1.55 0.21 0.25 0.41 5.83 1.7 0.54 6.51 0.29 0.11 0.11 1.06 0.15 0.13

1450083-12
 Design of Miniaturized Bandpass Filters Using Quasi-Lumped Multilayer Resonators

(a) (b)

Fig. 10. Necessary modi¯cations of (a) the coil and (b) the capacitor in order to compensate the
frequency shift (color online).

second-to-second, . . . , fourth-to-fourth segment. The analysis showed that the values

of the coupling coe±cients for all other combinations are consistent compared with
the values obtained for the chosen geometries. Therefore, for each type of coupling
there are four orientations.
Another way of changing geometry is variation of the coil winding direction.
Winding direction of the coil is assumed to be from the center of the coil towards the
coil end (see Fig. 5). It can be in mathematically positive or negative direction
(counterclockwise or clockwise). These two types of coil windings will be denoted as
direct and reverse (in Fig. 5 direct type is shown). If both resonators have direct or
reverse winding, such geometry is called asymmetrical due to asymmetry with re-
spect to the axis of symmetry. The other case, when one resonator coil is direct and
the other one is reverse, is called symmetrical.
Each con¯guration of the two coupled resonators will be denoted with six char-
acters x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 . Their meaning is explained in Table 4.

(a) (b)

Fig. 11. Types of resonators coupling: (a) LLCC coupling and (b) LCLC coupling (color online).

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D. M. Miljanovi
c et al.

Table 4. Notation of the two coupled resonators using six characters x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 .

Char Description of coupling between two resonators

x1 Element on the top layer of the left resonator, coil or capacitor L/C
x2 Segment number of the left coil facing the right resonator 1/2/3/4
x3 Winding direction of the left resonator (direct or reverse) D/R
x4 Element on the top layer of the right resonator, coil or capacitor L/C
x5 Segment number of the right coil facing the left resonator 1/2/3/4
x6 Winding direction of the right resonator (direct or reverse) D/R

For instance, geometries in Figs. 11(a) and 11(b) are L1DL1R and L1DC1R,
respectively.
Due to the symmetry of the structure, the number of possible geometries can be
reduced. For instance, geometry in which the coil of the left resonator is direct and
the other one is reverse (symmetrical) has the same coupling as if the left one was
reverse and the right one was direct. That is obvious by rotating whole structure by
180  . Another simpli¯cation can be made, since, in the case of asymmetrical geom-
etries, the couplings do not change when the winding direction is changed for both
coils. That can be easily seen if any of asymmetrical geometries is observed from the
other side of the layer. Now, the obtained values, which are shown in Fig. 12, can be
analyzed.
Simulations are carried out with respect to the distance between the resonators
(d12 Þ from 0.05 mm to 2.1 mm. First, the symmetric and asymmetric coupling, given
in Figs. 12(a) and 12(b), is analyzed.
Maximum achievable coupling value is 0.265 for spacing of 0.05 mm for L1DL1D
con¯guration. This means that the two coils are coupled with their ¯rst segments and
that geometry is asymmetrical. Comparing symmetrical and asymmetrical con¯g-
urations (Figs. 12(a) and 12(b)), one can see that achieved values are higher for the
asymmetrical case. When the distance between two resonators is small, electrical
coupling is dominant in both cases. If distance between two resonators increases,
electrical coupling is of less signi¯cance, while magnetic coupling is dominant. In the
case of asymmetrical con¯guration, magnetic coupling is retained, both for smaller
and greater inter-resonator distances, which yields the higher values of coupling
coe±cients. The winding orientation signi¯cantly a®ects the magnetic coupling
between the resonators: the symmetrical geometry greatly reduces the magnetic
coupling.
The coupling coe±cient values of the LCLC type (Fig. 12(c)) can be explained as
follows: the electrical coupling is predominant and the winding orientation is prac-
tically insigni¯cant (the curves for LnDCnR and LnDCnD, n ¼ 1; . . . ; 4, are the
same).
In the same manner, the coil segments nearest to the end of the coil produce
greater coupling, because the largest amount of charges exists at the end of the coil.

1450083-14
 Design of Miniaturized Bandpass Filters Using Quasi-Lumped Multilayer Resonators

(a) (b)

(c)

Fig. 12. Coupling coe±cients for: (a) LLCC symmetric coupling, (b) LLCC asymmetric coupling and (c)
LCLC coupling (Fig. 11) (color online).

For a smaller distance between the resonators, these LCLC couplings have lower
values compared with the LLCC coupling, but by increasing the distance, the
obtained values become equal for some con¯gurations, for example, L1DL1R and
L1DC1R. This con¯rms that electrical coupling is dominant in all cases.
The distance between resonators d12 determines the value of inter-resonator
coupling and, consequently, ¯lter bandwidth. For the modi¯ed resonator presented
in Fig. 10, the coupling coe±cients (obtained by simulation) are presented in Fig. 13.
The ¯rst/second coil segments are coupled. The LCLC coupling type creates
transmission zeros. It provides favorable ¯lter performance that is the reason to
analyze only this type of coupling in the rest of the paper.
The dependence of ¯lter FBW with respect to the inter-resonator distance d12 is
shown in Fig. 14. Results of 3D EM simulation have shown that achievable range of
the ¯lter bandwidth is from 5.2% to 15%. For the range of coupling coe±cients from
Fig. 13, the external Q-factors were calculated to satisfy Chebyshev's approximation
(as in Table 2).

1450083-15
D. M. Miljanovi
c et al.

Fig. 13. Coupling coe±cients for the saw-toothed loaded resonator with LCLC coupling (resonator size is
reduced) (color online).

Fig. 14. FBW for the saw-toothed loaded resonator with LCLC coupling (resonator size is reduced)
(color online).

4. Implementation Example of the Second-Order Bandpass Filter

The simulated curves of the coupling coe±cients and external Q-factors can be used
for design and implementation of the bandpass ¯lter. According to these results, it
can be seen that the wide range of coupling coe±cients (maximum is 0.265) and
external Q-factors (minimum is 11.5) can be achieved. We have chosen to design a
second-order bandpass ¯lter with Chebyshev's approximation with the passband
ripple value of 0.5 dB, central frequency of 1.6 GHz and 3 dB FBW of 11%. External
Q-factors and coupling coe±cient are computed16 and the calculated values are
Qex1 ¼ Qex2 ¼ 14 and k ¼ 0:1: In order to determine the saw-toothed feeder

1450083-16
 Design of Miniaturized Bandpass Filters Using Quasi-Lumped Multilayer Resonators

(a)

(b)

Fig. 15. (a) 3D EM model of the ¯lter with the saw-toothed feeder L2DC2D and (b) simulated frequency
response (color online).

dimensions, the design curves given in Fig. 8 are used to realize necessary external
Q-factor. The unloaded Q-factor for this resonator is approximately 120, which
estimates16 the midband ¯lter loss of 1.5 dB.
The LCLC inter-resonator coupling realization has been chosen, because only this
type of coupled resonator pair produces transmission zeros in the ¯lter response. The
second coil segment is coupled to the capacitor to keep inline structure.16 The dis-
tance between resonators (d12 Þ, according to the simulated design curves17 shown in
Fig. 13, is chosen to satisfy the required coupling.

1450083-17
D. M. Miljanovi
c et al.

The available resolution of our prototyping machine18 is the 50 m line and gap.
The dimensions of the proposed ¯lters are given in Table 5. The ¯rst implementation
has minimal resolution and the interdigital coupling parameters are w ¼ d ¼
lg ¼ 0:05 mm. The second implementation (w ¼ 0:2 mm, d ¼ 0:1 mm) is selected for
fabrication, since it is more robust.
The ¯lter ports increase the resonator capacitance and decrease the resonant
frequency. Therefore, reduction of the inductor and capacitor lengths was necessary.
The outer dimensions of the coil are dout  dout ¼ 4:6 mm  4:6 mm and those of the
capacitor are dout  d 0out ¼ 4:6 mm  2:9 mm. The feeder width is W50  ¼ 4:9 mm.
The total length of the ¯lter is dF ¼ 2ðdout þ lt Þ þ d12 and the total width of the ¯lter
is dW ¼ dout þ lt , which mean that the ¯lter dimensions are primarily de¯ned by
interdigital coupling implementation. The 3D EM model of the ¯lter and the cor-
responding simulated frequency response are shown in Fig. 15.

5. Filter Fabrication and Experimental Results

To demonstrate the feasibility of ¯lter implementations with the proposed saw-
toothed feeder (shown in Fig. 15(a)), the second ¯lter implementation (from Table 5)
is chosen for fabrication. This implementation is more robust for milling process
during the ¯lter fabrication.
The top- and bottom-plane of the fabricated ¯lter are shown in Fig. 16. The ¯lter
response is measured using the Agilent E5062A network analyzer. The simulated and
measured response of the fabricated ¯lter are shown in Fig. 17. Measured results have
con¯rmed the theoretical analysis. The ¯lter has measured insertion loss of 1 dB at
the central frequency of 1.641 GHz (speci¯ed 1.6 GHz). Simulated insertion loss was
0.72 dB. The losses are due to the conductor and dielectric imperfections, but the
conductor losses dominate. According to the requirements, return loss has acceptable

Fig. 16. Photograph of the fabricated ¯lter (color online).

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 Design of Miniaturized Bandpass Filters Using Quasi-Lumped Multilayer Resonators

Fig. 17. Frequency response of the EM simulation and measured fabricated ¯lter (color online).

value of 18 dB. Measured 3 dB FBW is approximately 11% and meets the speci¯-
cations. Two transmission zeros occur at 1.433 GHz (simulated 1.398 GHz) and
2.556 GHz (simulated 2.679 GHz). Minimum stopband rejection is 25 dB, which is
slightly better compared with the previously published ¯lter solutions10 with the
similar ¯lter selectivity.
The fabricated ¯lter has a compact size of 15:3 mm  7:5 mm (i.e. 0:112
g 
0:055
g Þ. With the minimal milling resolution,18 we could realize the ¯rst imple-
mentation (from Table 5) with the footprint of 0:0836
g  0:0411
g . This footprint
is much smaller compared with the conventional single layer ¯lters. Reported single
layer bandpass ¯lter solutions, based on an open-loop resonators, are characterized
by greater planar occupation.1 The second-order bandpass ¯lter realized with open-
loop resonators3 has the footprint of 0:13
g  0:1
g . For higher-order ¯lters in
multilayer technique, placing resonators in two layers can reduce footprint up to
50%.7 The footprint of our fabricated ¯lter is comparable with or smaller than the
published second-order ¯lters in multilayer technique: (0:357
g  0:137
g Þ,8
(0:096
g  0:051
g Þ9 and (0:091
g  0:043
g Þ.10 Compared with the ¯rst imple-
mentation (from Table 5), the footprint area would be smaller about 90% than dual-
layer structures with SIR,8 about 30% smaller than the two-layer implementation,9

Table 5. Dimensions of the ¯lter with the saw-toothed feeder in mm.

Resonator Feeder Footprint

Filter
Implementation ws s N dout d 0out d12 w d lg lt Nt (dF  dW Þ/
g
1 0.4 0.1 2.56 4.6 2.9 0.2 0.05 0.05 0.05 1.0 87 0:0836  0:0411
2 0.4 0.1 2.63 4.6 2.9 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.1 2.9 24 0:1122  0:0550

1450083-19
D. M. Miljanovi
c et al.

and more than 10% smaller than the dual-metal plane implementation.10 For the
comparison, the fourth-order ¯lters realized in multilayer technique have footprints:
(0:167
g  0:126
g Þ,6 (0:169
g  0:127
g Þ12 and (0:225
g  0:153
g Þ.13
Our multilayer ¯lter realization with compact footprint area, possibility of
adjusting transmission zeros, and achievable range of bandwidths is applicable for
wireless communication systems.

6. Conclusion
We have studied implementations of a compact multilayer coupled-resonator ¯lter
based on the double-sided microstrip design. The ¯lter resonators have been
implemented by two quasi-lumped elements. The equivalent-circuit of the resonator
has been derived for easier ¯lter design. The optimal topology of coupled-resonator
pairs, capable of creating transmission zeros around the passband, has been pro-
posed. In order to achieve a low external quality factor, di®erent types of feeder
realization have been considered.
Design methodology of the proposed ¯lter has been presented and validated by 3D
EM simulation. Second-order multilayer bandpass ¯lter has been simulated, fabri-
cated, and measured. Experimental results have been in good agreement with the
simulation results.
The advantages of the proposed multilayer ¯lter realization are its compact de-
sign and a reduction of the footprint, compared with the reported implementations in
the literature. For the second-order ¯lter, the footprint area has been reduced about
90% compared with dual-layer structures with SIR, about 30% compared with the
two-layer implementation, and more than 10% compared with the dual-metal plane
implementation.

Acknowledgment
This work was supported by the Serbian Ministry of Education and Science under
Grant TR32005.

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