ISSN (Print) : 0974-6846

Indian Journal of Science and Technology, Vol 9(47), DOI: 10.17485/ijst/2016/v9i47/102197, December 2016 ISSN (Online) : 0974-5645

Design of Narrowband Band Pass Filter using

Open-loop Square Resonators with
Loading Element
Venkata Varunbabu Mannam1 and Yedukondala Rao Veeranki2*
1
National Instruments, Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore - 560029, Karnataka, India; mannamvarun@gmail.com
2
Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal – 576104, Karnataka, India; ykraoveeranki@gmail.com

Abstract
Objectives: In this paper we propose to design a compact, sharp-rejection narrowband BandPass Filter (BPF).
Methods/Statistical Analysis: The behavior of the microstrip open-loop resonator is observed using full-wave
electromagnetic simulations. By adding a loading element at the center of the open loop square resonator we are achieving
two operating modes (even and odd modes) exist within a single resonator. Variation of parameters of the loading element
leads to asymmetric frequency response used for filter design. The simulated results met all the design specifications
of the given band pass filter. Findings: In the dual-mode open loop resonator the even and odd modes (currents are
mutually exclusive in nature) do not couple each other and leads to a rejection point in the frequency, which is associated
with the even mode. Multiple sections of resonator give the sharp rejection (high dynamic range) after the passband.
Application/Improvements: The proposed band pass filter can be widely used in communication system and space
technology, especially mobile and satellite communication due to its better performance and compactness.

Keywords: BandPass Filter, Dual-mode Resonator, Electromagnetic Coupling, Micro Strip Antennas, Strip Lines

1. Introduction and low insertion loss are strongly demanded. Among

The electronic components with compact in size draws
a lot of attention in the past few decades due to the very
fast development of the mobile industry. Traditional
high performance filters (like waveguide and dielectric
resonator filters) are generally too heavy and bulky for
applications like mounting on towers in base stations1
.
Similar behavior is observed in satellite applications
where payload costs are increased a lot, and filters with
better performance are typically required. Recently, the
captured global market of mobile devices is pushing
the needs beyond its limits. In recent portable products
there is a limited use for bulk components with great
performance. This is mainly due to the fact that majority
of communication systems designed to wok below 6 GHz
frequency band.
At lower frequencies the resonators used are Bulk-
wave resonators, SAW (surface acoustic wave) filters and
helical resonators. All these are used when small in size
the entire filter technologies microstrip remains popular
because it is easy to integrate in the system, occupies small
volume as well as its fabrication processes. Moreover,
electronically tunable and reconfigurable filters, like the
notch filters designed in ultra-wideband applications,
uses surface mount varactors that are compatible with
microstrip implementations2.The popular disadvantage of
microstrip resonators is the low quality factors (Q-factor).
However, for applications that need negligible insertion
loss (like front ends of satellite receivers), or very narrow
relative bandwidths, microstrip resonators provides great
amount of quality factor1.
By the way, the compactness in the microstrip
component design leads to reduce the size of the required
cooling system in the applications leads to over-all
transceivers that are smaller than traditional transceivers,
which usesdielectric resonator filters or waveguides1,3.
The more information about band pass filter is referred
from the references4–8.

* Author for correspondence

 Design of Narrowband Band Pass Filter using Open-loop Square Resonators with Loading Element
2. Proposed Design
The microstrip open loop resonator is animportant key
structure for bandpass filter applications due to its cross-
coupling nature, smallin size, of approximately by , and
versatility9–12. The general structures of the square open
loop resonators are shown in Figure 1.
w a
a
(a)
w a
a Figure 2. Dual mode open-loop square resonator.
(b)
w a
a element leads to compact in size. A loading element with
(c)
Figure 1. Square Open Loop Resonator (SOLR) and some
miniaturization techniques. (a) Conventional SOLR (b)
Folded arms SOLR (c) Dual mode SOLR.
2 Vol 9 (47) | December 2016 | www.indjst.org
The innovation of the wrapping arms (in a folded
manner) square open loop resonator of Figure 1can be
used as miniaturized hairpin resonators 13. In the case of
the wrapping arms resonator the size is further reduced
more than what we thought due to the interesting
phenomena of coupling between the arms upto 45%13.
The wrapping arms structure can be designed with lower
characteristic impedance in order to design the model
with compact size14. The resonator shown in Figure 2
works in a different way; it has two independent operating
modes, and the electro-magnetic coupling between them
can be modified by the parameters of the loading element.
This new design of the resonator providing compact size
model with reduction of 50%. The method we proposed
in this research is the square open loop resonator with a
loading element at the center of the resonator as shown
in Figure 1.
g
1 2
W
d
Each single-mode resonator is equal to an LC coupled
circuit, which produces a pole (transmission zero) at
the resonance frequency. But in order to design a filter
with sharp rejection number of single-mode resonators
are to be connected in cascade structures and this leads
to increase in size of the filter. Each Dual-mode open
loop resonator (proposed design) is a doubly tuned LC
resonant circuit. The number of resonators required for
a given degree of filter is reduces by half because of the
dual-mode behavior. The proposed design has the same
size as single mode resonator with the help of loading
a variable parameter ‘W’ is placedat the center of the
resonator.
Indian Journal of Science and Technology
 A. Venkata Varunbabu Mannam and B. Yedukondala Rao Veeranki

3. Characteristics element, and maximum current in the even mode case

in loading element. There is a finite pole (transmission
Change of width of loading element 'W' leads to mode zero) in the insertion loss graph as the modes diverges.
splitting. Two modes exist odd mode and even mode. The finite pole is on right side if variable frequency
The fixed frequency component of the band-pass filter by component is more than fixed frequency component and
adjusting of width of loading element is called odd-mode. on left side if fixed frequency component is more than
The variable frequency component by varying of width of variable frequency component.
loading element is called even-mode.
Here the effect of the loading element is shown in
Figure 2 with different ’W’ values on the microstrip 0
Even mode
open-loop square resonator on TMM10 substrate having Odd mode
-20
dielectric constant ( of 10.8 with substrate height of
1.27mm.

S21 magnitude (dB)

-40
Odd mode exhibits the same characteristics that
of single mode resonator, since in the odd mode at the -60
tapping point its short circuit. So the loading element
g=0.3mm
does not contribute any coupling here. Hence the odd -80 g=0.7mm
mode resonance frequency is dependent only on square g=0.9mm
g=1.3mm
open-loop parameters (i.e. length of resonator (a), width -100
1.02 1.04 1.06 1.08 1.1 1.12 1.14 1.16
of resonator (w) and gap of open loop (g)). But in the Frequency (GHz)
even mode it causes the resonant frequency with varying
the width of loading element (‘W’), and width of tapping Figure 4. g-dependence of modal resonant characteristics
element (‘d’). Figure 3–5 shows the variation of even of the proposed dual-mode microstrip open-loop resonator
mode resonant frequency with ‘W’and ‘d’. for W=8.755 mm and d=1.1 mm.

0 0
W=9.805mm Odd mode
Even mode
W=9.215mm Even mode
-10
W=8.755mm
-10

-20
magnitude (dB)

-20
S21 magnitude (dB)

-30 -30

-40 -40
21
S

d=0.5mm
-50 -50
d=0.7mm
d=1.1mm
-60 -60 d=1.3mm
1.02 1.04 1.06 1.08 1.1 1.12 1.14 1.16
Frequency (GHz) -70
1 1.05 1.1 1.15 1.2
Frequency (GHz)

Figure 3. Modal-resonant characteristics of the proposed

Figure 5. d- dependence of modal resonant characteristics
dual-mode microstrip open-loop resonator for g=0.9mm
of the proposed dual-mode microstrip open-loop resonator
and d=1.1 mm.
for W=8.755mm and g=0.9 mm.

To excite the resonator, weakly coupled ports are used.

For a single value of ‘W’ the two modes exhibit same
resonance frequency. As ‘W’ increases/decreases, the two
4. Deign Procedure for Open-
modes split. Smaller‘W’, shifts resonance frequency of loop Resonator
even mode to right. Larger ‘W’, shifts resonance frequency
The key parameters of the resonator:
of even mode to left. Due to short circuit at tapped point
The main parameters are length of resonator (a),
no charge or current in the odd mode case in the loading

Vol 9 (47) | December 2016 | www.indjst.org Indian Journal of Science and Technology 3
 Design of Narrowband Band Pass Filter using Open-loop Square Resonators with Loading Element

Figure 6. Length calculation of open-loop resonator from line guage.

width of resonator (w), gap of the resonator (g). Since it’s -0.5 170
an open-loop square resonator length and width of the
resonator are almost equal. -0.55

Bandwidth (MHz)
Insertion loss (dB)

160
-0.6
4.1 Length
From the substrate details (dielectric constant, loss -0.65
150
tangent, height of the substrate) and frequency of
operation and the configuration (either microstripline or -0.7

stripline) we can find the length of resonator (since it is

-0.75 140
a half wave length resonator), and width of resonator by 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6
Width (mm)
1.8 2 2.2

the characteristic impedance of the resonator. From the

Figure 6 the length of the resonator which is half wave
length resonator (47.40255 mm). So the side of resonator
is (1/4th of the resonator length (11.85 mm)).
4.2 Width of resonator
From Figure 7 it is clear that there is relation of between
the insertion loss (S21) and bandwidth (BW) of the
resonator. The requirements of low insertion loss and
narrow band width of filter to design is a challenge here.
So proper width of the resonator is chosen so that for the
narrowband application along with low insertion loss
characteristics.
Figure 7. Width of the open-loop resonator vs.
insertion loss and bandwidth.
4.3 Gap
Now the open loop gap is going to choose so that odd-
mode resonance frequency is going to exactly coincide
with center frequency for the band pass filter design.
Figure 8 shows the microstrip width of the loading element
vs. insertion loss at odd and even-mode frequencies
and Figure 9 shows the microstrip width of the loading
element vs. resonant frequencies variations of dual-mode
open-loop square resonator.

4 Vol 9 (47) | December 2016 | www.indjst.org Indian Journal of Science and Technology
 A. Venkata Varunbabu Mannam and B. Yedukondala Rao Veeranki

individual section of resonator is shown. Each resonator

-0.2
is separated by NRN coupling element here. The port
-0.3 dimensions are given in Figure 12 and the NRN coupling
-0.4 element is shown in Figure 13 along with dimensions.
At last in Figure 14 shows the frequency response of
Insertion loss (dB)

-0.5
the given design in Figure 9 using EM software15and the
-0.6 response is plotted here.
-0.7
1 2

-0.8

12.4
-0.9 loss at even-mode frequency
loss at odd-mode frequency
0.2
-1 57.91
3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6
Width of loading element (mm)
Figure 10. Quad-section using NRN coupling element.
Figure 8. Width of the loading element vs. insertion loss at
odd and even-mode frequencies. 0.6
3
odd-mode resonance frequency
0.9
even-mode resonance frequency
2.8 transmission zero frequency
6.7

4.25
2.6
12.4
Frequency (GHz)

2.4
3.5 1

4.8
2.2

2
0.4

1.8
3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6
12.5
Width of loading element (mm)

Figure 11. Single unit dimensions.

Figure 9. Width of the loading element vs. resonant
frequencies variations. 7.3
2.4

1
5. Simulation Results and
Discussions
5.1 Quad-section Mixed Coupling using
NRN Coupling Elements (on 2.5
Substrate)
The quad-section asymmetric response is obtained
using the Teflon substrate having relative dielectric of 0.2
2.5, substrate height of 1.5875mm and loss tangent of
0.0009 in strip line technology. The metal strip is shown Figure 12. Port dimensions.
in the Figure 10 for the entire quad section. In Figure 11

Vol 9 (47) | December 2016 | www.indjst.org Indian Journal of Science and Technology 5
 Design of Narrowband Band Pass Filter using Open-loop Square Resonators with Loading Element

loss it’s better to go the other form of mixed coupling

0.4
here. When the resonators are in opposite orientation
then it is called mixed coupling which are separated by
spacing ‘ s ’ and offset by ‘d’. Here two structures are

12.4
proposed. Out of which one is tri-section and the other is
the quad-section. These two are implemented in strip line
technology on Teflon substrate.
0.4

1 2

2.0

6.4
Figure 13. NRN (first and third NRN are equal length of 2 0.2 0.2
0.2
31.4
mm, second NRN is 1.91mm length).
Figure 15. Quad-section using NRN coupling element.
0

0.3
-20
S
S
11
21
0.2
S-parameters (dB)

-40

3.32

2.73
-60

6.4
-80

2.35
1

2.67
-100
1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Frequency (GHz)
0.37
Figure 14. S-parameters of the Quad-sec using NRN
coupling element. 6.6
5.2 Quad-section Mixed Coupling using Figure 16. Single unit dimensions.
NRN Coupling Elements (on 9.2
Substrate) 4.3
The metal strip of teflon substrate having relative dielectric
0.26

of 9.2 is shown in the Figure 15 for the entire quad section. 1

In Figure 16 individual section of resonator is shown.
Each resonator is separated by NRN coupling element
here. The port dimensions are given in Figure 17 and the
NRN coupling element is shown in Figure 18 along with
dimensions. At last in Figure 19 shows the frequency
response of the given design using EM software 17and the
response is plotted. After observing these two simulations
it’s clearly understood that the structure itself is showing
greater attenuation which is not used for practical 0.2
purpose. So any other method leads to decrease in the
insertion loss, and maintain the remaining properties Figure 17. Port dimensions.
same. Since this type of Mixed coupling is leads to more

6 Vol 9 (47) | December 2016 | www.indjst.org Indian Journal of Science and Technology
 A. Venkata Varunbabu Mannam and B. Yedukondala Rao Veeranki

0.2 0.9
1.5
6.8

6.6

4.45
13.4
0.2

3.8
1

4.7
1.0

Figure 18. NRN element. 0.75

0 13.5
S11
-20 Figure 21. Single unit dimensions.
S-parameters (dB)

-40 10.5

2.142
S21
-60 1

-80

-100
1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3
Frequency (GHz)

Figure 19. S-parameters of the Quad-section using NRN

coupling element. 0.5
5.3 Direct Mixed Coupling (without NRN
Figure 22. Port dimensions.
Coupling Element)
5.3.1 Tri-section 0

Direct Mixed Coupling (without NRN coupling element) -10 S

11
-20
for the entire tri section shown in Figure 20. In Figure 21
-30
S-parameters (dB)

individual section of resonator is shown. Each resonator S

-40 21
is separated by NRN coupling element here. The port
-50
dimensions are given in Figure 22 and the S-parameters
-60
of the tri-section direct mixed coupling obtained using -70
EM software as shown in Figure 23 and the response is -80
plotted. -90
1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3
Frequency (GHz)
1 2

Figure 23. S-parameters of the tri-section direct mixed

13.9

coupling.
0.5 The tri-section asymmetric response is obtained
0.2
0.9 43.7 using the Teflon substrate having relative dielectric of 2.5,
substrate height of 1.5875mm and loss tangent of 0.0009
Figure 20. Tri-section direct mixed coupling.

Vol 9 (47) | December 2016 | www.indjst.org Indian Journal of Science and Technology 7
 Design of Narrowband Band Pass Filter using Open-loop Square Resonators with Loading Element

in stripline technology. The metal strip is shown in the

Figure 13for the entire tri-section. In Figure 13individual
10.5

2.142
section of resonator is shown. The port dimensions are
given in Figure 13along with dimensions. At last in Figure
1
14 shows the frequency response of the given design in
using EM software 17and the response is plotted here. The
center frequency of the structure is at 2.0041GHz, with
insertion loss value of -1.20781dB, the transmission zero
is frequency 2.17213GHz, with value of -63.5681dB. The
return loss maximum over passband is -11.6dB. The flat
region is over 1.9678 GHz to 2.06852 GHz. The bandwidth
of the tri-section filter is 132MHz. The over-all tri-section
0.5
size is 0.461λg× 0.1412λg.
Figure 26. Port dimensions.
5.3.2 Quad-section
Quad section direct Mixed Coupling for the entire quad 0
S
section shown in Figure 24. In Figure 25 individual -10 11

-20
section of resonator is shown. Each resonator is separated
-30
by NRN coupling element here. The port dimensions are
S-parameters (dB)
-40
given in Figure 26 and the S-parameters of the tri-section S
21
-50
direct mixed coupling obtained using EM software as -60
shown in Figure 26 and the response is plotted. -70

-80
1
-90
13.9

-100
1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3
2 Frequency (GHz)
0.5
0.2
0.85 57.95

Figure 27. S-parameters of the Quad-section

Figure 24. Quad-section direct mixed coupling. direct mixed coupling.

0.9 The quad-section asymmetric response is obtained

using the Teflon substrate having relative dielectric of 2.5,
1.5 substrate height of 1.5875mm and loss tangent of 0.0009
in strip line technology. The metal strip is shown in the
6.7 Figure15 for the entire tri-section. In Figure 15 individual
4.6
13.4

section of resonator is shown. The port dimensions are

given in Figure 15along with dimensions. At last in Figure
16 shows the frequency response of the given design in
3.8

1
4.7

Figure 14 using EM software 17and the response is plotted

here.
The center frequency of the structure is at 2.0246GHz,
0.8 with insertion loss value of -1.484dB, the transmission
13.5 zero is frequency 2.18GHz, with insertion loss value of
-78.51dB. The return loss maximum over pass band is
Figure 25. Single unit dimensions. -9.992dB. The flat region is over 1.9628 GHz to 2.0702

8 Vol 9 (47) | December 2016 | www.indjst.org Indian Journal of Science and Technology
 A. Venkata Varunbabu Mannam and B. Yedukondala Rao Veeranki
GHz. The bandwidth of the quad-section filter is 132MHz.
The over-all tri-section size is 0.611λg× 0.1412λg.
6. Conclusions
The design of compact microwave filters below 3 GHz
remains an active area of research due to great demand
from the wireless communication industry within this
band and comparatively large physical size of conventional
resonators. Microstrip square open loop resonator suits
with greater ease due to its compact size and versatility.
In this paper a compact design technique was studied
which is based on the open loop resonator with a loading
element. Moreover, the in-band response of the filter was
not compromised by the size reduction design techniques.
The tri-section and quad-section asymmetric response
is obtained using the Teflon substrate having relative
dielectric of 2.5, substrate height of 1.5875mm and loss
tangent of 0.0009 in stripline technology. The center
frequency of the structure is at 2.0246GHz, with insertion
loss value of -1.484dB, the transmission zero is frequency
2.18GHz, with insertion loss value of -78.51dB. The return
loss maximum over passband is -9.992dB. The flat region
is over 1.9628 GHz to 2.0702 GHz. The bandwidth of the
quad-section filter is 132MHz. The over-all tri-section
size is 0.611λg× 0.1412λg.
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