IEEE MICROWAVE AND WIRELESS COMPONENTS LETTERS, VOL. 21, NO.

4, APRIL 2011

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A New Quad-Band Bandpass Filter Using Asymmetric Stepped Impedance Resonators

Hung-Wei Wu, Member, IEEE, and Ru-Yuan Yang, Member, IEEE
AbstractA new quad-band microstrip bandpass lter (BPF) using asymmetric stepped impedance resonators (SIRs) is proposed. The lter only employs two sets of the asymmetric SIRs. One set is designed to operate at the rst and third passbands (2.4/5.2 GHz) and the other set is employed at second and fourth passbands (3.5/6.8 GHz). By tuning the impedance and length ratios of the asymmetric SIRs, a multi-band lter can be easily achieved. This study provides a simple and effective method to design a quad-band lter with low insertion loss and compact size. Experimental verication is provided and good agreement has been found between simulation and measurement. Index TermsAsymmetric, bandpass lter (BPF), quad-band, stepped impedance resonator (SIR).

I. INTRODUCTION

Fig. 1. Conguration of the proposed quad-band lter using coupled asymmetric stepped impedance resonators.

ECENTLY, developments in microwave multi-band bandpass lters (BPFs) have been gaining much attention for multi-service wireless communication systems [1], such as the applications of Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), IEEE 802.16 Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) and Radio-Frequency Identication (RFID). Quad-band lters became important building blocks and deeply demanded. To design a quad-band lter with low insertion loss, compact size, good passband selectivity and wide stopband is a challenge for the circuit designers. Till now, only few methods for quad-band bandpass lters were reported [2][4]. In [2], the quad-band lter was realized by using negative-refractive-index transmission-line (NRI-TL) metamaterials. Each of the four passbands was controlled by varying the parameters of the NRI-TL. However, the design parameters are too complex and the circuit size is large. To reduce the circuit size, the quad-band lter using CPW-fed dual-mode double-squarering resonators was proposed [3]. Resonant frequencies can be controlled by tuning the perimeter ratio of the square rings. However, large circuit size and complexity in design have become problematic issues. In [4], the quad-band lter with half-wavelength coupled uniform impedance resonators (UIRs) and defected ground structures (DGSs) on the ceramic substrate using a screen-printing technique was proposed. However, the use of
Manuscript received July 19, 2010; revised September 26, 2010; accepted January 07, 2011. Date of publication March 10, 2011; date of current version April 08, 2011. This work was supported by the National Science Council under Contract NSC 98-2218-E-168-003. H. W. Wu is with the Department of Computer and Communication, Kun Shan University, Tainan 71003, Taiwan (e-mail: hwwu@mail.ksu.edu.tw). R. Y. Yang is with the Department of Materials Engineering, National PingTung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung 912, Taiwan. Color versions of one or more of the gures in this letter are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identier 10.1109/LMWC.2011.2106153

DGSs would disturb the signal integrity on the ground plane for package and the design freedom would be limited. Conventional SIRs are known that it can shift the higher order resonant mode, thus some approaches also use the higher order frequencies to create another passband [1], [5][7]. But the conventional SIRs have dual discontinued steps, causing more loss and larger circuit area. In this letter, we propose a new quad-band lter using asymmetric stepped impedance resonators (SIRs). The proposed lter has compact circuit size and strong design feasibility since the arrangement of the coupled asymmetric SIRs and the quad-passbands can be easily determined by properly tuning the dimension of the asymmetric SIRs. The proposed lter is designed at 2.4/3.5/5.2/6.8 GHz for combination of WLAN (2.4/5.2 GHz), WiMAX (3.5 GHz) and RFID (6.8 GHz) applications. This study provides a simple and effective method to design a low-loss compact quad-band BPF without complex design and fabrication process. II. DESIGN PROCEDURE Fig. 1 shows the conguration of the proposed lter. Two pairs of the asymmetric SIRs, constructed by a high-impedance section with only one low-impedance section, are used to generate a quad-band frequency response. The asymmetric SIRs have better features than the conventional SIRs [5][7], such as the compact size and strong design feasibility, as discussed in [8]. Fig. 2(a) shows the conguration of the asymmetric SIR. The impedance ratio ( ) and the length ratio ( ) are dened as and , respectively. The input admittance of the asymmetric SIR is derived as (1)

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IEEE MICROWAVE AND WIRELESS COMPONENTS LETTERS, VOL. 21, NO. 4, APRIL 2011

Fig. 3. Coupling coefcients of (a) M at 1st and 3rd passbands (2.4/5.2 GHz) and (b) M at 2nd and 4th passbands (3.5/6.8 GHz) simultaneously.

Fig. 2. (a) Asymmetric SIR layout, (b) normalized ratios of f =f and f =f for the asymmetric SIR with K = 0:45 and (c) normalized ratios of f =f and f =f for the asymmetric SIR with K = 0:55.

The resonant conditions of the asymmetric SIR occur while . Several solutions for and are dependent on the choice of and . Comparing to the conventional SIRs [5], higher resonant modes of the asymmetric SIR can be easily shifted to far away or close to the fundamental resonant mode without increasing the discontinued step-impedance sections. Therefore, it is easy to design a compact multi-band or wideband lter using the asymmetric SIRs [8]. Fig. 2(b) and (c) and for the asymshow the normalized ratios of and 0.55, respectively. Considering metric SIR with that , , and ( and ) with for SIR 2 , and and SIR 3; ( and ) with for SIR 1 and SIR 4, the length ratio can be explicitly determined as 0.2 and 0.8 which are marked as point A and B, respectively. In ( and ) and this work, ( and ) for SIR 2 and SIR 3 and ( and ) and ( and ) for SIR 1 and SIR 4 are chosen for generating the quad-band frequency responses. The designed asymmetric SIRs

are realizable. Because the highest practical limit of impedance realization is 190 , typically for Duroid 5880 substrate. , The proposed lter is designed to have , and with , , and fractional bandwidths , respectively. The passbands ripple is set as 0.01 dB. , The element value of the low-pass prototype lter are , , and [9]. The coupling coefcients and the external quality factors ( ) are calculated as and at 2.4 GHz, and at 5.2 and at 3.5 GHz and GHz, and at 6.8 GHz. When the two coupled asymmetric SIRs synchronously tuned to have ) can be oba close proximity, the coupling coefcients ( tained from the two resonant modes by using full-wave electromagnetic (EM) simulation [10] (2) where and are dened to be the higher and lower of the two resonant modes and and means the index of the asymmetric SIRs as shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 shows the simulated coupling coefcients between the coupled asymmetric SIRs. The coupling spacing ( and ) can be tuned to satisfy the coupling degree between the adjacent SIRs. Fig. 4 shows the current distributions of the proposed lter at 2.4, 3.5, 5.2, and 6.8 GHz. Though the plots, we can further verify that the EM waves are transmitted in the lter from port 1 to port 2. Each passband can be implemented individually, and low insertion loss and good passband selectivity of the each passband can be well achieved.

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Fig. 4. Current distributions of the proposed lter at 2.4, 3.5, 5.2, and 6.8 GHz.

characterized in an HP 8510C network analyzer. The fabricated lter has measured center frequencies at 2.4/3.5/5.2/6.8 GHz, the 3-dB fractional bandwidth (FBW) of 6.4/9.4/3.8/4.9%, the ) of 0.5/1.3/1.3/1 dB and minimum insertion loss ( ) of 13/38/19/26 dB. Results show the return loss ( that the selectivity of each passbands is sharp and the wide stopband is achieved under average rejection level of approximately 30 dB from 8 to 13.5 GHz. Wide stopband is obtained by selecting the different higher resonant modes of the two sets of asymmetric SIRs [11], as shown in Fig. 2. The arrangement of the resonators can generate the cross coupling effects. The transmission zeros near each passband will occur due to the multipath propagation with mixed electric and magnetic coupling is generated [9]. Slightly mismatch between the simulated and measured results might be due to the fabrication errors or the variation of material properties. Table I summarized the comparison of the proposed lter with other reported quad-band lters [2][4]. The proposed lter shows low insertion loss, a compact size, good passband selectivity and wide stopband. IV. CONCLUSION A compact quad-band bandpass lter has been proposed and investigated through the EM simulation and experiment. Measured results reveal that the lter achieves a compact size, good quad-band performance, low insertion loss, good selectivity at passbands edges and wide stopband. The lter has strong design feasibility, since the passbands can be easily determined by tuning the dimensions of the asymmetric SIRs. This study provides a simple and effective method to design a quad-band bandpass lter without complex fabrication process. The superior features indicate that the proposed lter has a potential to be utilized in multi-service wireless communication systems. REFERENCES
[1] C. F. Chen, T. Y. Huang, and R. B. Wu, Design of dual- and triplepassband lter using alternately cascaded multiband resonators, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 54, no. 9, pp. 35503558, Sep. 2006. [2] M. Studniberg and G. V. Eleftheriades, A quad-band bandpass lter using negative-refractive-index transmission-line (NRI-TL) metamaterials, in Proc. IEEE Antennas Propag. Soc. Int. Symp., 2007, pp. 49614964. [3] J. C. Liu, J. W. Wang, B. H. Zeng, and D. C. Chang, CPW-fed dualmode double-square-ring resonators for quad-band lters, IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 142144, Mar. 2010. [4] C. C. Cheng and C. F. Yang, Develop quad-band (1.57/2.45/3.5/5.2 GHz) bandpass lters on the ceramic substrate, IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 20, no. 5, pp. 594596, May 2010. [5] M. Makimoto and S. Yamashita, Bandpass lters using parallel-coupled stripline stepped-impedance resonators, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. MTT-28, no. 12, pp. 14131417, Dec. 1980. [6] M. H. Weng, H. W. Wu, and Y. K. Su, Compact and low loss dualband bandpass lter using pseudo-interdigital stepped impedance resonators for WLANs, IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 187189, Mar. 2007. [7] S. Sun and L. Zhu, Compact dual-band microstrip bandpass lter without external feeds, IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 15, no. 10, pp. 644646, Oct. 2005. [8] Y. C. Chang, C. H. Kao, M. H. Weng, and R. Y. Yang, Design of the compact wideband bandpass lter with low loss, high selectivity and wide stopband, IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 18, no. 12, pp. 770772, Dec. 2008. [9] J. S. Hong and M. J. Lancaster, Microstrip Filters for RF/Microwave Applications. New York: Wiley, 2001, pp. 315375. [10] IE3D Simulator Zeland Software, Inc., 2002. [11] S. F. Chao, C. H. Wu, Z. M. Tsai, H. Wang, and C. H. Chen, Electronically switchable bandpass lters using loaded stepped-impedance resonators, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 54, no. 12, pp. 41934201, Dec. 2006.

W = 1 W = W = W = 02 W = 13 S = 02 S = 12 S = 0 6 S = 0 1 L = 5 L = 3 7 L = 8 L = 11 L = 4 L = 6 L = 8 7 L = 12 8 L = 10
TABLE I COMPARISONS WITH OTHER PROPOSED QUAD-BAND FILTERS. (PCB: PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD; FBW: 3-DB FRACTIONAL BANDWIDTH;  IS THE FREE-SPACE WAVELENGTH OF THE CENTER AT 1ST PASSBAND FREQUENCY)

Fig. 5. Simulated and measured frequency responses of the fabricated lter. , : , : , : , : , ( : , : , , : , , , , , : , : and . All are in mm).

III. RESULTS Fig. 5 shows the simulated and measured frequency responses of the fabricated lter, which is fabricated on the Duroid 5880 , loss tansubstrate with the relative dielectric constant and thickness . The size gent , approximately of the fabricated lter is 20 22 , where is the free-space wavelength of the center of the 1st passband (2.4 GHz). Measured results of the lter are