Journal of Shanghai University (English Edition), 2007, 11(4): 396–399

Digital Object Identifier(DOI): 10.1007/s 11741-007-0415-2

Design of low-pass filter based on a novel defected ground structure

ZHONG Xiao-ming (), LI Guo-hui ()

School of Communication and Information Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200072, P. R. China

Abstract A novel defected ground structure (DGS) for the microstrip line is proposed in this paper. The DGS lattice has
more defect parameters so that it can provide better performance than the conventional dumbbell-shaped DGS. Selectivity
is improved by 97.2% with a sharpness factor of 24.6%. The method is applied to the design of a low-pass filter to confirm
validity of the proposed DGS.

Keywords defected ground structure (DGS), low-pass filter, bandgap, sharpness factor, selectivity.

1 Introduction confirms validity of the proposed fractal DGS, the LPF’s

Recently, there has been an increasing interest in
studying microstrip lines with various periodic struc-
tures including photonic bandgap (PBG) and defected
ground structure (DGS). DGS has only a few etched de-
fects in the backside metallic ground plane. Similar to
PBG, DGS has popular applications[1,2] in the design
of microwave circuits due to its excellent bandgap char-
acteristics and easy fabrication. Compared to PBG[3] ,
DGS has a simpler structure and potentially great ap-
plicability to the design of microwave circuits such as
filters, amplifiers and oscillators[2−4]. Electromagnetic
waves in DGS provide bandgap characteristics leading
to a slow-wave structure. The effective electrical length
of the microstrip line is longer than the conventional mi-
crostrip line for the same physical length. Therefore a
configuration, and the design procedure.
2 DGS pattern and its bandgap charac-
teristics
Fig.1 shows the schematics of the proposed DGS
and a conventional dumbbell-shaped DGS, occupying
the same surface area. The DGS pattern is etched
on the metallic ground plane. Generally speaking, the
important defect parameters of the dumbbell-shaped
DGS are the etched lattice dimension a × a and the
gap distance g. The defect parameters of the pro-
posed DGS are a1 , b1 , a2 , b2 , d1 , g, where the relation-
ship a1 + 2a2 = d1 + 2b2 = a is selected. The sub-
strate for simulation was a Neltec NY9260 (IM) with
a a

more compact design can be obtained.

In the previously reported DGS, the DGS lattice is
a a
a simple geometrical shape such as rectangle. In this
paper, a fractal DGS with more defect parameters is
proposed. The DGS section can also be expressed as g g
a parallel LC resonator using 3-D EM simulation and W W

a simple circuit analysis method. By modifying the pa-

rameters, better bandgap, slow-wave characteristics and
b1 d1
selectivity of the proposed fractal DGS are obtained. Fi-
nally, the fractal DGS is applied to design a three pole b2 a1 b2
low-pass filter (LPF). The LPF is designed with two
DGS patterns on the ground plane and a 50 microstrip a2 a2

line with one cross-junction open stubs on the top metal (a) The novel DGS (b) Dumbbell-shaped DGS
plane. The operational characteristics of the filters are Fig.1 Schematic of defected ground structure with
controlled by optimizing several physical parameters. a = 4 mm, W = 2.8 mm, and g = 0.4 mm
Moreover, comparison between the circuit simulation (dashed line is DGS pattern etched in back-
and 3-dimension electromagnetic (3-D EM) simulation side metallic ground plane)
Received Oct.20, 2005; Revised Jan.10, 2006
Project supported by the Shanghai Leading Academic Discipline Project (Grant No.T0102)
Corresponding author LI Guo-hui, PhD, Asso. Prof., E-mail: ghlee@sh163.net
Vol. 11 No. 4 Aug. 2007 ZHONG X M, et al. : Design of low-pass filter based on a novel defected ... 397

1 mm thickness and a dielectric constant εr of 2.6. The
microstrip line width W is chosen for the characteristic
impedance of the 50 Ω.
Fig.2 shows the equivalent circuit of the novel DGS.
The bandgap characteristics can be explained by a par-
allel LC resonator circuit. The equivalent circuit pa-
rameters (Lp and Cp ) can be obtained by using the S
parameters based on 3-D EM simulation and simple cir-
by modifying the parameters a1 , b1 , and d1 . From the
figures, it can be seen that the attenuation poles of the
novel DGS is lower than that of the dumbbell-shaped
DGS in the same occupied surface. As can be seen, the
proposed DGS provides sharper cutoff performances.
0
−10

Magnitude (dB)
cuit analysis method.
Novel DGS
S11
Lp −20 a1 = 0.8 mm
a1 = 1.8 mm
a1 = 2.8 mm
−30 S21 Dumbbell DGS
a1 = 0.8 mm
a1 = 1.8 mm S11
a1 = 2.8 mm S21
−40
0 2 4 6 8 10
Cp
Zo=50 Ω Zo=50 Ω Frequency (GHz)

Fig.3 Effect of the parameter a1 on the performances

0
Fig.2 Equivalent circuit of the novel DGS
−10

Magnitude (dB)
From the works of Rahman, et al.[5] and Ahn, et Novel DGS
S11
al.[6] , we can obtain the capacitance Cp in pF and the −20
b1 = 1.5 mm
inductance Lp in nH: b1 = 2.5 mm
−30 b1 = 3.5 mm
S21
5fc b1 = 1.5 mm
Dumbbell DGS
Cp = , (1) −40 S11
π[fp2
− fc2 ] b1 = 2.5 mm
S21
b1 = 3.5 mm
250 −50
Lp = , (2) 0 2 4 6 8 10
Cp (πfp )2 Frequency (GHz)

where fc (in GHz) is cutoff frequency of a bandgap re- Fig.4 Effect of the parameter b1 on the performances
sponse at 3 dB, and fp is its pole frequency in GHz.
0
At any frequency f < fp , the parallel resonance circuit
behaves as an inductor. Its equivalent inductance in nH
−10
is obtained from
Magnitude (dB)

Novel DGS
S11
Lp −20
Leq =   2  . (3) d1 = 0.4 mm
d1 = 1.0 mm
f
1− fp
−30 d1 = 1.6 mm
S21 Dumbbell DGS
−40 d1 = 0.4 mm
d1 = 1.0 mm S11
For the low-pass filter, we define two important pa- d1 = 1.6 mm S21
rameters SF (sharpness factor)[5] and selectivity ξ [7] as −50
0 2 4 6 8 10

fc
SF = ,
fp
αmin − αmax
ξ= , (5)
fs − fc
where ξ is selectivity in dB/GHz, αmin , αmax are atten-
uation points at 3 dB and 20 dB, respectively, and fs is
20 dB stopband frequency in GHz.
Assuming that a = 4 mm and the original defect pa-
rameters of the proposed DGS a1 = 1 mm, b1 = 2 mm,
d1 = 1 mm, and g = 0.4 mm, the simulation results for
the transmission characteristics are shown in Figs.3∼5
Frequency (GHz)
(4)
Fig.5 Effect of the parameter d1 on the performances
In the following, we analyze the results in Fig.3.
As shown in Table 1, when a1 = 2.8 mm for the
proposed DGS, the resonant frequency fp and 3 dB
cut-off frequency fc are 6.05 GHz and 4.29 GHz, re-
spectively, whereas for the dumbbell DGS, the res-
onant frequency fp and 3 dB cut-off frequency fc
are 7.97 GHz and 4.52 GHz, respectively. There-
fore, the SF is improved by 24.6%, and 3 dB sharper
 398 Journal of Shanghai University

cutoff performances and improved slow-wave perfor-
mances are obtained by using the proposed DGS.
For the proposed DGS, the 20 dB isolation band-
width (BW20 dB ) and selectivity ξ are 0.48 GHz and
11.18 dB/GHz, whereas for the dumbbell DGS, the
20 dB isolation bandwidth (BW20 dB ) and selectivity
ξ are 0.93 GHz and 5.67 dB/GHz, respectively. The
20 dB isolation bandwidth is reduced by 48.4%, while
the selectivity is improved by 97.2%. Moreover, the
depth of bandgap (S21 max ) is improved by 40.4%. Thus
improved bandgap performances are obtained by using
the novel DGS.

Table 1 Comparative study of the novel DGS and the dumbbell DGS (a = 4 mm, g = 0.4 mm, εr = 2.6)

DGS dimensions

a1 = 0.8 mm a1 = 1.8 mm a1 = 2.8 mm Dumbbell DGS

fc (GHz) 4.37 4.39 4.29 4.52

fp (GHz) 6.70 6.46 6.05 7.97
BW20 dB (GHz) 0.63 0.56 0.48 0.93
S21 max (dB) −30.7 −34.9 −38.2 −27.2
Cp (pF) 0.2696 0.3111 0.3752 0.1669
Lp (nH) 2.0930 1.9097 1.8444 2.3893
SF 0.65 0.68 0.71 0.57
ξ(dB/GHz) 8.42 9.44 11.18 5.67

From Table 1, we can also conclude that fp ,
BW20 dB , S21 max and Lp of the proposed DGS are in-
versely proportional to the defect parameter a1 . Cp ,
SF and ξ of the proposed DGS are proportional to the
defect parameter a1 .
the distance between the two DGS pattern, X = 3.2 mm
and the gray area is the top conductor strip on substrate
(εr = 2.6), w = 2.8 mm, Wc = 5 mm, Lc = 3 mm. Com-
parison between circuit simulation and 3-D EM simula-
tion is also plotted as shown in Fig.8.

3 Low-pass filter design Wc

To verify the validity of the equivalent circuit and

the characteristics analysis for the proposed DGS, a
Lc
three-pole low-pass filters (LPF) with attenuation pole
is designed at the cut-off frequency of a 2.2 GHz with
W
0.01 dB ripple level.
Fig.6 shows the lumped circuit for LPF, where the
parallel resonant circuits are realized with two DGS unit
structures. The parallel capacitance in a lumped LPF
can be realized by using the parallel open stub with a
X
cross-junction structure.
Fig.7 Schematic of the designed LPF with the
L =1.8444 nH L =1.8444 nH proposed DGS

Zo=50 Ω 0

C =1.3380 pF
Magnitude (dB)

Zo=50 Ω −40
C =0.3752 pF C =0.3752 pF
3-D EM Simulation
S11
Fig.6 Lumped LPF circuit with equivalent circuit for the −80 S21
DGS unit structure Circuit Simulation
S11
S21
Fig.7 shows the schematic of the designed LPF with −120
0 2 4 6 8 10
the proposed DGS section, where the white area is Frequency (GHz)
the proposed DGS pattern etched in backside metallic
ground plane, a = 4 mm, g = 0.4 mm, a1 = 2.8 mm, Fig.8 Comparison between circuit simulation
a2 = 0.6 mm, b1 = 2 mm, b2 = 1.5 mm, d1 = 1 mm, and 3-D EM simulation data
Vol. 11 No. 4 Aug. 2007 ZHONG X M, et al. : Design of low-pass filter based on a novel defected ...
Three dimensional EM simulation shows that the fil-
ter has a low-pass band of 0.1 ∼ 2.2 GHz with S21 more
than −0.1 dB, a 0.01 dB ripple level, and a wide stop-
band of 5.1 ∼ 10 GHz with S21 less than −20 dB. Fig.8
shows a good agreement between the circuit simulation
and the 3-D EM simulation. Thus validity of the pro-
posed DGS, the LPF’s configuration, and design proce-
dure are comfirmed. In addition, because the distance
X between the two DGS patterns and the discontinu-
ity of the connected micro-strip line also influence the
performances of the LPF, a few more iterations for the
parameters X, Wc and Lc are needed to obtain the final
dimension of the LPF.
4 Conclusion
A novel DGS has been proposed. Simulations show
that it can provide more efficient size reduction of the
microstrip structure and better bandgap characteristics
than the dumbbell-shaped DGS. Furthermore, this DGS
is applicable to the design of LPF filters. Comparison
between the circuit simulation and the 3-D EM simu-
lation confirms validity of the proposed DGS, the LPF
configuration, and the design procedure.
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(Editor HONG Ou)