Proceedings of Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference 2007
Ultra-Wideband Microstrip-Line Bandp ass Filters
with Good Out-of-Band Performance using EBG-
Embedded Multiple-Mode Resonator
Sai Wai Wong, Lei Zhu*, and Sheng Sun
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
*Corresponding e-mail: e
Abstract- A class of ultra-wideband microstrip-line bandpass
filters with improved out-of-band performance and miniaturized
size is proposed and constituted using electromagnetic-bandgap
(EBG) embedded multiple-mode resonator (MMR). This EBG-
embedded MMR is at first studied, aiming to relocate its first
three resonant modes within the 3.1-10.6GHz UWB passband
while inhibiting its 5th resonant mode in the upper frequency
range. Moreover, the coupling zero of external coupled-lines is
properly adjusted to cancel the excitation of the 4th resonator of
this MMR. A single-stage bandpass filter is then investigated to
initially demonstrate the improved UWB bandpass behavior.
Afterwards, two- and three-stage bandpass filters are designed to
further sharpen out-of-band rejection skirts and deepen
lower/upper stopbands as required by FCC-defined UWB mask.
Finally, three filter samples are fabricated and tested. It is shown
that the measured results are well matched to the predicted ones
in terms of insertion/return losses and group delay over the
plotted frequency range of 1.0 to 20.0GHz.
Keywords- UWB bandpass filter, electromagnetic band-gap
(EBG), out-of-band, and multiple-mode resonator.
I. INTRODUCTION
As the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) in USA
released the unlicensed use of ultra-wideband (UVvB: 3.1 to
10.6 GHz) frequency spectrum for indoor and hand-held
wireless communications in 2002 [1], a tremendous research
activity has been carried out to explore one of key UVWTB circuit
blocks, that is, UWB bandpass filters with a fractional
frequency bandwidth of about 110% at the central frequency
(6.85GHz) [2-9]. The first reported UWB bandpass filter is a
dual-stopband filter and it is formed by cascading several
microstrip ring resonators with loaded open stubs [2]. Later on,
various UVvB bandpass filters are presented by connecting a
lowpass filter with a highpass filter on microstrip line [3] and
suspended stripline [4], directly cascading microstrip-to-
coplanar-waveguide (CPW) broadside-coupling structures [5]
and non-periodically interrupting a uniform microstrip line
with short-circuited stubs [6]. In parallel, the concept of a
multiple-mode resonator (MMR) with stepped-impedance
configuration is originally reported in [7], where its first three
resonant modes work together with two distributed parallel-
coupled lines to make a novel class of ultra-wide bandpass
filters. In [8], a tapered coupled line topology is presented to
allocate its coupling zero to the 4th-order or It harmonic
resonant frequency, thus somehow raising the upper-end of the
1-4244-0749-4/07/$20.00 w2007 IEEE.
EBGJ
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(a)
PCML
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EBG-Embedded MMR
(b)
Fig. 1. Proposed ultra-wideband microstrip-line bandpass filter with
three EBG-embedded multiple-mode resonators. (a) geometry and
(b) equivalent cascaded topology.
concerned upper-stopband from 13.8 to 15.9 GHz [8]. Very
recently, a multi-stage wideband filter [9] is designed and
implemented based on the so-called multimode stepped-
impedance resonators, exhibiting 5000 dominant passband and
extremely wide upper-stopband.
Nevertheless, all the reported UWB bandpass filters in [2]-
[9] are still embarrassed by the existence of a narrow upper-
stopband due to periodical appearance of multiple passbands in
all these transmission-line-resonator based filter blocks. Plus,
all of these filters are electrically large in size, which is
impractical in the implementation of hand held UVB devices.
To circumvent these problems, a periodic structure with shunt-
capacitive loading, i.e., electromagnetic bandgap (EBG)
microstrip-line structure [10] is utilized to replace the low-
impedance wide strip section in the initial \MR [7], aiming to
construct an EBG-embedded MMR and further to apply it for
exploring various multiple-stage UWB bandpass filters with
improved out-of-band performances. Fig. l(a) and l(b) depict
the geometry and equivalent topology of a three-stage UWB
bandpass filter. In the remaining part of this paper, three UVB
filters with one-, two- and three-stage MMRs are designed
using the Agilent ADS-Momentum software and they are
implemented on the RT/Duroid 6010 substrate with a dielectric
constant of 10.8 and a thickness of 0.635 mm. In final, three
filter samples are fabricated to provide an experimental
validation on the predicted UWB bandpass behaviors over a
wide frequency range.
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Fig. 2. Ultra-wideband microstrip-line bandpass filter with 1-stage
EBG-embedded multiple-mode resonator. (a) geometry and (b)
simulated frequency responses under varied coupled-line lengths d.
II. EBG-EMBEDDED RESONATOR AND UWB FILTER
As shown in Fig. 1(a), the three-stage UVWTB filter is formed
by cascading input feed line, three EBG-embedded multiple-
mode resonator (MMR) and output feed line via distributed
parallel-coupled microstrip lines (PCMLs). According to the
description in our previous works [7-8], the first three resonant
modes of the constituted MMR need to be placed within the
specified UWB passband, whereas the two PCML lines are
readily modeled to allocate the first maximum coupling degree
around the center of the concerned UWB passband, i.e.,
6.85GHz. Different from the initial MMR [7] with wide strip
width in the middle, the proposed EBG-embedded MMR is
formed by attaching three open-circuited stubs with the high-
impedance microstrip line in the middle. The equal lengths of
these stubs need to be properly chosen so as to quasi-equally
allocate the first three resonant modes within the 3.1-10.6GHz
UWB passband while producing a wide bandstop above the
dominant passband to suppress unwanted spurious passbands
caused by high-order resonant modes.
Now, let's start to have a look at the operating principle of
the proposed EBG-embedded MMR and multiple-stage UWB
bandpass filter through the numerical modeling of a single-
stage MMR filter structures shown in Fig. 2(a). The EBG-
embedded MMR is firstly constituted and it is then linked with
two 50-Q feed lines via interdigital parallel-coupled microstrip
lines (PCMLs). Fig. 2(b) depicts the frequency response of
simulated S21-magnitude under varied coupled-line lengths,
i.e., d=0.6 and 4.3mm, respectively. The former graph is
plotted to show the existence and location of the first five
8 10 12 14 16 18 20 resonant modes of a single resonator. As discussed in [7], one
Frequency(GHz) can understand that the first three resonant frequencies, ranged
in the 3.1-10.6GHz band, can be properly adjusted to work
together, aiming to make up the desired UWB passband.
As the coupled-line length (d) increases, the S21-magnitude
curve in the UWB band gradually rises up towards the ideal 0-
dB line. Fig. 2(b) shows that an ultra-wide passband is realized
under the case of d=4.3mm and its bandwidth is mainly
decided by the resonant frequencies of the 1st- and 3rd-order
modes [7]. In the meantime, the 4th-order mode occurs around
12.7GHz that is close to the coupling zero of two interdigital
PCMLs. Thus, the spurious passband due to this 4th-order mode
can be effectively eliminated as illustrated in Fig. 2(b). As
studied in [10], the EBG structure in the constituted MMR has
three open-circuited stubs can produce a preferable guided-
wave bandgap frequency range or stopband. For the EBG with
dimensions shown in Fig. 2(b), the bandgap or bandstop ranges
from 16.3 to >20.0GHz and the relevant S21-magnitude at the
5th-order mode can be reasonably reduced by making effective
use of the wave attenuation in the bandgap [ 10]. As a
consequence, an extremely wide upper stopband, covering 11.0
to 20.0GHz, is realized with an insertion loss higher than
20.0dB.
III. MULTIPLE-STAGE UWB BANDPASS FILTERS
In this section, three UVvB microstrip-line bandpass filters
with one-, two- and three-stage EBG-embedded MMRs are
designed, implemented and fabricated. In design, two adjacent
EBG-embedded MMRs are capacitively coupled via parallel-
coupled microstrip lines (PCMLs). The coupling-gap spacing
and coupled-line length of these PCMLs are properly adjusted,
aiming to achieve high return loss (>1OdB) within the UWB
passband while effectively eliminating the 4th_mode-caused
harmonic passband. The final layouts of these optimized filters
can be found from the photographs of the three fabricated
UWB bandpass filters as shown in Fig.3. The overall length of
1-stage filter is only 12.5 mm, that is much smaller than that of
the initial UVvB filter reported in [7], due to the slow-wave
behavior of the EBG section in center. In this aspect, the
overall lengths of the 2- and 3-stage filters are equal to about
20.6mm and 28.8mm, respectively.
Fig. 4(a) and 4(b) are the simulated frequency responses of
S21- and SI,-magnitudes as well as group delays for the three
optimized UWB filters shown in Fig. 3. As can be found from
Fig. 4(a), the dominant ultra-wide passband of 3.1-10.6GHZ is
satisfactorily achieved in all the three cases and the return loss
in the concerned UWB passband is all higher than 12.0dB.
These results convince us that these proposed EBG-embedded
resonators can be utilized to make up a modified class of UWB
bandpass filters with extended upper-stopband. As the stage
number is increased from 1 to 2 and 3, the out-of-band
rejection skirts in both lower and upper stopbands get
sharpened quickly, thus taking a step towards the FCC-defined
UWB mask. Fig. 4(b) illustrates that the group delay in the
UWB passband rises up as the stage number increases due to
the stretched overall length. Its shape is very flat in the middle
0
I 1-
0
I _
UO
Co
rr (a)
0 m
Frequency (GHz)
(b)
Fig. 4. Predicted frequency responses of three ultra-wideband
bandpass filters. (a) scattering-matrix magnitudes and (b) group
delays
frequency range, but becomes tremendously varied as the
frequency is moved to the lower and upper edges of an
achieved passband. In particular, the group-delay variation in
these frequency edges becomes larger and larger as more
resonators are employed. It is predominantly caused by an
inevitable tradeoff between the rejection skirt and group delay,
existed in any microwave filter block.
Fig. 5(a) and 5(b) show the measured frequency responses
of S21- and SI,-magnitudes as well as group delay. They are
found in very reasonable agreement with the predicted results
plotted in Fig. 4(a) and 4(b), thereby confirming the successful
realization of a few improved UWB bandpass filters with
sharpened out-of-band rejection skirts and extended upper-
stopband. The insertion and return losses at the UVvB center
(i.e., 6.85GHz) are lower than 1.5dB and higher than 20dB,
respectively. Unfortunately, we still can find slight
discrepancies between the simulated and measured results,
displayed in Fig. 4(a) and Fig. 5(a). In fact, in order to realize a
tight coupling degree of coupled lines as inquired in the UWB
filter design, the coupling gap or spacing is usually ranged
between 0.025 and 0.075mm and it is too small to be
co
a
0
V6
tr-,
(a)
C
0
5 6 7 8 12
Frequency (GHz)
(b)
Fig. 5. Measured frequency responses of three ultra-wideband
bandpass filters. (a) scattering-matrix magnitudes and (b) group
delays
accurately fabricated using the commercially available etching
process. In addition, the conductor thickness of 0.02mm is not
negligibly small in the case of narrow strip and gap widths, i.e.,
0.05mm and 0.10mm, thus affecting the measured
performances of the fabricated filters to a certain degree.
IV. CONCLUSION
In this work, a class of UWB microstrip-line bandpass
filters with good out-of-band performances is proposed,
designed and implemented by forming an EBG-embedded
multiple-mode resonator (MMR) and cascading these MMRs
via parallel-coupled microstrip lines (PCMLs). This MMR is
firstly studied to quasi-equally allocate its first three resonant
modes within the concerned 3.1-10.6GHz UWB passband
while placing its 4t-order resonant mode close to the coupling
zero of the employed interdigital PCMLs. Furthermore, the
EBG line section itself is characterized to produce a wide
bandstop that covers the 5th-order mode of the constituted
MMR. A single-stage UWB filter is then investigated to
demonstrate this improved UWB passband performances.
Afterwards, the two UWB filters with 2- and 3-stage EBG-
embedded MMRs are optimally designed, fabricated and
tested. Measured results have very reasonably validated the
predicted results in terms of insertion/return losses and group
delays over a frequency range of 1.0 to 20.0GHz. It is
demonstrated in simulation and experiment that a wide upper-
stopband of 11.8- 20.0GHz is achieved with the insertion loss
higher than 20dB, whereas the out-of-band rejection skirts in
both lower and upper sides become sharper and sharper as the
number of MMRs increases. The group delay has a flat shape
in the middle range of the achieved UWB passband and its
value rises up as more MMRs are utilized.
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