Journal of Engineering, Computers & Applied Sciences (JEC&AS) ISSN No: 2319-5606

Volume 2, No.5, May 2013

_________________________________________________________________________________

Design of Microstrip Parallel Coupled Band Pass Filter

for Global Positioning System
Sayantika Bhattacharjee, IMPS College of Engineering and Technology,ECE
Debabrata Poddar, IMPS College of Engineering and Technology,ECE
Sandeep Mukherjee,IMPS College of Engineering and Technology,ECE
Suman Saurabh, IMPS College of Engineering and Technology,ECE
Sudipta Das, IMPS College of Engineering and Technology,ECE

ABSTRACT
Radio frequency (RF) filters operating in the microwave frequency range are needed for applications including
wireless and satellite communications as well as military applications. Most communication system contains an
RF front end which performs signal processing with RF filters. Planar or printed circuit board (PCB) based
filters are popular and relatively practical to design. Band pass filters play a significant role in wireless
communication systems. Transmitted and received signals have to be filtered at a certain center frequency with
a specific bandwidth. This paper describes the design of low cost L-band Parallel coupled microstrip Band
pass filter(BPF) for GPS system by using micro strip layout at center frequency 1.575 GHz for permittivity 4.4
value with a substrate thickness 1.6mm for order n=3. The design and simulation are performed using 3D full
wave electromagnetic simulator IE3D.We have also develop program code in MATLAB to plot the insertion loss
(S21 parameter) and return loss(S11) of the Band pass filter.

KEYWORDS
Band pass filter, Parallel coupled microstrip line, Gps, Matlab, IE3D, Wireless communication

Introduction parallel coupled[8] microstrip line as to the [5]

There is an increasing demand for newer
microwave and millimeter wave systems to meet
the emerging telecommunication challenges with
respect to size, performance and cost. The advances
of telecommunication technology arising hand in
hand with market demands and governmental
regulations push the invention and development of
new applications in wireless communications.
Microwave communication systems are expanding
rapidly to higher frequency such as L-band since
they can provide many advantages over
conventional wireless links, for example the larger
bandwidth and smaller device size. Band pass
filters are essential building blocks for
communication system. Band pass filter is a
passive component which is able to select signals
inside a specific bandwidth at a certain center
frequency and reject signals in another frequency
region. They can reduce the harmonic and spurious
emissions for transmitters and may improve the
rejection of interferences for receivers. Microstrip
line[1] is a good candidate for filter design due to
its advantages of low cost, compact size, light
weight, planar structure and easy integration with
other components on a single board. To ease the
integration between bandpass filters and other
active devices many previous works on planar filter
design were reported [4]. In this work we have
designed bandpass filter for GPS application with
which design filter for wireless local area network
5.75GHz and [6] which used the composite
resonators and stepped impedance resonators for
filter realization. Our goal is to achieve high
accuracy in obtaining the required designed
parameters (center frequency, return loss and
insertion loss). The design and simulation are
performed using 3D full wave method of moment
based electromagnetic simulator IE3D [7]. The
response of the filter is also verified using a
program code in MATLAB.
2. Parallel Coupled, Half-Wavelength
Resonator Filter
Figure1 illustrates a general structure of parallel-
coupled (or edge-coupled); microstrip bandpass
filters that use half-wavelength line resonators.
They are positioned so that adjacent resonators are
parallel to each other along half of their length.
This parallel arrangement gives relatively large
coupling for a given spacing between resonators,
and thus, this filter structure is particularly
convenient for constructing filters having a wider
bandwidth as compared to the structure for the end-
coupled microstrip filters[2]

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Journal of Engineering, Computers & Applied Sciences (JEC&AS) ISSN No: 2319-5606
Volume 2, No.5, May 2013
_________________________________________________________________________________

Figure 1: General structure of parallel
(edge)-coupled microstrip bandpass filter.
3. Filter Design Method
Design Problem: Given a center frequency
of 1.575 GHz, bandwidth of 20% and equal
ripple in the pass-band of 0.5dB, design a
band-pass filter with 3rd order Coupled
Line configuration for the given
specification. Use FR4 substrate of
dielectric constant 4.4 with thickness of
1.6mm.
, π
= (3)
Whereg ,g …..g are the element of a ladder-type
lowpass prototype with a normalized cutoff
frequency Ω =1,and FBW is the fractional
bandwidth of bandpass filter. J , are the
characteristic admittances of J-inverters and Y is
the characteristic admittance of the terminating
lines.
To realize the J-inverters obtained in above
equations, the even and odd mode characteristic
impedances of the coupled microstrip line
resonators are determined by
, ,
(ZOe)j,j+1= 1+ + (4)
, ,
(ZOo)j,j+1= 1− + (5)
5. The next step of the filter design is to find the
dimensions of coupled microstrip lines that exhibit
the desired even- and odd-mode impedances.
Firstly, determine equivalent single microstrip
shape ratios (w/h)s. Then it can relate coupled line
ratios to single line ratios.
For a single microstrip line,
( ),
Z = (6)
( ),
Z = (7)

The filter design steps are described as 6. Now using single line equations to find (w/h)se
follows: and (w/h)so from Zose and Zoso[1]
1. We have started the design procedure with a
For < 2,
three- pole (n=3) ladder-type low pass prototype
( )
(i.e., with Chebyshev = ( )
(8)
( )

response) with element values of the low pass

ε ε .
prototype are taken from normalized values g i.e., Where A= + 0.23 +
ε ε
g , g , g .From [1] the element values of the low
pass prototype areg = g = 1.0000, g = g = For > 2,
1.5963, g = 1.0967. W 2 ε −1 0.61
= B − 1 − ln(2B − 1) + ln(B − 1) + 0.39 −
h π 2ε ε
2. The normalized element values of the low pass (9)
prototype filters are then transformed to the L-C π
Where, B=
elements for the desired mid band frequency f and √ε

desired source impedance, which is normally 50 (w/h)se and (w/h)so by applying Zose and Zoso
ohms for micro strip filters. (as Zc) to the single line microstrip equations.
3. The next main step in the design of micro strip
band stop filter is to find an appropriate micro strip 7. Now it comes to a point where it reach the w/h
realization that approximates the lumped element and s/h for the desired coupled microstrip line
filter. The filter is fabricated on a FR-4 substrate using a family of approximate equations as
having dielectric constant ε = 4.4 and of thickness following
h=1.6mm. π
= cosh cosh −1 +
4. The design equations for parallel coupled π
bandpass filter given by[3] coshπs2h+1coshπ2whse−πs2h (10)
π
= (1)
, π
= j = 1to n − 1 (2)

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 Journal of Engineering, Computers & Applied Sciences (JEC&AS) ISSN No: 2319-5606
Volume 2, No.5, May 2013
_________________________________________________________________________________

π π
-1
= cosh π π (11)

8.The effective dielectric constant is given by[2]

ε ε ε
( )

9. Once the effective dielectric constant of a micro

strip is determined, the guided wavelength of the
quasi-TEM mode of micro strip is given by
λ
g= = (13)
ε ε
Figure 2: Structure of a three-pole micro strip
Thus the length of the required resonator is parallel-coupled band-pass filter designed using
λ
l= (14) IE3D

Table1: Circuit design parameters of the three-

pole, parallel-coupled quarter wavelength
resonator filter
J Jj,j+1/ Y0 (Zoe)j,j+1 (W) (Zoo)j,j+1 (W)

0 0.443626 82.0215 37.6589

1 0.237437 64.6906 40.9469
2 0.237437 64.6906 40.9469
3 0.443626 82.0215 37.6589
Table2: Micro strip design parameters of the
three-pole (parallel-coupled quarter-wavelength
resonator filter)

J Wj /h Sj /h ere (mm)

0 1.29731 0.0276846 3.23099 26.4917

Figure 3: Layout of the three-pole micro strip
parallel-coupled band-pass filter with
1.7955 0.1169364 3.313299 26.1607
1 dimensions
2 1.7955 0.1169364 3.313299 26.1607
3 1.29731 0.0276846 3.23099 26.4917

4. Design And Simulation

A simulation study was performed to verify the
validity of the above dimensions in millimeter
wave regime. For the simulation purpose we have
used Method of Moment based Full-wave EM
solver IE3D[7]. Simulated structure of the desired
band stop filter is shown in figure2 and figure 5
indicates the response of the filter using EM solver
IE3D. Figure 4: Fabricated structure of the three-pole
micro strip parallel-coupled band-pass filter at
1.576GHz

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Journal of Engineering, Computers & Applied Sciences (JEC&AS) ISSN No: 2319-5606
Volume 2, No.5, May 2013
_________________________________________________________________________________
Figure5: Simulated Performance of three-pole micro
strip parallel-coupled band-pass filer
Fig6:Plot of S11& S12(dB)Vs frequency (GHz)
using Matlab
Figure7 Measured insertion loss (S21) and
transmission loss (S11) of three-pole micro strip
parallel-coupled band-pass filter using Network
Analyzer
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6. Results And Discussion
The simulated filter structure and response is
shown in figure2 and 5.In the response graph gain
(dB) is plotted on the y axis and frequency (GHz)
on the X axis. It is clear that the simulated midband
frequency is found to be 1.57656GHz.The band
edge frequencies are 1.29564GHz and
1.87602GHz.The value of insertion loss (S21) and
return loss(S11) at 1.57656 GHz are -0.158478 dB
and -41.2021dB respectively. The Fabricated filter
was measured using vector network analyzer and
the measured band edge frequencies are found to be
1.382260GHz and 1.776460GHz respectively with
center frequency of value 1.576GHz.The simulate
result shows that the designed filter achieved a 3dB
bandwidth of 36.814% and the measured result
gives bandwidth of 25% .The response of the
parallel coupled microstrip bandpass filter is also
plotted in figure6 by developing program code in
Matlab which also gives satisfactory required
result.
7. Conclusion
The filters are one of the primary and essential
parts of the microwave system and any
communication system. Any communication
system cannot be designed without filters. Our
designed parallel coupled microstrip bandpass filter
operates with a Bandwidth of 0.58064GHz and at a
center frequency of 1.5765GHz, which falls in the
Microwave L-band applications especially for the
Global positioning system. Global positioning
system is a worldwide radio navigation system
formed from a constellation of 24 satellites and
their ground stations.GPS receivers are becoming
miniaturized and are becoming very economical
and this makes the technology accessible to
virtually everyone. GPS receiver needs compact,
low cost high performance bandpass filter. The
parallel coupled band pass filter designed by us
fulfills the entire requirement for GPS system.
8. Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank Prof. Santanu Das
of BESU for providing the measurement facilities.
9.References
[1] D.M.Pozar, “Microwave Engineering,” John
Wiley, 2000.
[2]JiaShen G.Hong & M.J.Lancaster, Micro strip
Filters for RF/Microwave Applications” John
Wiley &Sons Inc., 2001.
[3] G. Mathaei, L.Young & E.M.T. Jones,
“Microwave Filter impedance matching networks
and coupling structures, ”Artech House, Norwood,
MA, 1980
Blue Ocean Research Journals 31
Journal of Engineering, Computers & Applied Sciences (JEC&AS) ISSN No: 2319-5606
Volume 2, No.5, May 2013
_________________________________________________________________________________

[4]S.B.Cohn “Parallel Coupled transmission line

resonator filters” IRE Transaction.Microwave
Theory Tech,Vol,PP 223-231.April1958
[5] O.A.R. Ibrahim, I.M. Selamat, M. Samingan,
M. Aziz, A. Halim, “5.75 GHz microstrip
bandpass filter for ISM band,” Applied
Electromagnetics, 2007 Asia-Pacific Conf. on,
Dec. 2007, pp. 1-5.
[6] H. Miki, Z. Ma, and Y. Kobayashi, “A Novel
bandpass filter with sharp attenuations and wide
stopband developed through the combined use of
composite resonators and stepped impedance
resonators,” Asia-pacific Microwave Conference
2006, pp. 1683-1686.
[7] IE3D Software Release – 14, Developed by
M/S Zeland Software Inc.
[8] Sina Akhtarzad, Thomas R. Rowbotham and
Peter B.Johns,”The Design of Coupled Microstrip
Lines”,IEEE Transaction on Microwave Theory
and Techniques,Vol-MTT-23,no-6,JUNE1975.

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