JOURNAL OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES, VOLUME 2, ISSUE 8, SEPTEMBER 2012 5

DESIGNING OF LOW LOSS DIELECTRIC RESONATOR FILTER

Engr. Muhammad Yameen, Engr. Sharjeel Afridi and Engr. Jamil Ahmed

AbstractEmerging wireless, space and satellite communication links require light weight, low loss, temperature stable and inexpensive
communication devices. Microwave filters are the key element of any communication system or microwave link. Microwave filters are usually implemented by using waveguide, coaxial, microstrip or lumped element resonators. Only dielectric resonator filters provide best combination of volume versus insertion loss of filter. Dielectric resonator filters offer very high Q factors to provide lowest pass band insertion loss and higher selectivity with compactness and minimal power requirements [1]. And satisfy vital demand of emerging space communication systems and cellular industry by offering very high-quality factor due to their inherent low loss material [2]. This paper describes basic steps to design dielectric resonator filter with the help of a 3D finite-element method (FEM) simulation tool, Ansoft HFSS (High Frequency Structure Simulator). Dielectric disks are used to tune the filter response within a limited range. Index Terms Dielectric resonator, Filter, Insertion loss method, Puck, Spur free response.

1 INTRODUCTION
Dielectric resonator filter was introduced by Cohn in 1968 using a dielectric material of permittivity 100 and loss tangent 0.0001 [3]. Then up to 1980s DR filters were not preferred due to their temperature instability. There are several shapes of DR commercially available but commonly used structure is cylindrical DR. The fundamental TE mode of cylindrical DR is TE01 [4]. A detailed mathematical explanation of resonant frequencies, filed distribution and magnetic coupling is discussed for dielectric resonator band pass filters in [3]. In this paper, a single mode 3rd order dielectric resonator filter is realized using insertion loss filter design method. The HFSS simulation tool is used to compute the s-parameters, radiation patterns, filed strengths and resonant frequencies of the dielectric resonant structures. 2 DIELECTRIC RESONATORS

A small piece of high dielectric constant material having a cylindrical, cubic or other shape can be used as a dielectric resonator. The high dielectric constant material used as a resonator is named as puck. A dielectric resonator sustains resonance due to the difference of permittivity of dielectric and surrounding air region. Puck is held with a material of low dielectric constant within a conducting enclosure, usually Teflon with dielectric constant of 2.1 and loss tangent of 0.0003 [5]. The purpose of enclosure is to stop radiations of energy from puck to outside Resonant frequency depends upon dimensions and dielectric constant of the puck. Important properties of a dielectric resonator are its Q-Factor, field patterns, resonant frequencies and spur free bandwidth [6]. The spur-free response of the dielectric resonator can be enhanced by introducing a hole inside the puck to make it as a ring. Resonators can be tuned using an adjustable metal plate above the resonator [4]. Dielectric resonators have low loss tangent and good temperature stability [7]. Resonator modes are very sensitive to the dielectric diameter [2]. Dielectric resonator filters exhibit high Q-factor to the volume ratio [8]. A typical dielectric resonator structure shown below in the figure.

Muhammad Yameen is with the University of Leeds, United kingdom. On leave from Sukkur Institute of Business Administration, Sukkur, Pakistan. Sharjeel Afridi is with the University of Leeds, United Kingdom. On leave from Sukkur Institute of Business Administration, Sukkur, Pakistan. Jamil ahmed is a MSc student at university of Leeds

2.4 TUNING Operating frequency of a dielectric resonator depends upon permitivity of the material, surrounding permitivities and its shape. By using dielectric tuning disk a change of upto 15% can be achieved [1]. Tuning disk can easily be mounted in the cavity by tuning screws. 2.5 COUPLING Coupling depends upon the mode of excited,
Fig.1. A typical dielectric resoantor structure

the resonator to be required [11]. For

and

amount

of

coupling

fundamental TE01 mode of cylindrical dielectric resonators magnetic coupling is optimum solution as there is enough magnetic field coming out of the resonator radially.. Dielectric resonator size and distance between resonators define the internal coupling for resonators [11]. 3 BAND PASS FILTER DESIGN USING INSERTION LOSS METHOD Following is the steps to design a microwave filter using (1) insertion loss method. At first specifications of a filter such as resonant frequency, roll off rate, pass band bandwidth, stop band bandwidth, maximum pass band insertion loss, minimum stop band attenuation, order of filter and filter type are determined. A normalized lumped element low pass prototype filter is (2) designed. Then low pass prototype is transformed to band pass by using frequency and impedance scaling [12]. Finally, a physical realization is selected to implement the filter. Following figure shows 2GHz, 3-pole circuit based on low pass prototype response obtained from AWR microwave (3) office.

2.1 PERMITIVITY OF DIELECTRIC Permitivity of a dielectric material determines the capability of the material to store electric and magnetic energy at its resoanant frequency. The higher the permitivity of a material the lower the speed of microwave signal passing through it [9]. The wavelength passing through a dielectric material is decreased by a factor of r . [10] 2.2 QUALITY FACTOR Quality factor is defined as Q= [2 * Mximum energy stored per cycle / average energy dissipated per cycle ] The unloaded Q factor can be calculated as Where Qd, Qc and Qr represent dielectric , conduction and radiation losses respectively. When conduction, radiation and external losses are considered negligible then unloaded Q can be approximated as Where tan is the loss tangent of the resonator [4]. 2.3 RESONANT FREQUENCY Following expression gives the resonant frequency of a dielectric resonator with 2 % error. (4) Where Dmm is the diameter of the puck in milli meters and the H represents height of the dielectric puck.

Fig.2. Low pass prototype response of 3rd order chebyshev filter

3.1 SCALING AND FILTER TRANSFORMATION If W1 and W2 represent the pass band lower and upper edges respectively, and W0 is the centre frequency of the pass band, then band pass filter response can be obtained replacing W by

(5) Where = (W2-W1)/ W0 is the fractional bandwidth of the pass band, and W0 is the geometric mean of lower and upper pass band edge frequencies [13]. Thus low-pass filter elements are now converted into series resonant circuits having low impedance at resonance in series arms and parallel resonant circuits with high impedances in parallel arms. The series element of low-pass filter are transformed in a series resonant circuit according to relation given below (6) And (7) Similarly parallel branch elements can be impedance, and frequency transformed as (8) And (9) [5]. Thus using above relations the filter response of fig.1.2 is transformed into a band pass 3-pole filter with a centre frequency of 2GHz and new element values as shown in
Fig.4. Circuit based 3rd order chebyshev band pass filter response.

4 IMPLEMENTATION The above described lumped element design is proficient at low frequencies, but at microwave frequencies wavelength becomes comparable to the physical dimensions of the lumped circuit elements so these become too small to be realized [12]. Also capacitors and inductors are manufactured for specific range of values so they can be only approximated with distributed circuit values. Distributed circuits can be realized using transmission lines, rectangular or circular waveguide resonators or dielectric resonators. Following figure shows a relative comparison between insertion loss and size of a general filter types.

Fig.5. A relative comparison between volume and Q-Factor of different microwave resonators at f=1GHz

fig.3
Fig.3. Circuit based 3rd order chebyshev band pass filter

Dielectric resonator offer better quality factor ranging up to 50000, more temperature stability, low pass band insertion loss and more selectivity [1]. A Dielectric puck (Calcium titanateneodymium) with permittivity of 45and having been following specification is used to design DR filter.

Following figure shows the response of a 2GHz band pass filter having a fractional bandwidth of 50MHz produced with the AWR microwave office.

Table.1. Dielectric Puck dimensions

This Eigen mode data represents that first resonant mode, i.e. TE01 occurs at 2GHz and the second resonant mode occurs at 2.68GHz which is much far away from the fundamental mode and can easily be eliminated by using a secondary low-pass filter. Figure.8 and figure.9 show electric and magnetic-field patterns of the above structure computed by HFSS.

Dimension

Measurement (mm)

Puck height Puck outer diameter Puck inner diameter Support outer diameter Support inner diameter Support height Tuning disk diameter Tuning disk height Metallic enclousure dimension

10.8mm 25.4mm 10.3mm 22mm 18mm 10mm 24.8mm 4mm 170 * 50 * 50.

Figure.6 shows a photograph of a dielectric resonator with above mentioned dimensions

Fig.8. E-Field distribution in the DR

( a)

Fig.9. H-field distribution in the DR

Due to the high dielectric constant most of the electric and magnetic energy is stored within the dielectric puck [6]. It is observed that by allowing a tuning range of 15mm a frequency
(b) Fig.6. 2GHz DR section photograph with tuning disk (a) top view (b) side view.

tuning range of 140 MHz can be achieved. A 3rd order dielectric resonator filter structure and its response simulated in HFSS are shown in figure below. Input and output coupling is achieved by using standard 50 ohm coaxial probes while inter resonator coupling is achieved using magnetic field as it forms vertical loops around the dielectric puck. DR sections proximity determines the amount of energy coupled from one resonator section to the other. In case of over coupling sharp peaks occur at resonances of both resonators with deep ripples. It is observed that when spacing between resonators is 33 mm, and input output probes are 3.3 mm away from the puck the critical coupling is achieved.

When simulated in HFSS, the following Eigen mode resonances and Q-factor data is obtained for dielectric resonator of figure.7

Fig.7. Resonant modes and Q factor of DR

This is extended version of our own paper presented and published as conference proceedings in 2nd International conference on communication and signal processing (MICCSP2012) held on 4-6 April 2012 at Barcelona Spain. 7 REFRENCES
[1]. Raafat R. Mansour High Q tunable Dielectric-Resonator Filters, IEEE microwave magazine, Oct 2009 Fig.10. Three pole dielectric resonator filter [2]. Chi Wang, Kawthar A. Zaki,, Ali E..Atia, and Tim G. Dolan, Dielectric Combline Resonators and Filters, IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques, vol. 46, NO. 12, December 1998 [3]. Seymour B. Cohn, Microwave Band pass Filters Containing High-Q Dielectric Resonators, IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques, vol. MTT-16, NO. 4, April 1968 [4] Ian C. Hunter, J. David Rhodes, and Vanessa Dassonville, Dual-Mode Filters with Conductor-Loaded Dielectric Resonators, IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques, vol. 47, NO. 12, December 1999 [5] Mohammad Memarian, and Raafat R. Mansour, Quad-Mode and DualMode Dielectric Resonator Filters, IEEE transactions on microwave theory Fig.11. 2GHz three pole DR filter S21 response and techniques, vol.57, No.12, December 2009. [6] Ian Hunter, Theory and design of microwave filters, IEE electromagnetic wave series, volume 48, The institution of electrical engineers, London ,UK,2001 [7] Darko Kajfez and Pierre Guillon, Dielectric resonators, Artech house, INC, 1986 [8] Rafaut R. Mansur, High Q tunable dielectric resonator filters, IEEE microwave magazine, October 2009. [9] Perambur S.Neelakanta, Handbook of electromagnetic materials Monolithic and composite versions and their applications, CRC press New York, January 1995 [10] Mailadil T.Sebastian, Dielectric materials for wireless communication, first edition, Elsevier Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP, UK, 2008 Fig.12. 2GHz three pole DR filter S11 response [11]. Tuning and Exciting Dielectric Resonator Modes, Trans-Tech ceramics advanced materials, Application note No. 851: March 9, 2007 [12]. Ian C. Hunter, Laurent Billonet, Bernard Jarry, and Pierre Guillon Microwave FiltersApplications and Technology, IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques, vol. 50, NO. 3, March 2002 [13] John B. Ness, A Unified Approach to the Design, Measurement, and Tuning of Coupled-Resonator Filters, IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques, vol 46, NO. 4, April 1998.

5 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK A 3rd order 2GHz single mode dielectric resonator band pass filter with 2 % fractional bandwidth is designed. A tuning disk is put above the dielectric puck to fine-tune the centre frequency of DR. This paper provides the basic methodology and steps to produce single mode DR filter. Further research is required to apply the concept of multimode DR filters in order to achieve higher Q to volume ratio to meet the emerging industry requirements.

6 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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Muhammad Y Sandhu: M.Y Sandhu received

his B.E degree in Telecommunication Engineering from Mehran Univerity of Engineering in 2009. and He Technology, Jamshoro, Pakistan

completed his MSc in Communication Engineering from University of Leeds, Uk in 2011. From 2009 to 2011 he has worked as Lecturer in department of Electrical Engineering at Sukkur Institute of Business Administration, Sukkur Pakistan. His Research interests include Microwave filters, antenna and multiplexer design.

Sharjeel Afridi: Sharjeel Afridi received his B.E

degree in Telecommunication Engineering from Mehran Univerity of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro, Pakistan in 2007. He just completed his MSc in Communication Engineering from University of Leeds, Uk in 2012. From 2007 to 2011 he has worked as Lecturer in department of Electrical Engineering at Sukkur Institute of Business Administration, Sukkur Pakistan. His Research interests include Microwave and Wireless Communication, Communication Networks and Protocols and algorithms.

Jamil Ahmed: Jamil received his BSc Degree in

Electronics Engineering from Islamia University Bahawalpur Pakistan in 2010. He has accomplished Post graduation in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from University of Leeds UK in 2012. From 2010-2011, he has served as Service Engineer in Pakistan Microbiological Associates. His potential field of interest include but not limited to Communication Network, Microwave Theory and Wireless Communication.