A Microstrip Bandpass Filter Using a Symmetrical

Parallel Coupled-line Structure

Jaruek Jantree', Sithipom Kerdsumang* and Prayoot Akkaraekthalin'
'Department of Electronics, Rajamangala Institute of Technology, Suphanburi Campus
450 Moo 6, Yanyao.District, Samchuk, Suphanburi 72130, Thailand.
*Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering
King Mongkut's Institute of Technology North Bangkok ' .
1518 Piboonsongkram Rd., Bangsue, Bangkok 10800, Thailand. . .'
Phone: +662-9132500 Ext.8519, Fax: +662-5857350, Email prayoot@kmitnb.ac.;h. '

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ABSTR4CT -This research proposes a new symmetrical fabrication compatibility. Microstrip- transmission lines are
bandpass filter structure based on microstrip parallel coupled-' presently employed for commercial RF and microwave
lines. Two bandpass filters have been computerized designed devices, partly because of 'the vast amount of design
at the operating~frequencyabout 1.9 GHz. Good agreement of informatibn available. Therefore, microstrip transmission
experiment results and simulations have been obtained with lines are employed for the proposed parallel coupled-line
low passband insertion loss (less than 1.5 dB) and high return bandpass filter in this work.
loss (highwthan 30 dB)at the center frequency. The proposed
':filters have small size, low insertion loss, high return loss and The current trend in RF and microwave design points
high, rejection band, therefore they may he suitable for towards increased integration and smaller, monolithic circuits.
Unfortunately, smaller size ,can be crippling towards a
w i r e l p communications. ".
microwave engineer, since it is often convenient to utilize the
. properties of structures, which have dimensions comparable
~. . , . 1. INTRODUCTION . to the signal wavelength. When the design area becomesI

. RF and microwavehandpass filters are presently required

~ comparable to or smaller than the signal wavelength, such
in wide applications of wireless communication systems [l]..
Military applications require wide band and tunable filters'for
receivers, which led to the development of highly selective
waveguide, coaxial resonator, and electronically tunable
filters. For satellite communications; low loss, narrow-band
'and low cost filters are demanded resulting to the
-development of -dualmode waveguide' and .dielectric
. resonator filters. Mobile communication base-stations require
low loss, low cost and high power-handling filters. These
requirements lead to advances in coaxial resonator, dielectric
resonator, and super-conducting filters. For mobile handsets,
. . low-loss, low-cost, high selectivity and extremely small filters
... are desired resulting to advances . in. integrated ceramic,
~. surface and bulk acoustic-wave filters.
Parallel coupled-lines have been egensively epployed to
develop bandpass filters by several 'authors [2]-[6]. The
parallel coupled-line filter structures' are considerably simple,
. . especially when implementing on planar circuits. This,
research, therefore, considered parallel coupled-lines as main
part; of the proposed bandpass filter. As we know, a variety
of transmission line s.tructures can be formed to be-parallel
_. coupled-lines including coaxial, microstrip, and coplanar
. waveguide (CPW) lines. However, for low-power; low-cost
and small size filters, only microstrip and coplanar waveguide
are extensively used when fabricating radio frequency and
mi monolithic microwave integrated circuits (RFICs and
MMICs) due to their planar natures and integrated circuit
... 1.
! ~.
. .
structures can be difficult or impossible to incorporate. The
slow'wave struktures have been used to reduce the size of
such stmctures by reducing the signal wavelength along the
structure. However, the slow wave structureseither introduce
additional resistive loss by narrowing the conductorlwidth, or
increase process . complexity by utilizing non-planar
structures, therefore such a strategy may not be acceptable for
the filter design. Another technique to reduce,circuit size is to
use capacitive loading to the filters, which would further
increase insertion loss in passband [7]-[IO].
This paper.proposes new development and design of four
and seven parallel coupled-line bandpass filters. The first
filter has been.designed for size reduction, and the second has
been developed for.,selectivity characteristic improvement.
~ Both bandpass filters have low insertion loss, bigh.return loss
and high rejecttion hand, which suitable for RFlCs and
MMICs . with comparable characteristics to the existing
circuits. .
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11. A PARALLEL COUPLED-LINE STRUCTURE-FILTER
Fig.1 shows a symmetrkal. parallel couple-line on a
microsrip substrate. The interactions of a couple-line can b:
found resulting to a resonant circuit, therefore it can hc
employed as key parts of a bandpass filter. The characteristir
impedances of a couple-line can be determined usin:
equations in literatures utilized for matching [I 11-[12].

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 For some applications, very small microstrip fitters are
-desirable, however reducing the filter size generally leads to
increasing dissipation losses in a given material and therefore
reduced performances. . The circuit layout (Fig. 3) of the first parallel coupled-line
Coupled microstrip lines
/ \
Ground vlane
Figure 1. The parallel coupled microstnp line.
Reducing the microstrip filter'size may be achieved by
:everal ways including using high dielectric constant
ubstrates, changing in geometry of filters such as slow wave
Ziructure filters, using multilayer substrates and using
umped-elements. In this paper, a parallel coupuled-line filter
:4ii simple opened-end microstrips as capacitive loading,
#arts has been developed. The electric field interaction
getween the opened-end circuit and the ground plane
gi~oducesa capacitive reactance resulting to the filter size
cduction. Fig.2 shows the reduced-sire. bandpass filter
.onsisting of four parallel coupled-lines with two shorted-
:ids and four opened-ends.
permittivity, 4,of 10.2 and dielectric hickness, h, of 50 mil (1
mil = 1/1000 inch) from Roger Corp.
Has been utilized to built up the proposed tiandpass filters.
bandpass filter has been obtained with optimized dimensions
are in the following: L, = 550 mil, L2 = 550 mil, L3 = 550 mil,
L4 = 550 mil, S = 20 mil, and W= 50 mil.
. .
A microcomputer-controlled milling machine (LPKF-
model) was employed to etch the circuit patterns. The circuit
lines then were connected with SMA connectors at input and
output ports. The completed four parallel coupled-line bandpass
filter is now displayed in Fig.4. The constructed bandpass filter
was finally tested using a calibrated network analyzer. The
insertion loss and return loss of filter from simulation and
measurement were agreed very well. The simulation and
measurement of insertion loss and retum loss of the proposed
four parallel coupled-line are plotted in Fig.5 (a) simulation and
(h) measurement, respectively. The small characteristic
discrepancies of the proposed bandpass filters are believed to be
due to transmission lines interconnections and discontinuities,
and the effects of dimension errors.

output Figure 3. The proposed bandpass filter layout.

open
end

Open T
end

Figure 2. A reduced-size parallel coupled-line bandpass filter circuit.

111. FILTER DESIGN AND RESULTS

The first circuit has been designed at the operating
-quency of I .9 GHz. The IE3D program has been employed
calculate and optimize the filter circuit. In this research, a ..
xowave substrate of RT/Duriod 3010 with relative ..
Figure 4. The first constructed bandpass filter. .,

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 . 1.
, Input

I + '

output

Figure 6. The proposed seven parallel coupled-line bandpass filter schematic.

Figure 7. The proposed seven parallel coupled-line bandpass filter layout.

P
(b)
. . . .. .
Figure 5 . Performances afthe first bandpaqfilter
(a) simulation and (b) measurement.

In order to improve filter selectivity characteristic (on and

off band slopes) of the first bandpass filter, we have designed
the second circuit, which has seven parallel coupled-lines, at
the operating frequency of 1.9 GHz using the IE3D program.
In this work, a microwave substrate of RTiDuriod 3002 with
relative permittivity, 4, of 3.02 and dielectric thickness, h, of
60 mil (1 mil = 1/1000 inch) from Roger Corp. h w b e e n
employed to built up the second proposed bandpass filter.
Fig.6 and 7 show the bandpass filter schematic and layout,
respectively. The bandpass filter dimensions have been
obtained in the following: Ll = L4= 550 mil, L2 = L3 = 550
mil, Ls = L, = 550 mil, L6 = 860 mil, S = 60 mil, SI= I O mil
Figure 8. The constructed bandpass filter.
and W= 80 mil.

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 The constructed bandpass filter is now shown in Fig.8.
Finally, it has been tested using a calibrated network analyzer.
The insertion loss and return loss of filter from simulation and
measurement are agreed very well. The simulation and
measurement results of insertion loss and return loss of the
seven parallel coupled-line are plotted in Fig.9 (a) and (b),
respectively. Obviously, the selectivity characteristic of the
filter has been improved when comparingwith the first one.
(b). ,
Figure 9. Performances of the seven parallel coupled-line bandpass filter (a)
simulation and (b) measurembnt.
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IV. CONCLUSIONS
Bandpass filters using a symmetrical structure of four and
seven parallel coupled-lines on a microstrip substrate have
been proposed in this paper. These filters exhibit high
performances with -90 MHz bandwidth, insertion loss less
than 3 dB and return loss larger than 30 dB at the operating
frequency around 1.9 GHz. They also are cost effective,
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expected to be developed for higher performances, and
potentially applied for the future wireless communications.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT.
This work has been partially supported by the Faculty of
Engineering, King Mongkuts Institute of Technology North
Bangkok, Rajamangala Institute of Technology, Suphanburie
Campus and NECTEC.
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