European Journal of Scientific Research ISSN 1450-216X Vol.42 No.4 (2010), pp.604-613 EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2010 http://www.eurojournals.com/ejsr.

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Simple Multilayer Hairpin Bandpass Filter

Ahmad A. Sulaiman Senior Lecturer, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia E-mail: asari100@yahoo.com Mohd H. Mokhtar Research Student, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia E-mail: aziq1987@yahoo.com Mohd H. Jusoh Lecturer, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia E-mail: huzaimy@ieee.org Nor H. Baba Senior Lecturer, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia E-mail: bnora88@yahoo.com Rabiatun A. Awang Lecturer, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia E-mail: ariana_aly@yahoo.com Mohd F. Ain Associate Prof. Dr., Universiti Sains Malaysia E-mail: mohdfadzilain@yahoo.com.my Abstract This paper presents a 2.52 - 2.65 GHz two bandpass filters using hairpin resonators in a multilayer configuration for digital broadcasting application. A combination of fourpole hairpin resonators was designed to operate at center frequency of 2.58 GHz with a bandwidth of 60 MHz and 90 MHz, respectively. The circuit was simulated using Computer Simulation Technology (CST). The Rogers RO3003 and FR4 substrates with dielectric constant, r of 3.0 and 4.6 each was used as material based. The results from the design show that the circuits are working well. Few parameters in the circuit were analyzed and have a good relationship to the microwave theory. Keywords: Multilayer, hairpin, bandpass filter, digital broadcasting.

1. Introduction
Digital broadcasting is a set of transmission standards that aim to broadcast signals in digital form with a specific slant. The mode of distributions can be through a medium of satellite, terrestrial or cables. Recently, many countries worldwide are moving towards a revolutionary change to digital broadcasting including Malaysia. The digital signal broadcasting begins from a transmitter located at

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an uplink communication system facilities and end at a radio wave receiver from a satellite transponder at downlink devices. A bandpass filter is an electronic device that allows signals between two specific frequencies to pass through, and discriminates any unwanted signals out of the desired frequencies. The Advance of telecommunication system has enhanced the need of more sophisticated devices in order to support the variety of the applications. In order to meet the consumers need, a microwave bandpass filter with a compact size, high quality in performance together with a low cost is required. A multilayer structure approach has been proposed to reduce the size of microwave devices since most of communication systems end up with a portable device for consumer conveniences [1-3]. Since filter is the most important device in communication system, a multilayer bandpass filter that able to provide small circuit dimensions and flexibility in integration to other microwave components is a most suitable approach. The design procedure of single-layer filter using symmetrical couple microstrip lines has well documented in literature [4]. However, a tight couple between the resonators in this configuration is difficult to be fabricated and quite complicated to be realized. A multilayer filter is able to overcome those restrictions [5-6]. A well known method that has been used to realize the miniature filters is by fabricating all multilayer filters on a high dielectric constant substrate [6-7].

2. Methodology
In a multilayer construction, normally a stripline from transmission media was applied in order to isolate between adjacent traces. On the top of the multilayer structure, a parallel coupled lines model able to demonstrate the high performance of the filter. A hairpin filter is one of a modified structure that comes from parallel coupled lines [8]. The main idea is to obtain a better couple affect by folding the resonators from parallel-coupled transmission line, half wavelength resonator was modified and adjusted into a "U" shape and was recognized as hairpin. The structure is widely utilized in designing a microwave resonator due to the ability of providing a flexible coupling variation and producing a compact size in a package of simple design procedures [9].
Figure 1: Multilayer construction

Figure 1 shows a basic multilayer construction. The structures are primarily consisting of a core material that has been laminated both sites by a thin layer of copper metal. Any circuit can be realized on the substrate using the thin layers copper metal as distributed elements. Since the circuit is needed to be grounded, then an epoxy layer was introduced to separate the signal lines and ground plane. In a practical measurement, the circuit will expose to the air. However in a simulation procedure, the part of air was recognized as a vacuum since the circuit was simulated by assuming the circuit was measured in a close boundary.

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Ahmad A. Sulaiman, Mohd H. Mokhtar, Mohd H. Jusoh Nor H. Baba, Rabiatun A. Awang and Mohd F. Ain

Figure 2 shows the overall process that involves in designing the multilayer filter. The structure and dimensions of the hairpin resonators were calculated such as explained by [10]. However, this project only using a hairpin without interdigital structures. The filter was aimed to operate at the specific center frequency of 2.58 GHz with a 3% bandwidth. A fourth-order hairpin resonator was chosen in order to realize these objectives. An optimization process has been introduced along the simulation procedure focusing on the filter dimension in order to improve the response of the filter.
Figure 2: Design Flowchart

Circuit Layout

Figure 3 illustrates the structure of the multilayer filter which consists of resonators 1 and 4 that were allocated on the top of the core material. Another two resonators; resonator 2 and 3 were constructed at the bottom surface of the same core material. A thin epoxy layer that act as glue was used to combine the multilayer structure after the resonators 2 and 3. Finally a ground plane was attached to the epoxy. A Vacuum box was introduced on the upper layer of the filter as a boundary condition. This multilayer model was constructed and simulated using CST microwave studio (MWS) in order to predict the performance of the filter. The design specifications were shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Design Specifications
Filter Specification Center frequency Insertion loss, S21 Return loss, S11 Bandwidth Values 2.58 GHz < -3 dB >-20 dB 80 MHz

Simple Multilayer Hairpin Bandpass Filter

Figure 3: Construction of fourth-order multilayer hairpin bandpass filter

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The properties of Rogers RO3003 that implemented in this design are dielectric constant, r = 3.0, substrate height, h = 0.75 mm, loss tangent, tan = 0.0013 and copper thickness t = 0.035 mm, respectively.
Figure 4: Dimension of resonators on the top layer

Theoretically, the impedance of the microstrip and stripline can be calculated using equations in [11]. However, in this project, the impedance lines were calculated directly from the CST software. The dimensions of hairpin resonators were determined by folding parallel-coupled half wavelength into a "U" shape. A quarter wavelength, /4 distance from the circuit was added in order to clamp the screws on the fabricated circuit for avoiding any signal interference. By overlapping adjacent hairpin resonator on different layers, strong coupling affect can be achieved. The flexibility of couplings between non-adjacent resonators on different layers also can influence the coupling strength. The resonance frequency can be varied by modifying the length of the U-shape and gaps between the resonators. Figure 4 and 5 shows the overall dimensions in detail for the top and inner resonators of the multilayer structure. The overall sizes are 47.13 mm 37.42 mm.

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Ahmad A. Sulaiman, Mohd H. Mokhtar, Mohd H. Jusoh Nor H. Baba, Rabiatun A. Awang and Mohd F. Ain
Figure 5: Dimension of resonators in the inner layer

3. Results and Discussion

Figure 6 shows the simulated responses of return loss, S11 and insertion loss, S21. The best return and insertion losses in the passband that have been obtained from the simulation are -27.828 dB and 1.5028 dB, respectively. The bandwidth of the circuit is about 90 MHz. All results have good agreement to the design specifications.
Figure 6: S-parameters obtained from the filter on RO3003 substrate

The analyses on few parameters that have major influences to the response have been done. The gaps between two resonators on the top and the inner layers have a large affect on the coupling performance inherently relate to the insertion, S21 and return, S11 losses. Figure 7 and Figure 8 show three samples of different sizes of the gap between resonators on top layer. The response of S11 and S21 will be shifted to the higher frequency when the space was increased. At the same time the values become worst due to the coupling affect become weak.

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Figure 7: Transformation of S11 when the gap size from the top layer was increased.

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Figure 8: Transformation of S21 when the gap size from the top layer was increased.

The size variation on the gap between resonators in the inner layer was shown in Figure 9 and Figure 10. Both insertion and return losses were not shifted. However the magnitude of the resonant was improved on both return and insertion losses when the size was reduced. These transformations pattern are good for the filter since an ideal device is very high return loss but zero insertion loss in passband. This means that the smaller the size of the gap is better for the filter.
Figure 9: Transformation of S11 when the gap size from the inner layer was increased.

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Ahmad A. Sulaiman, Mohd H. Mokhtar, Mohd H. Jusoh Nor H. Baba, Rabiatun A. Awang and Mohd F. Ain
Figure 10: Transformation of S21 when the gap size from the inner layer was increased.

Width and length of transmission line resonators also have a significant influence on the overall response. When the width was decreased, S11 will be shifted to the higher frequency. However, when the width was increased, the return loss will be shifted to the lower frequency. At the same time, the magnitude of the losses decreasing until the device is malfunction as shown in the Figure 11 and Figure 12.
Figure 11: Parameters sweep of S11 on width of resonators

Figure 12: Parameters sweep of S21 on width of resonators

When the lengths of resonators were varied, the results were shown in the Figure 13 and Figure 14. This parameter was varied in order to strengthen the analysis on the affect of the overall circuit size. From the graphs, when the length of resonators ware increased, the responses will be shifted to a lower frequency. The overall circuit size will become larger. The relationship between wavelength and

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frequency has known as inversely proportional according to the equation, = c/f. This analysis has proven that the results of the filter are agreed well to the microwave theory.
Figure 13: Parameters sweep of S11 on length of resonators

Figure 14: Parameters sweep of S21 on length of resonators

The next analysis was done using FR-4 substrates on the same multilayer structure in order to see the performance and size variation of the filter as compared to Rogers RO3003. The FR4 has dielectric constant of 4.6, substrate height of 0.79 mm, loss tangent of 0.025 and with the same copper thickness as in RO3003 which is 0.035 m. The simulated response of the circuit on FR-4 substrate was shown in Figure 15. It is clearly shown that the filter has a same working centre frequency and working well at the targeted bandwidth. The summary results presented in Table 2 show the comparison between both substrates; FR-4 and RO3003. A higher insertion loss was obtained from the circuit on FR4 compared to the circuit on RO3003. The values are -2.4955 dB compared to -1.5028 dB. This is due to high tangent loss of FR-4 that leads to high dissipation effect from the substrate. However, the overall circuit size on FR-4 is smaller than the design on RO3003 due to the high dielectric constant of the substrate. Theoretically, the dielectric constant is inversely proportional to the propagation signal wavelength. If the dielectric constant is high, a more compact circuit can be realized on the substrate. The overall parameters obtained from the simulation agree well to the targeted specifications that have been calculated at the beginning of the design. Both of the circuits produce passband return losses more than -20 dB and

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Ahmad A. Sulaiman, Mohd H. Mokhtar, Mohd H. Jusoh Nor H. Baba, Rabiatun A. Awang and Mohd F. Ain

insertion loss less than 3dB. Some optimizations need to be performed in order to obtain a wider bandwidth but the center frequency of 2.58 GHz still can be maintained.
Figure 15: Result from FR-4 substrate

Table 2:

Comparison results of both designs on FR-4 and RO3003

FR-4 2.55 2.61 2.58 -2.4955 -23.753 60 40.04 32.43 RO3003 2.53 2.62 2.58 -1.5028 -27.828 90 47.13 37.42

Properties Lower cut-off frequency fL, (GHz) Upper cut-off frequency fU, (GHz) Center frequency Insertion loss (dB) Return loss (dB) Bandwidth (MHz) Overall circuit size (mm)

4. Conclusion
Two simple multilayer hairpin bandpass filter have been presented. Deep analyses on few parameters have shown significant power to control the filter responses. Parameters such as size of the gap between resonators, width and length of transmission lines on Rogers RO3003 substrate were investigated. The analyses have proven that the design work according to the microwave theory.

5. Recommendation
Since multilayer is a method that able to reduce size of overall circuit area. In future, the design is recommended to apply more than two core substrate layers. A substrate that has a high relative permittivity also can be investigated in order to improve the filter performances.

Acknowledgement
Authors would like to thank Universiti Teknologi Mara, Universiti Sains Malaysia and The Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) for supporting the project under Science Fund.

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References
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