Hindawi Publishing Corporation

International Journal of Antennas and Propagation

Volume 2015, Article ID 698714, 6 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/698714

Research Article
Compact Microstrip Bandpass Diplexer Based on
Twist Revised Split Ring Resonators

Jian Li,1 Yongjun Huang,1 Xuefeng Zhao,1,2 and Guangjun Wen1

1
Centre for RFIC and System Technology, School of Communication and Information Engineering,
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China
2
School of Computer Engineering, Huaihai Institute of Technology, Lianyungang 222005, China

Correspondence should be addressed to Yongjun Huang; [email protected]

Received 19 February 2015; Accepted 30 March 2015

Academic Editor: Roman E. Noskov

Copyright © 2015 Jian Li et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Based on the twist revised split ring resonators (TR-SRRs) inspired filter unit a microstrip bandpass diplexer with highly compact
size and high frequency selection and isolation properties is synthesized and systematically characterized. The proposed filter unit
exhibits both electric and magnetic coupling effects and possesses two resonance modes (magnetic and electronic resonances).
The two resonance modes can be flexibly controlled by adjusting the gap between the two TR-SRRs. The synthesized diplexer
has very simple configuration with size of 0.217𝜆 𝑑 × 0.217𝜆 𝑑 and degree of freedom for impedance matching. Measurement and
simulation demonstrations are performed in this paper and a good agreement is achieved. The measured results indicate two quite
close frequency channels (centered at 2.16 GHz and 2.91 GHz) with isolation larger than 30 dB. The proposed diplexer can be easily
integrated into miniaturized RF/microwave integrated circuits.

1. Introduction On the other hand, the artificial structured resonators

with dimensional size much smaller than the operating wave-
In modern wireless communications, the obvious develop- length have been attracting exciting interests in the designs
ment tendency is to integrate more than one communication of compact diplexers/triplexes. For example, the split ring
mode in a single termination. Based on this requirement, resonator (SRR) as the basic artificial unit cell has been widely
some multiband/wideband antennas have been designed and used to design microwave/millimeter wave components [17]
therefore we need filters following the antennas to separate and its complementary inclusion applied to the coplanar
the different signals toward different frequency channels waveguide and substrate integrated waveguide can realize
and modules [1, 2]. Various diplexers/triplexes have been high performance diplexers [18, 19]. By using composite
reported in recent years based on different filter and/or quarter-wave right/left-handed (CRLH) resonators or bal-
resonator units, for example, parallel-coupled filter [3], T- anced CRLH resonators [20–23], one can obtain more com-
shaped resonator [4], stub-loaded resonator [5, 6], quarter- pact size compared with the conventional diplexers/triplexes.
wavelength resonator [7], dual-mode resonator [8], and However, most of these archives including conventional
common shorted stubs [9] to realize the assignments. In resonators and artificial structured resonators have complex
particular, the filter designs focusing on compact size, high inclusions, precise-designed T-junction, and impedance cir-
isolation, and out-of-band rejection properties are developed cuits which will result in large size and high costs.
based on stepped impedance coupled-line resonator [10, 11], In this paper, a new type of diplexer is synthesized by
double-sided parallel-strip line [12], half-wavelength open- directly using two groups of revised SRR (by electric shorting
loop resonators [13], hybrid resonators [14], series LC tanks one end of the SRR to ground plane) pairs with twist arrange-
[15], and substrate integrated waveguide resonator [16]. ments. The proposed twist revised SRR (TR-SRR) inspired
2 International Journal of Antennas and Propagation

filter unit exhibits both electric and magnetic coupling effects then be calculated from the two resonance frequencies by
and has two resonance modes (electric and magnetic reso- using coupling theory [26]:
nances) with very small electric size. Therefore the designed
diplexer possesses highly compact size compared with other (𝑓22 − 𝑓12 )
recently reported inclusions. The TR-SRR and filter unit 𝑘= ,
(𝑓22 + 𝑓12 )
are firstly analyzed, and then the synthesized diplexer is
demonstrated by both experimental and numerical methods. 𝑓1
Finally the comparisons with previously reported diplexers 𝑄𝑒1 = , (1)
Δ𝑓3 dB
are presented and discussed.
𝑓2
𝑄𝑒2 = ,
2. Filter Design and Analysis Δ𝑓3 dB

Figure 1(a) shows the top and side views of the proposed where 𝑓1 and 𝑓2 correspond to the lower and higher res-
revised SRR configuration. Two extended microstrip lines onance frequencies and Δ𝑓3 dB is the 3 dB frequency band-
are collected to the split of a conventional SRR and one width. In our previous work [24], it has shown that our design
of the extended ends is electric shorted to ground plane. exhibits high external quality factors, which can contribute
Such kind of design can be considered as a new quarter- to low insertion loss, flat passband, and good return loss. The
wavelength resonator from the equivalent circuit view. The calculated coupling coefficient shown in Figure 2(b) indicates
new revised SRR can exhibit impedance matching to the that when decreasing the gap values the coupling between the
50 Ω feed line, which connects to the shorted branch as two SRRs will be enhanced. However, at smaller gap values,
shown in Figure 1(a), without additional complex circuits. the coupling is too strong so that the two resonance modes
The electric and magnetic fields at the resonance frequency separate far from each other and result in the dropdown
for one revised SRR are shown in Figure 1(b), which indicate within the passband as shown in Figure 2(a). Therefore, both
asymmetric field distributions and will give us abundant the bandwidth and insertion loss will be considered when
choices for the coupling filter design. After numerical investi- choosing the gap values, and the isolation will be also taken
gations by HFSS full-wave simulations, the twist arrangement into consideration when designing the diplexer.
as shown in the inset of Figure 1(c) has better passband
characteristics [24] and also can be easily used to synthesize 3. Diplexer Synthesis and Demonstration
the diplexer which will be discussed later. As an example,
the simulated transmission and reflection properties of the Based on the above analysis for the filter unit, here the
designed filter unit are shown in Figure 1(c) with parameters diplexer is synthesized by placing properly two filter units
shown as follows, in millimeter: 𝑎 = 4, 𝑏 = 2.7, 𝑐 = side by side with different sizes and connecting to the input
0.4, 𝑤 = 0.4, 𝑟 = 0.15, 𝑔 = 0.5, and 𝑡 = 0.8. Rogers port with a simple T-junction as shown in Figure 3(a). Such
RO4003 substrate, which has the relative dielectric constant design can effectively use the limited space to achieve the
𝜀𝑟 = 3.55 and loss tangent tan 𝛿 = 0.0027, is used in this highly compact inclusion. By using the same Rogers RO4003
paper and the thickness of the SRRs and ground plane is substrate as above, the dimensional parameters are finally
0.03 mm. The dimension of filter unit is 8 mm × 12.4 mm. optimized as follows, in millimeter: 𝑎1 = 5, 𝑎2 = 4, 𝑏1 = 3.7,
As can be seen, such filter exhibits a passband centered 𝑏2 = 2.7, 𝑐 = 0.4, 𝑒 = 9.2, 𝑓 = 1.76, 𝑔1 = 0.5, 𝑔2 = 0.5,
at 2.97 GHz with a 3 dB bandwidth of 0.46 GHz. From the 𝑤 = 0.4, and 𝑟 = 0.15. The overall dimensional size is 𝑑 × 𝑑 =
reflection curve in Figure 1(c) there are two poles at 2.88 and 16 mm × 16 mm. The photograph of fabricated diplexer is also
3.05 GHz and the surface currents on the twist SRR pairs shown in Figure 3(b) with the definitions of the three ports.
at such two frequencies show typical electric and magnetic Each port is soldered with a 50 Ω microminiature coaxial
resonance modes. Moreover, there is a transmission zero connectors, operated from DC to 6 GHz.
below the passband. From the mixed coupling filter theory, Then the scattering parameters for the diplexer are
the magnetic coupling for our twist SRR based filter is larger experimentally measured by a two-port vector network
than the electric coupling, and as a result the transmission in analyzer (Agilent N5230A). In measurements, the third port
lower band is related to strong magnetic coupling [25, 26]. is terminated by a wide-band 50 Ω load when measuring two
It can contribute to the high isolation when synthesizing of these three ports for the diplexer. The measured results
the diplexer in the next section by using the proposed filter are shown in Figure 4 and the corresponding numerical
unit. results are also presented for comparisons. As can be seen,
By altering the gap values between the TR-SRR pairs, one good agreements are achieved between measurements and
can obtain the changing properties of the filter passband as simulations which demonstrate the corrections of the design
shown in Figure 2(a). It indicates an expanded bandwidth and synthesis. The measured two channels are located at
when decreasing the gap. This is due to the enhancements 2.16 GHz and 2.91 GHz with 3 dB bandwidths of 0.3 GHz
of both electric and magnetic coupling in the adjacent area. and 0.32 GHz, respectively. The measured insertion losses
Figure 2(b) shows the captured frequency shift properties of are 1.25 dB and 1.48 dB, respectively, for the two channels,
the two resonance modes as functions of gap value 𝑔. The which show quite low values due to the simple configuration
coupling coefficient 𝑘 and the external quality factors 𝑄𝑒 can (including the extra losses from the microminiature coaxial
International Journal of Antennas and Propagation 3

E-field

Feed line c a

H-field

Top view

Side view
(a) (b)
0
2.88 GHz

−10

−20
S-parameters (dB)

−30

−40
3.05 GHz
−50

−60

−70
g

−80
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Frequency (GHz)

|S11 |
|S21 |
(c) (d)

Figure 1: (a) The new revised SRR, (b) the electric and magnetic field distributions near the SRR at resonance frequency, (c) the twist SRRs
inspired filter unit and its simulated scattering parameters, and (d) the surface current distributions at the two resonance modes.
4 International Journal of Antennas and Propagation

0 3.5 0.45

−10 0.40
0.35
−20

Coupling coefficient
3.0

Frequency (GHz)
0.30
−30
|S21 | (dB)

0.25
−40
0.20
−50 2.5 0.15
−60 0.10
−70 0.05

−80 2.0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Frequency (GHz) g (mm)

g = 0.6 mm g = 0.2 mm Higher mode

g = 0.4 mm Lower mode
(a) (b)

Figure 2: (a) Simulated transmissions for the twist SRR inspired filter unit at different gaps and (b) the changing properties for the two
resonance frequencies and the calculated mix coupling coefficient as functions of gap 𝑔.

f
Port 1
e

w c

Port 3 Port 2
r
d a2
g2 g1

b2
b1
a1

d
(a) (b)

Figure 3: (a) The synthesized compact diplexer layout with dimensional parameters and (b) the photograph of fabricated diplexer.

connectors). The return losses for the input port (Port 1) zeros below and above the operating bands but will destroy
at the two channels are 25 dB and 14 dB and for the two the compact configuration size.
output ports (Ports 2 and 3) are 26 dB and 21 dB. These Finally, the performance comparisons for the proposed
are quite good impedance matching properties even though diplexer and other recently reported designs are concluded
they are without a carefully designed matching circuit (just in Table 1. Here 𝜆 𝑑 is the operating wavelength within the
conventional 50 Ω microstrip line). The out-of-band rejection dielectric substrate defined as 𝜆 𝑑 = 𝑐/(√𝜀𝑟 𝑓), where 𝜀𝑟 is the
is more than 30 dB and reaches up to 5 GHz for the lower relative permittivity of substrate, 𝑓 is the center frequency
channel and in the entire measured frequency region for the of first channel, and 𝑐 is the speed of light in free space. It
higher channel. Moreover, the measured isolation between can be found that the diplexer proposed in this paper has
the two output ports shows a value of larger than 30 dB, which comparable frequency selection and isolation properties and
is also a good isolation property for the proposed highly almost the smallest inclusion size (except the design reported
compact inclusion. Such isolation can be further increased by in [13] using complex series LC tanks and meander line
adding more SRRs in the filter units to get more transmission inductors to achieve the compact resonators).
International Journal of Antennas and Propagation 5

0 0

−10 −10
|S11 | |S22 | |S33 |
−20 −20
S-parameters (dB)

S-parameters (dB)
−30 −30
|S21 | |S23 |
−40 −40
|S31 |

−50 −50

−60 −60

−70 −70

−80 −80
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Frequency (GHz) Frequency (GHz)

Measurements Measurements
Simulations Simulations
(a) (b)

Figure 4: (a) The measured and simulated reflections of Port 1 and transmissions of Ports 2 and 3 from Port 1 and (b) reflection for Ports 2
and 3 and the transmission between Ports 2 and 3.

Table 1: Comparisons between the proposed diplexer and other compact designs.

Designs 𝜀𝑟 of substrate Frequency (GHz) Size (𝜆 𝑑 2 ) Insertion loss (dB) Isolation (dB)
[11] 4.5 1.85, 2.5 0.424 × 0.382 2.05, 2.15 >25
[14] 2.2 1.82, 2.5 0.193 × 0.297 2.51, 2.17 >55
[15] 3.38 1.8, 3.6 0.153 × 0.09 0.4, 0.5 >30
[16] 2.55 8, 9 1.325 × 1.325 2.86, 3.04 >40
[22] 2.2 1.8, 2.35 0.178 × 0.341 1.34, 1.44 >25
[23] 2.65 3.5, 4 0.944 × 0.765 1.95, 1.97 >25
This work 3.55 2.16, 2.91 0.217 × 0.217 1.25, 1.48 >30

4. Conclusions Funds for the Central Universities (Grant no. E022050205).

Yongjun Huang also gratefully acknowledges the Scholarship
In this paper, a new type of TR-SRRs inspired bandpass filter Award for Excellent Doctoral Student granted by Ministry of
unit is designed and then a highly compact diplexer based Education of China (Grant no. A03003023901006).
on the designed filters is synthesized and demonstrated. Such
diplexer with size of 0.217𝜆 𝑑 × 0.217𝜆 𝑑 exhibits good charac-
teristics, including the close channels, low insertion loss, wide References
out-of-band rejection, and high isolation, which can be flex-
[1] B. Strassner and K. Chang, “Wide-band low-loss high-isolation
ibly integrated into miniaturized RF/microwave/millimeter microstrip periodic-stub diplexer for multiple-frequency appli-
wave circuits and systems. cations,” IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Tech-
niques, vol. 49, no. 10, pp. 1818–1820, 2001.
Conflict of Interests [2] Z. C. Hao, W. Hong, J. X. Chen, X. P. Chen, and K. Wu, “Planar
diplexer for microwave integrated circuits,” IEE Proceedings—
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests Microwaves, Antennas and Propagation, vol. 152, no. 6, pp. 455–
regarding the publication of this paper. 459, 2005.
[3] Y.-S. Lin, P.-C. Wang, C.-W. You, and P.-Y. Chang, “New designs
Acknowledgments of bandpass diplexer and switchplexer based on parallel-
coupled bandpass filters,” IEEE Transactions on Microwave
This work was supported in part by the National Natural Theory and Techniques, vol. 58, no. 12, pp. 3417–3426, 2010.
Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 61371047), Research [4] M.-L. Chuang and M.-T. Wu, “Microstrip diplexer design using
Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China common T-shaped resonator,” IEEE Microwave and Wireless
(Grant no. 20110185110014), and the Fundamental Research Components Letters, vol. 21, no. 11, pp. 583–585, 2011.
6 International Journal of Antennas and Propagation

[5] Q. Xue, J. Shi, and J.-X. Chen, “Unbalanced-to-balanced and Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 59, no.
balanced-to-unbalanced diplexer with high selectivity and 2, pp. 260–269, 2011.
common-mode suppression,” IEEE Transactions on Microwave [23] H. Zeng, G. Wang, D. Wei, and Y. Wang, “Planar diplexer using
Theory and Techniques, vol. 59, no. 11, pp. 2848–2855, 2011. composite right-/left-handed transmission line under balanced
[6] C. F. Chen, C. Y. Lin, B. H. Tseng, and S. F. Chang, “High- condition,” Electronics Letters, vol. 48, no. 2, pp. 104–106, 2012.
isolation and high-rejection microstrip diplexer with indepen- [24] Y. Huang, G. Wen, and J. Li, “Systematical analysis for the mixed
dently controllable transmission zeros,” IEEE Microwave and couplings of two adjacent modified split ring resonators and
Wireless Components Letters, vol. 24, no. 12, pp. 851–853, 2014. the application to compact microstrip bandpass filters,” AIP
[7] F. Cheng, X. Q. Lin, Z. B. Zhu, L. Y. Wang, and Y. Fan, “High Advances, vol. 4, no. 10, Article ID 107119, 2014.
isolation diplexer using quarter-wavelength resonator filter,” [25] B. Wu, X. Lai, T. Su, and C.-H. Liang, “Wideband cross coupled
Electronics Letters, vol. 48, no. 6, pp. 330–331, 2012. filter using split-ring resonator defected ground structure,”
[8] B. A. Belyaev, A. M. Serzhantov, and V. V. Tyurnev, “A microstrip Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications, vol. 22, no.
diplexer based on dual-mode resonators,” Technical Physics 11-12, pp. 1631–1638, 2008.
Letters, vol. 38, no. 8, pp. 743–746, 2012. [26] J. S. Hong and M. J. Lancaster, Microstrip Filters for RF
[9] W. Che, X. Gao, and W. Feng, “Microstrip diplexer for GSM and Microwave Application, chapter 8, John Wiley & Sons, New
WLAN bands using common shorted stubs,” Electronics Letters, York, NY, USA, 2001.
vol. 50, no. 20, pp. 1486–1488, 2014.
[10] S. Srisathit, S. Patisang, R. Phromloungsri, S. Bunnjaweht, S.
Kosulvit, and M. Chongcheawchamnan, “High isolation and
compact size microstrip hairpin diplexer,” IEEE Microwave and
Wireless Components Letters, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 101–103, 2005.
[11] H. Liu, W. Xu, Z. Zhang, and X. Guan, “Compact diplexer
using slotline stepped impedance resonator,” IEEE Microwave
and Wireless Components Letters, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 75–77, 2013.
[12] Q. Xue and J.-X. Chen, “Compact diplexer based on double-
sided parallel-strip line,” Electronics Letters, vol. 44, no. 2, pp.
123–124, 2008.
[13] Z.-H. Bao, J.-X. Chen, E. H. Lim, and Q. Xue, “Compact
microstrip diplexer with differential outputs,” Electronics Let-
ters, vol. 46, no. 11, pp. 766–768, 2010.
[14] T. Yang, P.-L. Chi, and T. Itoh, “High isolation and compact
diplexer using the hybrid resonators,” IEEE Microwave and
Wireless Components Letters, vol. 20, no. 10, pp. 551–553, 2010.
[15] J.-Y. Zou, C.-H. Wu, and T.-G. Ma, “Miniaturized diplexer
using synthesized microstrip lines with series LC tanks,” IEEE
Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, vol. 22, no. 7, pp.
354–356, 2012.
[16] F. Cheng, X. Lin, K. Song, Y. Jiang, and Y. Fan, “Compact
diplexer with high isolation using the dual-mode substrate
integrated waveguide resonator,” IEEE Microwave and Wireless
Components Letters, vol. 23, no. 9, pp. 459–461, 2013.
[17] R. Marqués, F. Martı́n, and M. Sorolla, Metamaterials with Neg-
ative Parameters: Theory, Design and Microwave Applications,
John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ, USA, 2007.
[18] J. Bonache, I. Gil, J. Garcı́a-Garcı́a, and F. Martı́n, “Comple-
mentary split ring resonators for microstrip diplexer design,”
Electronics Letters, vol. 41, no. 14, pp. 810–811, 2005.
[19] Y. Dong and T. Itoh, “Substrate integrated waveguide loaded by
complementary split-ring resonators for miniaturized diplexer
design,” IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, vol.
21, no. 1, pp. 10–12, 2011.
[20] Y. Horii, C. Caloz, and T. Itoh, “Super-compact multilayered
left-handed transmission line and diplexer application,” IEEE
Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 53, no.
4, pp. 1527–1533, 2005.
[21] T. Kodera and C. Caloz, “Integrated leaky-wave antenna–
duplexer/diplexer using CRLH uniform ferrite-loaded open
waveguide,” IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation,
vol. 58, no. 8, pp. 2508–2514, 2010.
[22] T. Yang, P.-L. Chi, and T. Itoh, “Compact quarter-wave resonator
and its applications to miniaturized diplexer and triplexer,” IEEE
 International Journal of

Rotating
Machinery

International Journal of
The Scientific
Engineering Distributed
Journal of
Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporation

World Journal
Hindawi Publishing Corporation Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Sensors
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Sensor Networks
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014 http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014 http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014 http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014 http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014

Journal of

Control Science
and Engineering

Advances in
Civil Engineering
Hindawi Publishing Corporation Hindawi Publishing Corporation
http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014 http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014

Submit your manuscripts at

http://www.hindawi.com

Journal of
Journal of Electrical and Computer
Robotics
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Engineering
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014 http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014

VLSI Design
Advances in
OptoElectronics
International Journal of

International Journal of
Modelling &
Simulation
Aerospace
Hindawi Publishing Corporation Volume 2014
Navigation and
Observation
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014
in Engineering
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014
Engineering
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
http://www.hindawi.com
http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014

International Journal of
International Journal of Antennas and Active and Passive Advances in
Chemical Engineering Propagation Electronic Components Shock and Vibration Acoustics and Vibration
Hindawi Publishing Corporation Hindawi Publishing Corporation Hindawi Publishing Corporation Hindawi Publishing Corporation Hindawi Publishing Corporation
http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014 http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014 http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014 http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014 http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014