2011 IEEE International Conference on System Engineering and Technology (ICSET)

Out-of-Band Improvement of the Quarter Wavelength

Side-Coupled Ring Resonator Using Low-pass Filter
Integration
M. K. Mohd Salleh
Microwave Technology Center (MTC)
Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)
Shah Alam, Malaysia
[email protected]

Abstract—Integration of low pass functions into the quarter microstrip line ideal line
w = 1,400 mm Zoe = 100 Ω
wavelength side-coupled ring resonator topology is presented as a g = 0,170 mm
solution to suppress the parasitic raise in the attenuation band of Zoo = 40 Ω
l = 44,900 mm
the resonator response. Two types of 3rd order low-pass filter are
proposed: stepped impedance low-pass filter and stub low-pass
filter. Using the proposed concepts, three filters were designed λ/4 (at 1 GHz)
h = 1,52 mm
and fabricated using microstrip technology on alumina substrate. εr = 4,32 out-of-band
The experimental results show improvements in the out-of-band 0
response of the resonators.
S11
Keywords: Bandpass filters, ring resonator, low-pass -10
integration, harmonic suppression
dB (S11), dB(S12)

S12
I. INTRODUCTION -20 ideal coupled lines
bandwidth
New applications at microwave frequencies have led to distributed microstrip
coupled lines
hardened constraints on the constitutive elements in the
-30
communication system. Theses constraints are found in transmissions that are
not null at the same point
particular in the case of microwave filters that are required to
f0 = 1 GHz
have very good selectivity, miniaturized size and high out-of- -40
band rejection level. Ring resonators are relatively well known 0 0,5 1,0 1,5 2,0 2,5 3,0 3,5 4,0
as they offer dual resonance and transmission zeros in the Frequency (GHz)
frequency response leading to improvements in terms of Figure 1. Comparison between the response of ideal coupled lines and
compactness and selectivity. Furthermore, the introduction of a microstrip coupled lines
new topology of the ring resonator involving the use of quarter
wavelength coupled lines has led to the development of its Zr
global synthesis that simplifies the design of ring-based
bandpass filter in many ways [1]-[2]. λ/4
Zoe Zoe
However, although ideally the ring resonator response λ/4 λ/4
Zoo Zoo
presents the first harmonic at 3f0, its rejection level is not well
contained in practice. This is due to the non-linearity of the IN
λ/4 OUT
distributed elements as illustrated in Fig. 1 where the response
between ideal coupled lines and microstrip coupled lines are Zr
compared. The response of distributed lines is predictable only Figure 2. Ring resonator topology [1]
in a certain band centered at the centre frequency. For example,
the responses in Fig. 1 do not present the zero transmissions at This rejection level drawback can be improved by
the same frequency. As far as the ring resonator is concerned, a cascading the ring resonator in series with low pass filters but
transmission zero should ideally appear at 2 f0. However the the size of the final circuit will be increased.Another solution
dispersion of the distributed lines leads to the de- is by integrating low pass functions directly in the filter
synchronization phenomena which give birth to parasitic raise topology [3]-[5]. As the ring resonator whose topology is
at higher frequency. shown in Fig. 2 comes with its global synthesis, the
impedance of all its constitutive elements can be known in
advance.

This work was supported in part by the Ministry of Higher Education

under Grant 600-RMI/ST/FRGS 5/3/Fst (94/2010).

978-1-4577-1255-5/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE 128

2011 IEEE International Conference on System Engineering and Technology (ICSET)

Llow Llow ZL ZC ZL ZL ZC ZL

θL θC θL
Clow θL θC θL
Zoe Zoe
λ/4 λ/4
Zoo Zoo
λ/4
(a) (b) IN OUT
rd
ZR
Figure 3. (a) 3 order low-pass filter: (a) stepped impedance distributed
element low pass filter ZL ZC ZL

This will simplify the determination of the elements of the θL θC θL

low pass functions to be applied to improve the higher Zoe Zoe
λ/4 λ/4
Zoo Zoo
frequency rejection level of the resonator response. This paper ZL ZC ZL
proposes the integration of two types of 3rd order low pass filter IN OUT
with the ring resonator: stepped impedance low pass filter and θL θC θL
stub low pass filter, in order to improve its out-of-band
Figure 4. Ring resonator with single low pass integration (above) and double
rejection level. Five microstrip bandpass filters were realized low pass integration (below)
on alumina substrate at 10 and 20 GHz and measurement
results are presented to validate the concept.
0,30 mm
II. STEPPED IMPEDANCE LOW PASS FILTER INTEGRATION
The main idea is to integrate the 3rd order low pass circuit 0,37 mm

3,20 mm
in Fig. 3(a) into the main topology of the ring resonator of Fig.
2, replacing the ring line of impedance Zr. The equations (a) 4,86 mm
X 3,20 mm
giving the value of the low pass filter elements are:
50 Ω 50 Ω
g1 3,66 mm
Llow = Z 0 (1) 0,30 mm
ω low
0,245 mm
0,19 mm 0,30 mm
g2
C low = (2)
Z 0ω low
2,46 mm

ω low = 2πf low (3) 0,78 mm

4,88 mm
where flow is the low-pass cut-off frequency, gk (k = 1,2) are the (b) X 3,265 mm
3rd order Tchebychev coefficients and Z0 is the port impedance.
50 Ω 50 Ω
To assure the correct integration of the low pass function in the 3,68 mm
resonator topology, Z0 must be set to be equal to the ring line 0,30 mm
impedance Zr. By using the approximations applied to short 0,37 mm
transmission lines, the capacitive and inductive elements of the 0,245 mm
low pass filter can be represented by the distributed elements 0,19 mm 0,30 mm
shown in Fig. 3(b), provided that the length of the lines are set
the be shorter than λ/4 at the working frequency. The
impedance of the lines can be determined by using the
2,55 mm

following equations: (c)

0,79 mm
4,81 mm
Llowω low 180 X 3,42 mm
ZL = (4)
θL π 50 Ω 50 Ω
3,61 mm
θC π 0,30 mm
ZC = (5)
C lowω low 180 Figure 5. Ring resonator (a) without low pass integration (b) with single low
pass integration (c) with double low pass integration
where θL and θC are the electrical lengths (in degree) of the
lines representing the inductance and the capacitance, The filters were realized on alumina substrate (h = 635 μm,
respectively. Lastly, it is sufficient to chose the best cut-off εr = 9.8, tan δ = 2.10-4). Fig. 5(a), 5(b) and 5(c) illustrate
frequency of the low pass filter to not to modify the in-band respectively the layout of the nominal resonator centered at
response while in the same time improve the rejection level. 10 GHz, the integration of the resonator with a single low pass
function, and the integration of the resonator with double low
Two cases of low pass integration are considered: replacing
pass integration.
one ring line with the low pass filter (Fig. 4(a)) and replacing
both ring lines with low pass filter (Fig. 4(b)).

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2011 IEEE International Conference on System Engineering and Technology (ICSET)

0
ZC θC
S11 S12 Llow Llow ZL ZL
-10

Clow θL θL
-20
dB (S11), dB(S12)

-30
(a) (b)
-40 rd
Figure 8. (a) 3 order low-pass filter: (a) distributed element low pass filter
with double low pass function with stub
-50 with single low pass function
without low pass integration
0.10 mm 0.158 mm
-60
6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

1.29 mm
Frequency (GHz) 2.42 mm
Figure 6. Electromagnetic simulation results of filters in Fig. 5 (a) X 1.97 mm

50 Ω 1.74 mm 50 Ω
0
0.24 mm
-10
dB (S11)

0,67 mm 0,05 mm
-20
0,30 mm 0,11 mm
-30

1,23 mm
0 1,43 mm
2,47 mm
-10 (b) X 2,65 mm

50 Ω 50 Ω
-20
dB(S12)

0,04 mm
-30
Figure 9. Ring resonator (a) without low pass integration (b) with stub low
-40 with double low-pass pass integration
with single low-pass
initial resonator
-50
0
-60
6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Frequency (GHz) -10 S11 S12

Figure 7. Measurement results of filters in Fig. 5 -20

dB (S11), dB(S12)

Fig. 6 shows the electromagnetic simulation results of the -30

filters presented in Fig. 5 where we can see that the out-of-band
rejection level has been improved by using the low pass filter -40
integration. These results are validated through measurements
illustrated in Fig. 7. The use of low pass filter has significantly -50 with integration of stub low-pass filter
initial filter without low-pass integration
eliminated the parasitic resonance found at f0. However, the
improvement could be increased by increasing the order of the -60
15 20 25 30 35 40
low pass function. Frequency (GHz)

III. STUB LOW PASS FILTER INTEGRATION Figure 10. Measurement results of filters in Fig. 9
Another solution to improve the out-of-band rejection level Compared to the previous solution, the advantage of using
of the ring resonator is by integrating stub low pass filter. In stub is that it provides a zero transmission in the low-pass
fact, using the Richard transformation, the parallel capacitor in response. The resulting resonator was realized at 20 GHz on
Fig. 8(b) can be replaced by an open ended λ/8 stub whose the alumina substrate. The layout of the nominal resonator and
impedance is given by: the layout of the resonator with the integration of the low pass
filter are shown in Fig. 9(a) and 9(b), respectively. The
1 measurement results are presented in Fig. 10 where again, the
ZC = (6)
C lowω low parasitic resonance at 2f0 has been suppressed and the overall
rejection level has been improved.

130
2011 IEEE International Conference on System Engineering and Technology (ICSET)

IV. CONCLUSION
rd
The integration of 3 order stepped impedance and stub
low pass filters into the topology of a ring resonator has been
presented in this paper in order to improve the out-of-band
rejection level of the overall response. It has been shown
through simulations and measurements that, by using the
proposed idea, the parasitic resonance at 2f0 can be suppressed
and slight improvement of the out-of-band response can be
achieved without having to tremendously increase the size of
the final circuit. Better improvement can be expected if higher
order low pass filters are used.
REFERENCES

[1] M. K. Mohd Salleh, G. Prigent, O. Pigaglio, and R. Crampagne,

"Quarter-Wavelength Side-Coupled Ring Resonator for Bandpass
Filters," Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on, vol.
56, pp. 156-162, 2008.
[2] M. K. Mohd Salleh, G. Prigent, O. Pigaglio, R. Crampagne, “Synthesis
of quarter wavelength side-coupled ring (QSCR) resonator-applications
to bandpass filter design”, Microwave and Optical Technology Letters,
vol. 50, no. 2, 2008.
[3] C. Quendo, E. Rius, C. Person, and M. Ney, "Integration of optimized
low-pass filters in a bandpass filter for out-of-band improvement",
Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 49, pp.
2376-2383, 2001.
[4] T. Wen-Hua and C. Kai, "Compact second harmonic-suppressed
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Techniques, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 54, pp. 2497-2502, 2006.
[5] A. Manchec, C. Quendo, E. Rius, C. Person, and J. F. Favennec,
"Synthesis of dual behavior resonator (DBR) filters with integrated low-
pass structures for spurious responses suppression", Microwave and
Wireless Components Letters, IEEE, vol. 16, pp. 4-6, 2006.

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