S.

Seghier Parallel Coupled Microstrip Bandpass Filter for GSM 119

Parallel Coupled Microstrip Bandpass Filter for

G.S.M Band Applications
Salima Seghier, Nasreddine Benahmed, Nadia Benabdallah
Fethi Tarik Bendimerad and Boumedienne Benyoucef
Department of Physics
Telecommunications laboratory-Tlemcen (LTT)
Preparatory School of Sciences and Technology
University of Tlemcen
(EPST-Tlemcen)
P.O.Box 119, (13000) Tlemcen, Algeria
[email protected]
II. PROTOTYPE OF CHEBYSHEV LOW- PASS FILTER AND
Abstract— Design procedure and optimization of a parallel- CALCULATION OF EVEN AND ODD-MODE CHARACTERISTIC
coupled microstrip bandpass filter for G.S.M band applications is IMPEDANCES
presented in this paper. The filter is designed and optimized at a
center frequency of 6.2 GHz. Half wavelength long resonators
A. Low-pass Filter Prototype
and admittance inverters are used to design the filter. The filter Low-pass filter is the basic type of filters design, because
is simulated using ADS (Advanced Design System) design high-pass, band-pass and band-block filters can be achieved
software and implemented on Roger 4003C substrate. by frequency transformation on the basis of low-pass filter.
The prototype of the low-pass filter [3]-[5] is shown in
Keywords- Bandpass filter; coupled microstip lines; method of Fig.1. According to the amplitude versus frequency curve, the
moments; optimization.
filters can also be classified as Butterworth filter, Chebyshev
I. INTRODUCTION filter, ellipse filter and Bessel filter. The unitary resistances of
the capacitor and inductance elements of low-pass filter as
Parallel coupled transmission-line filter in microstrip and well as the amplitude versus frequency curves are experiential
stripline technology are very common for implementation of known and can be easily available in textbooks.
bandpass and band-stop filters with required bandwidth up to a
20% of central frequency. Due to their relatively weak
coupling, this type of filter has narrow fractional bandwidth
but instead has desired advantages such as low-cost
fabrication, easy integration and simple designing procedure
(designing equations for the coupled line parameters such as
space-gap between lines and line widths and lengths, can be
Figure 1. Prototype of low-pass filter.
found in classical microwave books [1]. This way, following a
well-defined systematic procedure, the required microstrip-
filter parameters can be easily derived for Butterworth and series inductor value

Chebyshev prototypes [2]. g m  shunt capcitor value
This paper presents the design of a parallel-coupled m  1,...,n 

microstrip bandpass filter centered at 6.2 GHz. The filter
realized is inserted between a frequency multiplier stage (4 × resis tan ce next to shunt capcitor 
g N 1  
the frequency of the local oscillator) and a mixer stage "down- conduc tan cenext to series inductor 
converter" allowing to pass from one carrier about 7.15 GHz
to a carrier whose frequency is located in the GSM band. Because the attenuation of Chebyshev filter is steeped in
This filter will have to specifically attenuate the frequencies amplitude versus frequency curve as shown in Fig.2, fewer
of row adjacent to the desired signal, 6.2 GHz + 1.55GHz and stages are needed when the same attenuation is demanded.
6.2GHz - 1.55GHz As a result the Chebyshev prototype low-pass filter is
This filter will specifically have to attenuate the adjacent adopted in this paper to design a coupled microstrip filter [5]-
frequencies with the useful signal that is 6.2 GHz + 1.55 GHz [7].
and 6.2 GHz - 1.55 GHz. Hence the requests for the filter can The insertion loss characteristics of Chebyshev filters can
be derived as follows:
be described by the Chebyshev polynomials Tn   in the
- Center frequency f0 of 6.2 GHz,
- Insert loss: less than 2.5 dB, following form:
- Ripple at pass-band = 0.1 dB, IL  10 log[1  a 2Tn2 ()] (1)
- Bandwidth BW of 400 MHz, and where
- Insertion loss at 7.75 GHZ >20 dB.

Tn ()  cos n[cos 1 ()]  for   1 (2)

Revue Méditerranéenne des Télécommunications vol. 2, n°2, october 2012 Mediterranean Telecommunication Journal
 S. Seghier Parallel Coupled Microstrip Bandpass Filter for GSM 120


Tn ()  cosh n[cosh 1 ()]  for   1 (3)
For our design, IL is equal to 0.1 dB in the frequency
range   1 .This is also called as 0.1 dB ripple Chebyshev
filter. Thus, the value of a should be chosen as:

a  100.1/10  1  0.1524 (4)

Moreover, in order to decide the order n to meet the Y0  1 / Z 0

requirements of this filter, we need to transfer the band-pass Figure 3. General layout of parallel coupled microstrip bandpass filter.
filter frequency parameters to the low-pass ones. The
frequency transformation is then: where Z0 is the characteristic impedance of the system.
The equivalent circuit of two coupled λ/4 open lines can be
2  fi  f0  (5) shown to be as depicted here:
  
FBW  f0 
where FBW is the fractional bandwidth.
f  fL (6)
FBW  U
f0
According to the specification listed above, the center
frequency f0 is 6.2 GHz and the values of fU and fL are
respectively 6.4 GHz and 6 GHz. Moreover, fi is set to be 7.75
GHz. The normalized frequency element Ω can be obtained
using the equations (5) and (6). Therefore, for our design, the Figure 4. Equivalent circuit of coupled λ/4 open lines specification.
value of Ω is calculated to be 7.75.
Having obtained the value of Ω and, the order n can be The admittance inverter parameters are given by [5], [11] -
calculated by the equation (1) with the side-lobe suppression [15]:
requirement, insertion loss >20 dB at 7.75 GHz. For the first coupling structure:
As a result, we choose the order n of the Chebyshev filter to J 01  FBW (7)
be 2 in our design. From list formulas [8-9], the filter  
Y0 2 g 0 g1
coefficients of Chebyshev filter with 0.1 dB ripple are:
For the intermediate coupling structures:
g1= 0.8430
J j , j 1  FBW 1 (8)
g2 = 0.6220 and   j  1 to n  1
g3 = 1.3554 Y0 2 g j g j , j 1
for j=1 to (n-1)
For the final coupling structure:
J n,n1  FBW (9)

Y0 2 g n g n,n1
where FBW is the fractional bandwidth calculated according
to equation (6), Jj,j+1 are the characteristic admittances of
the J– inverters and Y0 is the characteristic admittance of the
terminating lines.
To realise the J-inverters, even- and odd-mode
characteristic impedances of coupled lines, are determined by
Figure 2. Attenuation versus normalized frequency for 0.1 dB ripple low-
using relations (10) and (11). The calculated results are listed
pass filter prototype.
in Table I.
B. Calculation of Even and Odd-mode Characteristic  2

Impedances Using Conventional Formulas Z 0 e j , j1  Y1 1  JYj , j1   JYj , j1   (10)
In our design, the structure we use is the cascade of 0 
 0  0   
parallel-coupled planar microstrip bandpass filters. A general  2

microstrip configuration is shown in Fig.3 as a reference. The Z 0 o  j , j 1  Y1 1  J Yj , j 1   J Yj , j 1   (11)
maximum coupling is obtained between physically parallel 0 
 0  0   
microstrip lines when the length of the coupled region is Where j = 0 to n
λ/4.

Revue Méditerranéenne des Télécommunications vol. 2, n°2, october 2012 Mediterranean Telecommunication Journal
 S. Seghier Parallel Coupled Microstrip Bandpass Filter for GSM 121

TABLE I. PARALLEL-COUPLED FILTER PARAMETERS 0

Admittance Even-mode Odd-mode

inverters impedance Z0e impedance Z0o -10
Section

dB(S(1,1))
dB(S(2,1))
Jj,j+1/Y0 (Ω) (Ω)
(Ohms) -20
1 0.3465 73.33 38.68
2 0.1397 57.96 43.99 -30

3 0.3465 73.33 38.68

-40
4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0
III. SIMULATION OF COUPLED MICROSTRIP FILTER USING
ADS SOFTWARE freq, GHz
Figure 6. Scattering parameters of the designed filter using
For our design, the substrate dielectric constant is εr = 3.38, conventional method
loss tangent of 0.0021 and its thickness is 0.508 mm. With the
help of the CAD tool – ADS LineCalc, the parameters of each To reach the specified request, we adopt the optimal
parallel coupled line can be obtained with the previously design ability owning by ADS, numerical software based on
calculated data. In the calculation, the component type is the use of method of moments (MoM) [5] [16].
chosen to the microstrip coupled lines. The Table II lists the The scattering parameters of the band pass filter, after
parameters of the final results. optimization, are plotted in Fig.7. From this figure we can see
We add a micrpstrip line component to both sides of the clearly that the center frequency of the filter has been adjusted
filter whose characteristic impedance is 50 Ω. We also to 6.2 GHz with a corresponding insert loss of -2.083 dB, a
calculate separately the length and width of it with the reflect ratio in pass-band of -20.148 dB and an attenuation of -
LineCalc tool which are 7.4109 mm and 1.1413 mm. Hence 32.627 dB in the alias frequency, indicating that the request
the schematic drawing of the microstrip circuit is shown in performance is well satisfied.
Fig.5.

TABLE II. GEOMETRICAL PARAMETERS OF THE COUPLED LINES m1

freq=6.205GHz
Width Length dB(S(2,1))=-2.083
Line description Gap (mm) m1
0
(mm) (mm)
50 Ω-line 1.1413 7.4109 - -10 m3
m2 freq=7.750GHz
Coupled lines (1-3) 0.8489 7.6781 0.1347 dB(S(2,1))=-32.627
dB(S(2,1))
dB(S(1,1))

-20
Coupled lines (2) 1.0773 7.4668 0.4854
m3
-30
m2
This type of filter with a center frequency of 2.491 GHz -40 freq=6.200GHz
dB(S(1,1))=-20.148
was studied by the authors of reference [5] for satellite -50
receiver. 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0
The result of the designed microstrip filter is given in Fig.6 freq, GHz
which shows that the center frequency of the filter has
deviated from the specified and desired frequency (6.2 GHz). Figure 7. Scattering parameters of the designed and optimized
bandpass filter.

Figure 5. Schematic circuit of investigating coupled lines parameters.

Revue Méditerranéenne des Télécommunications vol. 2, n°2, october 2012 Mediterranean Telecommunication Journal
 S. Seghier Parallel Coupled Microstrip Bandpass Filter for GSM 122

After optimization, we update the dimensions of the V. CONCLUSION

microstrip BPF with the new parameters which are derived
In this paper a procedure for designing a parallel-coupled
from the optimization process. The final refined geometrical
parameters are listed in Table III. bandpass filter for G.SM band applications has been
presented. Half wavelength long resonators and admittance
TABLE III. GEOMETRICAL PARAMETERS OF THE OPTIMZED COUPLED inverters are used to design the bandpass filter. The
LINES optimization function was done by ADS software in order to
Width Length avoid the drawback of the conventional method based on
Line description Gap (mm) theoretical formulas. On a substrate with a dielectric constant
(mm) (mm)
50 Ω-line 1.1413 7.4109 - of 3.38, the center frequency of 6.2 GHz was selected, the
bandwidth is 400 MHz, the minimum attenuation amounts to -
Coupled lines (1-3) 0.6053 10.7698 0.2378 20 dB and the pass-band ripple is obtained equal to 0.1 dB.
Coupled lines (2) 0.2207 5.4601 0.8158
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Impédance Matching Networks, and Coupling Structures”, Artech
0
House, Norwood, MA, 1980.
-5 m1 [12] Nikorn Sutthisangiam, “A design of the novel coupled line bandpass
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for UWB application”, A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the

-15 requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Communication
-20 Enginneering, King Mongkut's Institute of technology North Bangkok
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freq=6.185GHz [13] Selinda Lim, Huey Pin, “Design and Modification of Parallel-coupled
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-30 Bandpass filter”, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer
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S21
m2 microwave theory and techniques, vol. 52, NO.1,January 2004.
0
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-20 freq=6.150GHz
dB(GSMBANDFILTER_mom_a..S(2,1))=-1.102

-30
m3
-40 m3
freq=7.745GHz
dB(GSMBANDFILTER_mom_a..S(2,1))=-40.342
-50
4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0
Frequency

Figure 10. S21 response of the optimized filter.

Revue Méditerranéenne des Télécommunications vol. 2, n°2, october 2012 Mediterranean Telecommunication Journal