International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 7, Issue 3, March-2016

702
ISSN 2229-5518

Microstrip Interdigital Bandpass Filters:

Design analysis
Atul Makrariya, P.K. Khare
Department of Postgraduate studies in Physics & Electronics, Rani Durgavati University, Jabalpur , MP,
[email protected]

Abstract: Conventionalmicrostriplowpass and bandpass filters such as stepped-impedance filters, open-stub filters, semi-
lumped element filters, end- and parallel-coupled half-wavelength resonator filters, hairpin-line filters, interdigital and combline
filters, pseudocombline filters, and stub-line filters are widely used in many RF/microwave applications. Modern RF and
microwave communication systems, specifically mobile and satellite communications required high performance, wide band
filters with linear phase. Most communication systems require an RF front end, where RF/microwave filters and low noise
amplifiers perform analog signal processing. Microwave filters are commonly used in receivers and transmitters operating in
800 MHz to 30 GHz frequency range. A lot of research work has been done in design and analysis of RF/microwave filters
such as, design of low pass, high pass and band-pass, and band-stop filters using lumped elements or microstrip techniques
[1-3], application of DGS, EBG, in microwave filters [4-8], etc. Microwave band-pass filters are essential components in the
development of wireless communication systems. The advanced performance of modern communication systems has
imposed stringent requirements on filters including compact size, minimal insertion loss, low cost, and high selectivity.

It is the purpose of this paper to present the designs and analysis and advantages of Interdigital Bandpass filters with
instructive design examples.

Keywords: Interdigital Band-Pass Filter, Fractional Bandwidth (FBW), Group Delay, High Frequency Structure Simulator

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(HFSS).

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1. Introduction: 2.Interdigital bandpass filter Structure:

Interdigital band pass filters have several features such as Figure 1 shows a type of interdigital bandpass filter
they are very compact structures.The tolerances required in commonly used for microstrip design. The filter
manufacturing are relatively relaxed because of the relatively configuration, as shown, consists of an array of n TEM-mode
large spacing between resonator elements. In most cases, the or quasi-TEM-mode transmission line resonators, each of
resonator length is slightly shorter than λ/4 (typically, which has an electrical length of 90° at the midband
0.9λ/4), which allows the filter to be tuned to the center frequency and is short-circuited at one end and open-
frequency with the tuning elements just breaking the cavity circuited at the other end with alternative orientation. In
wall. This facilitates both case of tuning and maximum general, the physical dimensions of the line elements or the
unloaded quality factor of each resonator. The coupling to resonators can be different, as indicated by the lengths l 1 , l 2 ·
the input and output is accomplished via contact at the low · · l n and the widths W1 , W2 · · · Wn . Coupling is achieved by
impedance point of the resonator.The second pass-band is way of the fieldsfringing between adjacent resonators
centered at three times the center frequency of the first pass- separated by spacing si,i+1 for i = 1 · · · n – 1. The filter input
band. Besides that, there are no possibilities of spurious and output use tapped lines with a characteristic admittance
responses in between.For the filters with parallel-coupled, Y t , which may be set to equal the source/load characteristic
half-wavelength resonators, a spurious pass band at around admittance Y 0 . An electrical length θ t , measured away from
twice the mid-band frequency is almost always excited.The the short-circuited end of the input/ output resonator,
Filter can be fabricated in structural forms, which are self- indicates the tapping position, where Y 1 = Y n denotes the
supporting so that dielectric material need not be used. Thus, single microstrip characteristic impedance of the input/output
dielectric loss can be eliminated.Strength of the stop band resonator.
and rates of cutoff can been enhanced by multiple order poles
of attenuation at dc and even multiples of the center
frequency of the first pass band.They typically have
lowerloss than comb-line structures and are easier to
tune.This via-hole, Interdigital bandpass filter is particularly
suited to wider bandwidth filters because the dimensions of
the filter are more realizable than the side-coupled filters.
There are also several implementations in addition to the
microstrip medium, including stripline, coplanar waveguide
and slotline.

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 International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 7, Issue 3, March-2016 703
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We have studied symmetrical inter-digital band-pass filter
where all microstrip resonators have equal widths i.e. Wi =
W, for i = 1 to n. Using equation from 1 to 5, the
characteristic admittance of the input resonator is calculated
and since the inverse of the admittance is equal to the
impedance,the characteristic impedance Z 1 of the input
resonator is Z 1 = 1/Y 1 .
For the microstrip resonator with characteristic impedance
Z 1 , the width W can be calculated using following formula[6]
1
7𝜀 +4 𝜀 +1 �2
𝑊 8� 𝑟 .𝐴+ 𝑟 �
11𝜀𝑟 0.81𝜀𝑟
= (6)
Figure 1: Generalized schematic of an n-pole Interdigital BPF [5] ℎ 𝐴
while,
This type of microstripbandpass filter is compact, but
requires use of grounding microstrip resonators, which is 𝑍1
𝐴 = 𝑒𝑥𝑝. � �𝜀 + 1� − 1
usually accomplished with via holes. However, because the 42.4 𝑟
resonators are quarter-wavelength long using the grounding,
where, ε r is the dielectric constant of the substrate, h is the
the second passband of filter is centred at about three times
thickness of the substrate.
the midband frequency of the desired first passband, and
there is no possibility of any spurious response in between. 6. Electrical length θ t from the short circuited end of the
input/output resonator can be obtained as [7]

𝑌𝑠𝑖𝑛2 𝜃
sin−1�� �
𝑌0 g0 g1
𝜃𝑡 = 𝐹𝐵𝑊 (7)
1−
2

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7. C t i.e., the capacitance to be loaded to the input and output
resonators in order to compensate for resonant frequency
shift because of the effect of the tapped input and output can
be calculated as [7]

3.Design steps for Interdigital band-pass filter:

1. Calculate electrical length θ for a given bandwidth FBW
𝜋 𝐹𝐵𝑊
𝜃 = 2 �1 − 2
� (1)
cos 𝜃𝑡 𝑠𝑖𝑛3𝜃𝑡
𝐶𝑡 = (8)
2. Now expressing Y in terms of Y 1 using θ as 1
𝜔0 𝑌𝑡 � 2+
𝑐𝑜𝑠2 𝜃𝑡 𝑠𝑖𝑛2 𝜃𝑡
�
𝑌 0 𝑌2
𝑡
𝑌
𝑌 = tan1 𝜃 (2)
8. Now the even and odd-mode impedances of the n-coupled
line resonator can be determined as [8]
Y 1 is admittance of input line
1 1
𝑍0𝑒1,2 = 𝑌 , 𝑍0𝑜1,2 = 𝑌
3. Calculate J i,i+1 using following equation 1 −𝑌1,2 1 +𝑌1,2

𝑌1 1
𝐽𝑖,𝑖+1 = , for i = 1 to n-1 (3) 𝑍0𝑒𝑖,𝑖+1 = 2𝑌 , for i = 2 to n-2
𝑡𝑎𝑛𝜃 �g𝑖g𝑖+1 1 −1⁄𝑍0𝑒 𝑖−1,𝑖−𝑌𝑖,𝑖+1 −𝑌𝑖−1,𝑖

1
where, gi represents the element values of a ladder-type low- 𝑍0𝑜𝑖,𝑖+1 = 2𝑌 , for i = 2 to n-2
𝑖,𝑖+1 +1⁄𝑍0𝑒𝑖,𝑖+1
pass prototype filter with a normalized cut off frequency at
Ω c =1. 1 1
𝑍0𝑒𝑛−1,𝑛 = 𝑌 −𝑌 ,𝑍0𝑜𝑛−1,𝑛 = 𝑌 +𝑌 (9)
1 𝑛−1,𝑛 1 𝑛−1,𝑛
4. Calculate Y i,i+1 from J i,i+1 [5]
Using above equation coupling factor can be derived as
𝑌𝑖,𝑖+1 = 𝐽𝑖,𝑖+1 sin 𝜃, for i = 1 to n-1 (4) 𝑍0𝑒𝑖,𝑖+1 −𝑍0𝑜 𝑖,𝑖+1
𝑘𝑖,𝑖+1 = 𝑍 (10)
0𝑒𝑖,𝑖+1 +𝑍0𝑜 𝑖,𝑖+1
5.Calculate characteristic admittance Y t , of the tapped lines
Once the coupling factor is obtained the spacing can be
2
𝑌1,2 obtain easily.
𝑌𝑡 = 𝑌1 − 𝑌1
(5)
9. After obtaining the width and spacing of the microstrip
Now substituting Y t =1/50 and obtaining Y 1 . line resonators, the equivalent length l i of the resonators can
be calculated [5].

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 International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 7, Issue 3, March-2016 704
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𝑙𝑖 = 𝜆g0𝑖 ⁄4 − ∆𝑙𝑖 (11) To carry out simulation for our studies, we should use driven
modal solution type. The wave ports will be assigned for port
Where, 𝜆g0𝑖 is the guided wavelength and ∆𝑙𝑖 is correction excitation. An air box is created to cover the device and to
length of microstrip open end associated with resonator i. provide the appropriate boundary conditions. The interdigital
As the interdigital filter is symmetric therefore the guided band-pass filter will be simulated using fast mode for a
wavelength can be obtained as frequency range after defining an operating frequency in the
HFSS model.
𝜆0
𝜆g0𝑖 = (12)
�𝜀𝑟𝑒 5.Result and Discussion:
where, 𝜀𝑟𝑒 is the effective dielectric constant given by[5] To study the transmission behaviour of filter, the ‫׀‬S 21 ‫׀‬will be
R R

−1� considered to study the fractional bandwidth (FBW). One

𝜀𝑟+1 𝜀𝑟−1 ℎ 2
𝜀𝑟𝑒 = 2
+ 2
�1 + 12 �
𝑊
, for W/h ≥1 (13) another important filter parameter is group delay. The group
delay is the measure of the time delay of the frequency
Now the ∆𝑙𝑖 can be determined using the empirical formula spectrum of a signal. The group delay can also be defined as
for microstrip open end validated for the range of 0.01 ≤ W/h the rate of change of transmission phase angle with respect to
≤ 100 and ε r ≤ 128 given in [10] frequency. Mathematically group delay can be expressed as
∆𝑙𝑖 𝜉1 𝜉3 𝜉5
ℎ
= 𝜉4
(14)
∆𝜑
10. Now, a capacitance C t is loaded on the input and output 𝜏𝑔 = − ∆𝜔 (18)
resonators due to the tapped lines, which can be achieved by
where, ∆φ is change in phase angle of |S 21 | in radians and
an extension in the length ∆l c of the input and output
R R

∆ω, is the change in frequency. It is always desirable to have

resonators which can be calculated as [5]
a minimum and uniform group delay so as to achieve
𝜆g01 2𝜋𝑓0 𝐶𝑡 minimum signal distortion. In high speed communication
∆𝑙𝐶 = tan−1 � � (15)
2𝜋 𝑌1 system if the group delay is not uniform then the information
of the signal can significantly be distorted.

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Therefore, the final lengths l 1 and l n for the input and output
resonators are
𝑙1 = 𝑙𝑛 = 𝜆g01⁄4 − ∆𝑙1 + ∆𝑙𝐶 (16) 6. Conclusion:
11. Finally the physical length l t measured from the In this paper we have studied the design step and simulation
input/output shorted end to the tapped line is calculated by of an-pole symmetrical interdigital band-pass filter centered
[5] at a frequency of some GHz. The designs must be analyzed
𝜃 using existing quasi-static TEM approximations followed by
𝑙𝑡 = 2𝜋𝑡 𝜆g01 (17)
simulations by finite element analysis based commercial
Using above design steps we can obtained the design software HFSS v13. The Group delay is a very important
parameters for n pole interdigital band-pass filter. parameter of a filter to evaluate its performance and
applicability for high speed digital systems. In most cases
group delay degrades the system performance. Higher the
group delay poor the performance. It will observe in the
4.Electromagnetic Simulation: design simulation that the group delay is uniform over the
entire pass band frequency. Also, we will observe that as we
To design and study the transmission characteristics of an-
pole interdigital band-pass filter, we have carried out Finite
Element Method (FEM) based simulation on a proposed reduce the spacing between the line resonators, fractional
structure using commercial software ANSOFT HFSS v13. bandwidth increases i.e. FBW is dependent on the coupling
To create a model in HFSS as shown in Figure1, we have between the line resonators. Therefore, Interdigital BPF can
taken a substrate thickness in mm with dielectric constant ( find many applications in positioning, imaging, short-range
ε r ) and loss tangent(tanδ) . For designing line resonators and high-data-rate communications systems and wireless
ground we should use copper conductor with thickness in personal area networks where the very high bandwidths are
mm. The microsrip resonators were shorted to ground using required. The Filter can be fabricated in structural forms,
via holes of radius in mm. The via-holes are filled using which are self-supporting so that dielectric material need not
copper conductor of same bulk conductivity as that for the be used. Thus, dielectric loss can be eliminated. This via-
resonators and ground.The filter parameters will be hole, Interdigital bandpass filter is particularly suited to
calculated using the design equations and are optimized wider bandwidth filters because the dimensions of the filter
using HFSS software to achieve desired response. The final are more realizable than the side-coupled filters.
design parameters of the interdigital band-pass filter such as :
Widths: W1 = W2 = W3 = W4 = W5 and 7. References:
Length: l 1 = l 5 and l 2 = l 3 = l 4 .
Spacing: S 1,2 = S 4,5 and S 2,3 = S 3,4 and 1) J.-S. Lim, C.-S.Kim, D. Ahn, Y.-C. Jeong, and S.
Tapping length: l t Will be calculated and all in mm. Nam, “Design of the low-pass filters using defected ground
structure,” IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and
Techniques, vol. 53, no. 8, pp. 2539–2545, 2005.
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 International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 7, Issue 3, March-2016 705
ISSN 2229-5518
2) R.M. Kurzrok, "Design of Comb-line Bandpass
Filters," IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and
Techniques, Vol. MTT-14, July 1966, pp. 351-353.
3) J.-S. Yun, G.-Y. Kim, J.-S. Park, D. Ahn, K.-Y.
Kang, and J.-B. Lim, “A design of the novel coupled line
bandpass filter using defected ground structure,” IEEE MTT-
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327–330, 2000.
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Vanbesien, M. Sorolla, and D. Lippens, “High performance
double-sided microstrip PBG filter,” Microwave Opt.
Technol. Lett., vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 90–93, Oct. 2002.
5) Jia-Sheng Hong, “Microstrip Filters for
RF/Microwave Applications”, Second Edition, published by
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New Jersey.
6) Peter A. Rizzi, “Microwave Engineering Passive
Circuits”, published by Prentice Hall International, Inc.,
USA.
7) S. Caspi and J. Adelman, “Design of combline and
interdigital filters with tapped-line input”. IEEE
Transaction Microwave Theory and Techniques, 1988, 759–
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8) T. A. Millgan, “Dimensions of microstrip coupled
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9) Peter A. Rizzi, “Microwave Engineering Passive

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Circuits”, published by Prentice Hall International, Inc.,
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10) M. Kirschning, R. H. Jansen, and N. H. L. Koster,
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