Int. J. Electron. Commun.

(AEÜ) 102 (2019) 69–77

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Electronics and

Communications (AEÜ)
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/aeue

Regular paper

A varactor based tunable RF filter for multistandard wireless

communication receivers
Ali Othman a,⇑,1, Rim Barrak a,1, Ghalid Idir Abib b,2, Mohamed Mabrouk a,1
a
City of Communications Technologies, El Ghazala, 2083 Ariana, Tunisia
b
9 Street of Charles Fourier, 91011 Evry Cedex, France

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper presents the design of a tunable RF filter dedicated for multistandard operation in Software
Received 5 September 2018 Defined Radio (SDR) receivers. This filter is based on the Dual-Behaviour Resonators (DBR) topology real-
Accepted 12 February 2019 ized in microstrip technology with PTFE substrate and using SMV1405 varactors as tuning elements. It
provides the independent control of its center frequency and bandwidth relative to the radio standards
UMTS, Wi-Fi and LTE (Band N°7). The center frequency ranges from 2.142 to 2.65 GHz and the required
Keywords: bandwidth varies from 86 to 108 MHz. S-parameters simulations and measurements with non-linearity
Dual-Behavior Resonators
study are provided to evaluate the performance of the designed filter. A very good agreement between
Microstrip lines
Multistandard wireless receivers
simulations and measurements is obtained and the designed filter shows acceptable performances in
Nonlinear effects terms of insertion and return losses which are less than 6 dB and more than 14 dB, respectively for all
Tunable filters bands. Moreover, linear properties regarding receiver requirements with a minimum 1-dB compression
Varactors point (P1dB) of 11.4 dBm and a minimum third order intercept point (IP3) of 21.2 dBm are satisfying.
Ó 2019 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction types: wideband, multiband or tunable in their characteristic

parameters. Among the components that compose SDR systems,
Today’s radio communications systems consist of implementing Radio-frequency (RF) filters are usually placed just after the
multiple switched transceivers on the same hardware platform antenna and play an important role in selecting desired signals
sharing a wideband antenna. This solution is being bulky in size, and filtering the undesired ones (blockers). In this paper, our focus
more power consuming and expensive. In order to solve the latter is on the design of a tunable RF filter for multistandard SDR and CR
issues, the actual trends of telecommunications industries is receivers.
toward a unified architecture using only one fully adaptive hard- By referring to the literature [1–9], there are many works con-
ware platform via radio channels and using a cognitive engine cerning tunable RF filters using varactors, which may be consid-
doing three principle tasks: collecting the environment states, tak- ered as the most popular tuning technique being used in the
ing the needed decisions regarding the collected information, and electromagnetic area as well as other domains like the optical
sending the exact orders to the hardware platform in order to one [10–12]. Hereafter, the performances of some designed filters
adapt its intrinsic parameters (center frequencies, bandwidths, from some references are analyzed. In [1], the designed tunable fil-
modulation schemes, data rates,. . .) with the required operating ter is based on a third order mixed coupled microstrip open loop
specifications. This adaptive communication architecture is known ring resonators and using varactors. It has only a center frequency
as Software Defined Radio (SDR) or Cognitive Radio (CR). In this tuning, from 1.9 GHz to 2.52 GHz, while its bandwidth remains
architecture, all hardware components should be one of three constant around 201.5 MHz. In [2], a tunable center frequency
and bandwidth filter is presented. It is composed of two short cou-
pled lines loaded with varactor diodes. It has a wide center fre-
⇑ Corresponding author. quency and bandwidth tuning ranges of 590 MHz (0.56–
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (A. Othman), [email protected] 1.15 GHz) and 115 MHz (65–180 MHz), respectively. It has a mod-
(R. Barrak), [email protected] (G.I. Abib), mohamed.mabrouk@iset-
com.tn (M. Mabrouk).
erate out of band attenuation of 20 dB. In [3], the presented filter is
1
Green & Smart Communications Systems (GRESCOM), Higher School of Commu- a third order Hairpin filter loaded with semiconductor varactors. It
nications of Tunis (SUPCOM), Tunisia. shows a center frequency tuning range of 300 MHz (0.7–1 GHz)
2
Department of Electronics and Physics (EPH), ”Institut Mines-Télécom–Télécom and a bandwidth tuning range of 90 MHz (60–150 MHz). It has a
SudParis”, France.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aeue.2019.02.008
1434-8411/Ó 2019 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
70 A. Othman et al. / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 102 (2019) 69–77

moderate out of band attenuation with high insertion loss values. Section 2. Then, we provide in Section 3 the application of this
Although many research activities have been already conducted methodology to design a tunable DBR filter covering three stan-
on tunable RF filters, further researches are still required for the dards UMTS, Wi-Fi and LTE (Band N°7). In Section 4, S-
development of more flexible filters having wider tuning range parameters simulations and measurements with nonlinear param-
for center frequency and bandwidth and providing better capabil- eters characterization are given.
ities and performances. According to our knowledge, there is no
method that has been developed to determine the capacitor values,
and then the varactors bias voltages, that are needed to tune the 2. DBR filters design methodology
filter response. Developing such design methodology will facilitate
its integration as a computer-aided design (CAD) tool on available The proposed tunable filter is based on Dual-Behavior Res-
electronic design automation software. This will facilitate and onators (DBR) topology and implementing varactors to tune its
accelerate the design of tunable filters, which will lead to a gain center frequency and bandwidth. This topology consists of putting
in time and cost. In this context, we aim in this paper to present in parallel two stubs that gives a bandpass response under con-
a developed design methodology for Dual-Behaviour Resonators structive recombination. It has a narrow bandpass response with
(DBR) filters that provide an independent wide range tuning of 2n transmission zeros (TZs) (n low and n high), where n is the filter
the center frequency and the bandwidth. This design methodology order. The design equations of this topology are provided in [17].
is considered as the first one in its kind that assists the design pro- Fig. 1a shows an ideal first order DBR filter topology and Fig. 1b
cess including the determination of the physical parameters as gives its response designed at 2 GHz with two transmission zeros
well as the required capacitor and bias voltage values needed for at 1.8 GHz and 2.2 GHz. The variable capacitors C L and C H are
tuning the center frequency. The tuning method of the center fre- placed at the ends of the stubs to tune respectively the low and
quency consists of moving simultaneously the low and high trans- high transmission zeros in order to control independently the filter
mission zeros to their new positions in accordance to the desired center frequency and bandwidth. For center frequency tuning, the
center frequency. After that, the tuning of the bandwidth is done low and high transmission zeros should be tuned simultaneously
by adjusting the positions of these transmission zeros. All these in the same direction (up or down according to frequency) until
operations are done using the developed equations that precisely reaching the new desired frequency. Then, for bandwidth tuning,
estimate the values of capacitors that must be set to achieve the the low and high transmission zeros should be tuned simultane-
aimed values for the center frequencies and bandwidths. This work ously but in the opposite direction. If the bandwidth must be nar-
extends a previous one [13] at which we started the development rower, the low transmission zero (blue curve) should be tuned in
of this methodology without providing the calculation algorithm the up direction and the high transmission (red curve) should be
used to determine the required capacitor values and without the tuned in the down direction. If the bandwidth must be wider, the
implementation of varactors. So, in this paper our contribution inversion operation should be done. This will be detailed in the
consists of adding the varactors implementation design part with design methodology below.
the detailed calculation to determine the right values of the capac- In this paper we propose an algorithm for the design of varactor
itors and after that the bias voltages of the varactors needed to based tunable DBR filters that could be integrated into multistan-
tune the filter response from one center frequency to another. To dard radio receivers. We note N the number of radio signals whose
verify the effectiveness of the proposed design methodology, we in-band and out of band specifications (f ci : center frequency, BW i :
applied this methodology to design a tunable RF filter prototype bandwidth, f si : stop band frequency, Asi : rejection at stop band fre-
covering the radio standards UMTS [14], Wi-Fi [15] and LTE (Band quency, i = 1,. . .,N) are derived from the technical sheets of radio
N°7) [16]. S-parameters simulations and measurements with var- standards. The proposed algorithm is divided into two steps as
actors nonlinear effects of the designed filter are performed to follows:
evaluate its performances against requirements. This proposed Step 1: tunable DBR filter synthesis using ideal capacitors.
design methodology can be implemented as a computer aided Based on filter design specifications, the DBR filter order L is cal-
design tool (CAD) to facilitate and accelerate the design of tunable culated as the maximum of the synthesized orders for all standards
DBR filters. This will be a powerful tool for the design automation to ensure the respect of the most stringent rejections. Then, DBR
of such filters reducing time to market and providing precise filter electrical parameters are synthesized for the standard with
design and tuning process. the highest center frequency f cN . The stubs impedances (Z j1 ; Z j2 )
The paper is organized as follows: the design methodology used providing respectively the low and the high transmission zeros
to design varactors based tunable DBR filters is presented in for the standard N are calculated using (1) and (2) [17].

Fig. 1. Ideal first order DBR filter: (a) structure, (b) S parameters response showing transmission zeros tuning.
 A. Othman et al. / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 102 (2019) 69–77 71

Z j2 tan hj1 c c
Z j1 ¼  ; j ¼ 1; . . . ; L ð1Þ Dlp ði; jÞ ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffi  pffiffiffiffiffiffi ;
tan hj2 4 ere f p ði; jÞ 4 ere f p ðN; jÞ

 i ¼ 1; . . . ; N; j ¼ 1; . . . ; L; p ¼ 1; 2 ð4Þ
p ð1 þ tan2 hj2 Þ ð1 þ tan2 hj1 Þ tan hj2
Z j2 ¼ Z 0  ; j ¼ 1; . . . ; L
bj 4kj2 4kj1 tan hj1 where f p ði; jÞ is the low and high transmission zeros frequencies of
th
ð2Þ the i standard, given by (5).

where Z 0 is the reference impedance, kj1 and kj2 are respectively the f p ði; jÞ ¼ kjp f ci ; i ¼ 1; . . . ; N; j ¼ 1; . . . ; L; p ¼ 1; 2 ð5Þ
ratio between the low and high transmission zeros frequencies
(f 1 ðN; jÞ; f 2 ðN; jÞ) and the center frequency of the standard N (f cN ), th
If the simulated i filter bandwidth BWs½i does not comply with
bj is the resonator slope parameter, hj1 and hj2 denote the electrical specifications (’(1 + 20%) BWreq½i)), C L ði; jÞ has to be tuned
lengths of the stubs providing desired low and high transmission iteratively while C H ði; jÞ is maintained equal to ðC 1 ði; jÞ þ C 2 ði; jÞÞ
zeros, respectively. C L ði; jÞ until bandwidth goal is reached. A guard band of 20 % is
To ensure center frequency and bandwidth tuning, ideal capac- considered in order to take into consideration any inaccuracy due
itors are added to the DBR filter L stubs as shown in Fig. 1a. They to the fabrication process.
th
are determined separately for each i RF band (i = 1,. . .,N). For At the end of this step, the DBR filter electrical parameters and
i=N; C L ðN; jÞ and C H ðN; jÞ are set to 0 in order to fit the N th RF filter ideal capacitors values are determined. The flowchart of the first
specifications. For i = 1,. . .,N; C L ði; jÞ and C H ði; jÞ are set to C p ði; jÞ, step is detailed in Fig. 2.
(p = 1,2) given by (3). Step 2: tunable DBR filter implementation using varactor
diodes.
pffiffiffiffiffiffi After determining the required capacitance range to cover all
Dlp ði; jÞ ere
C p ði; jÞ ¼ ; i ¼ 1; . . . ; N; j ¼ 1; . . . ; L; p ¼ 1; 2 ð3Þ the standards, commercial varactor diodes have to be selected to
cZ jp
replace the variable capacitors and carry out the actual realization
of the filter. The varactor should have a capacitance tuning
where c is the light speed in vacuum, ere is the effective relative per-
range (C max -C min ) higher than the maximum capacitance value
mittivity of the substrate and Dlp ði; jÞ is the required length to be
C M ¼ maxfC L ði; jÞ; C H ði; jÞg; i = 1,. . .,N; j = 1,. . .,L, to cover the
added to the initial one (ljp ) in order to move the transmission zero
required tuning range for all the standards. The selected varactor
th
frequencies around the i center frequency. It is the difference should have a minimum capacitance (C min ) as low as possible to
th
between the stubs lengths at the i and the Nth center frequencies, keep good filter performances. Also, the varactor loss resistance
it is given by (4). (Rs ) should be quite low to keep reasonable insertion losses.

≥ ≥

Fig. 2. Flowchart of the design methodology for tunable DBR filters design using ideal capacitors.
72 A. Othman et al. / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 102 (2019) 69–77

Before adding the varator diodes, it is necessary to compensate Table 1

their C min by reducing the initial lengths of stubs using (6). Standards specifications.

0 Standards Specifications
ljp ¼ ljp  Dljp ; j ¼ 1; . . . ; L; p ¼ 1; 2 ð6Þ
b
a
f c (GHz) BW (MHz) f s1 c (GHz) f s2 c (GHz) As d (dB)
where Dljp is the length equivalent to the minimal capacitance of UMTS 2.14 60 2.025 2.255 29
the varactor diodes given by (7). 2.05 2.23 14
Wi-Fi 2.441 83.5 2 3 17
cZ jp C min LTE (N°7) 2.655 70 2.535 2.775 29
Dljp ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffi ; j ¼ 1; . . . ; L; p ¼ 1; 2 ð7Þ
ere 2.56 2.75 14
a
f c : Center frequency.
To tune the DBR filter response according to the required specifica- b
BW: Bandwidth.
tions, the varactor diodes have to be polarized so that to obtain the c
f si : Rejection frequencies.
equivalent capacitances C L=H ði; jÞ. Based on (8), varactor biasing volt- d
As : Attenuation.
age could be estimated.
 qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 
C j0
V RðL=HÞ ði; jÞ ¼ V j M
ðC ðL=HÞ ði;jÞþC min C P Þ
1 ;
ð8Þ
i ¼ 1; . . . ; N; j ¼ 1; . . . ; L; p ¼ 1; 2 As mentioned in the described design methodology, we synthe-
size the filter with the standard having the highest center fre-
where C j0 ; V j ; M and C P are respectively the zero bias junction quency, which is in our case the LTE one. The input parameters
capacitance, the junction potential, the grading coefficient and the are as follows: f c = 2.655 GHz, BW = 70 MHz, Chebychev approxi-
package capacitance of the varactor. mation with 0.01 dB ripple, equal low transmission zeros coeffi-
At the end of this step, the new stubs lengths and required bias cients k1 = 0.87, equal high transmission zeros coefficients
voltages are determined. The flowchart of the second step is k2 = 1.15, equal susceptance slope parameters b = 19. Using input
detailed in Fig. 3. specifications, (1) and (2) with the remaining design equations
It is worth to be noted here that after getting the output of the for the J-inverters cited in [17], the electrical parameters are as fol-
first and second design flowchart, an optimization task should be lows: the filter order is L = 3, the impedance and the length of the
done on the filter design parameters in order to align its response subs providing the low transmission zeros are respectively
with the predefined goals. In our work, this optimization was done Z 1 = 81.65 X and l1 = 24.33 mm, the impedance and the length of
using ADS optimization cockpit. the subs providing the high transmission zeros are respectively
Z 2 = 93.96 X and l2 = 18.55 mm, the J inverters impedances are
3. Tunable DBR filter design for UMTS, Wi-Fi and LTE standards Z c01 ¼ Z c34 = 56.02 X and Z c12 ¼ Z c23 = 77.97 X. The calculated
capacitance values are C L (pF)=[0.49,0.17,0] and C H (pF)=
The methodology detailed in Section 2 was applied to design a [0.389,0.105,0], which are reduced to vectors instead of matrices
tunable filter covering the three standards: UMTS, Wi-Fi and LTE. because they have the same rows. The filter was designed on a
Table 1 shows the standards specifications used to design the filter PTFE TLY-5Z substrate with the following parameters: relative per-
which are derived from the blockers profiles available in their tech- mittivity er = 2.2, loss tangent tan d = 0.0017, height H = 0.787 mm.
nical reports governed by standardization organisms [14–16]. A copper material is chosen as a conductor with a thickness t = 35
lm. In our example, the required capacitance tuning range is found
to be almost 0.5 pF allowing to cover the three standard bands.
There are many manufacturers providing solutions for semicon-
ductor varactor diodes with various capacitance ranges and differ-
ent intrinsic characteristics. Some varactors taken from the two
most known manufacturer, SKYWORKS and MACOM, and satisfy-
ing the required capacitance range are shown in Table 2.
From these varactor samples, the SMV1405 [18] seems to be a
good varactor model for our design since it has a low series resis-
tance and the lowest power consumption. It has also an acceptable
minimum capacity which keep a good filter adaptation (S11 ) and
transmission (S21 ) levels. The SMV1405-079LF varactor reference
≥ was selected to develop our tunable filter design. They have a tun-
ing capacitance range from 0.63 to 2.67 pF over a 0–30 V bias
range, and a low series resistance (Rs = 0.8 X). Its intrinsic param-
eters are as follows: junction capacitance C j0 = 2.37 pF, junction
potential V j = 0.77 V, and a grading coefficient M = 0.5. The package
parasitic capacitor and inductance are respectively C p = 0.29 pF and
Ls = 0.7 nH. To take this model into account in simulations, the
SPICE model is used with the provided parameters in the datasheet
like shown in Fig. 4.
The back-to-back configuration is used to implement the varac-
tors in order to enhance the linear properties of the filter [22].
Fig. 5 shows the layout of the designed filter and its photo. Its size
is 102.1 mm43.3 mm. In the proposed design, a third order DBR
filter was considered with the same low and high transmission
zeros, which gives the same stubs lengths on both sides of the fil-
Fig. 3. Flowchart of the design methodology for tunable DBR filters design with ter. Only two voltages (V1 and V2) were used to tune the filter
varactors placement and bias voltages determination. response. The top stubs were controlled using V1 (relative to the
 A. Othman et al. / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 102 (2019) 69–77 73

Table 2
Varactors available in the market.

Varactor reference C min (pF) C max (pF) Rs (X) Maximum bias voltage (V) Maximum power consumption per varactor (lW)
SMV1405 [18] 0.665 2.66 0.8 30 0.6
SMV2020 [19] 0.238 3.2 2.5 22 1.1
MA4ST250 [20] 0.432 6.34 2.55 12 1.2
MA4ST1240 [21] 0.248 8.75 0.4–0.7 12 1.2

Fig. 4. SPICE model of SMV1405 varactors used for simulations.

Fig. 5. Designed DBR filter: (a) layout, (b) photo.

capacitors C L ) and the down stubs were controlled using V2 (rela- ments for the Wi-Fi and UMTS bands, which can be considered
tive to the capacitors C H ). as small, and 3.4 V for the LTE band, which is little higher. This
The outputs of the first and the second flowcharts are given in error is due to the fact that the measured center frequencies and
Table 3. For the LTE band, the capacitance values used for lengths bandwidths for the UMTS and LTE bands were slightly shifted from
compensation are 0.7 pF and 0.695 pF for the stubs providing the the simulated values due to the tolerance of the fabrication process
low and high transmission zeros, respectively, instead of 0.665 as well as the incertitude of the physical parameters of the sub-
pF which is the varactor minimal capacitance. This is done to let strate (dielectric constant and height). So, to reduce this shift, we
a small range to control the bandwidth of the last band. From this have adjusted the bias voltages. A good agreement between the
table, a maximum voltage difference of 1.7 V is noted between the simulated and measured values would be met by taking in advance
calculated values and the used ones in simulations and measure- the incertitude of the design parameters. In general, there is a good

Table 3
Outputs of the first and second flowcharts.

Frequency band Calculated capacitances Bias voltage

Calculated bias voltages using (8) Used in simulations Used in measurements
LTE C L ½3 = 0 V RL ½3 = 25 V V RL ½3 = 25 V V RL ½3 = 21.6 V
C H ½3 = 0 V RH ½3 = 25.6 V V RH ½3 = 25.6 V V RH ½3 = 22.7 V
Wi-Fi C L ½2 = 0.17 pF V RL ½2 = 12.08 V V RL ½2 = 10.2 V V RL ½2 = 10.3 V
C H ½2 = 0.105 pF V RH ½2 = 15.86 V V RH ½2 = 13.9 V V RH ½2 = 14.4 V
UMTS C L ½1 = 0.49 pF V RL ½1 = 4.57 V V RL ½1 = 3.6 V V RL ½1 = 3.8 V
C H ½1 = 0.389 pF V RH ½1 = 6.09 V V RH ½1 = 5.2 V V RH ½1 = 6.9 V
74 A. Othman et al. / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 102 (2019) 69–77

agreement between the voltage values used in simulations and such as Magnesium Oxide (MgO), and a high-temperature super-
measurements, which confirms the effectiveness of the used conductor (HTS) material, such as yttrium barium copper oxide
design methodology. (YBa2Cu3O7-x), which exhibits a zero electrical resistance below
some temperature and acts like a perfect conductor. Also, a low
4. Results and discussion series resistance varactor can further improve the filter insertion
loss. Fig. 8 shows insertion loss improvement while using one of
In this section, we discuss the S-parameters simulations and these techniques or a combined solution. We considered the
measurements of the designed filter with the characterization of MgO substrate (tan d = 5.5e6), the HTS material (perfect conduc-
varactors nonlinear effects. S-parameters and nonlinear simula- tor) and a varactor with low series resistance (Rs = 0.4 X). The sim-
tions were done using Advanced Design System (ADS) software. ulations are conducted on the tunable DBR filter when it works in
the LTE band. We notice that the insertion loss is decreased from
4.1. S-parameters 3.3 dB to 0.9 dB and the most affecting parameter is the conductor
quality which can be improved using HTS material.
First, the response of the filter under the allowed bias voltage For the power consumption, it is very low because the used var-
range is presented to characterize its tuning capabilities. Fig. 6 actor model has a small maximum reverse current of about 20 nA,
shows the tuned response of the filter, where V1 and V2 denote and if we use the maximum reverse voltage which is 30 V, we find
respectively the bias voltage of the varactors connected to the that the maximum total power consumption is ð30  20  109 Þ
stubs providing the low and high transmission zeros. As we can 12 ¼ 7.2 lW. Table 4 summarizes the simulated and measured fil-
see from this figure, this filter offers high tuning ranges for both ter performances in terms of center frequencies, bandwidths and
center frequency and bandwidth from 1.59 to 2.7 GHz and from out of band rejections.
57 to 481 MHz, respectively at the middle frequency of 2.24 GHz, According to Tables 1 and 4, there is a good agreement between
with a maximum insertion loss of 5.9 dB. simulations, measurements and required specifications for each
Fig. 7 presents the S-parameters simulations and measurements standard, especially for the required attenuation at the rejection
of the designed filter for the three standards UMTS, Wi-Fi and LTE. frequencies. This is mandatory for the correct operation of the
We note a good agreement between simulations and measure- receiver because, as mentioned above, it is necessary to respect
ments, which confirms the effectiveness of the used design the standard specifications and to eliminate unwanted signals
methodology. A compromise was made between the bandwidth from reaching the other stages of the receiver in order to ensure
and the insertion losses in order to have acceptable losses under the minimum threshold of the signal to noise ratio (SNR). There
6 dB. The insertion loss values are quite high but can be considered is also a little excess of insertion loss of about 1.6 dB between sim-
acceptable in comparison with other works from the literature ulations and measurements, and this is due to several conditions
[2,3,6,7]. They can be further reduced by using a low loss substrate, like the exactitude of the varactors models, the incertitude of the

Fig. 6. Transmission parameter (S21 ) simulations: (a) center frequency control, (b) bandwidth control.

Fig. 7. S-parameters simulations and measurements: (a) S11 , (b) S21 .

 A. Othman et al. / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 102 (2019) 69–77 75

Fig. 8. Insertion loss improvement techniques.

Table 4
Simulated and measured performances of the filter.

Standards Simulations
b c
a
f c (GHz) BW (MHz) IL (dB) RLd (dB) f s1 e (GHz) f s2 e (GHz) As f (dB)

UMTS 2.14 82 4.4 17 2.025 2.255 31

2.05 2.23 23.65
Wi-Fi 2.441 94 3.3 22 2 3 31.4
LTE 2.655 82 3.3 27 2.535 2.775 28
2.56 2.75 21.9
Measurements
UMTS 2.142 108 5.9 16 2.025 2.255 22
2.05 2.23 16
Wi-Fi 2.439 97 5.9 14.5 2 3 37.44
LTE 2.650 86 5.9 15.6 2.535 2.775 29
2.56 2.75 22
a
f c : Center frequency.
b
BW: Bandwidth.
c
IL: Insertion loss.
d
RL: Return loss.
e
f si : Rejection frequencies.
f
As : Attenuation.

substrate parameters (er and H) and the tolerances of the fabrica- tor with an input power ranging from 10 to 25 dBm. All the
tion process. The insertion losses are less than 6 dB and the return simulated and measured curves shown below are done by deter-
losses are greater than 14 dB which are acceptable values. We note mining the power (Pout) at the filter output as a function of the
also that there is a good agreement between the center frequency applied input power (Pin).
and the bandwidth of each standard regarding the specifications
with high rejection levels outside the band of interest. For the
attenuation band and sharpness factor, there are several works in 4.2.1. 1-dB compression point (P1dB)
the literature [23–25] reporting good characteristics in terms of The 1-dB compression point is defined as the point at which the
these parameters. The designed DBR filter has an attenuation band filter gain is decreased by 1 dB. It can be determined either at the
at 20 dB of 353 MHz and 756 MHz in the low and high sides of the input (IP1dB) or the output (OP1dB) of the filter. Fig. 10 shows the
UMTS band, respectively. The sharpness factor at 20 dB in this band 1-dB compression point simulation and measurements results. For
is about 354 dB/GHz. This filter has a higher sharpness factor than UMTS band, the simulated and measured input 1-dB compression
the other works but a smaller attenuation band. To improve the point power (IP1dB) are 12.7 dBm and 11.4 dBm, respectively,
attenuation band of the designed DBR filter, we can tune indepen-
dently the frequencies of the transmission zeros as depicted in
Fig. 9. To get better performances, it is possible to design a DBR fil-
ter with different transmission zeros frequencies.

4.2. Characterization of varactors nonlinear effects

In this section, varactors nonlinear effects are presented

through simulations and measurements to give an idea about the
linear properties of the designed filter. These nonlinearities can
be produced under high level power operation. The most impor-
tant parameters are the 1-dB compression point (P1dB) and the
third order intercept point (IP3). These parameters are simulated
for UMTS and LTE bands to get the minimum and maximum values
regarding the covered frequency range. The simulations were per- Fig. 9. Stopband improvement at the Wi-Fi band by independently tuning the
formed under ADS software using Harmonic Balance (HB) simula- transmission zeros.
76 A. Othman et al. / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 102 (2019) 69–77

Fig. 10. Simulations and measurements of 1-dB compression point at UMTS band (left plot) and at LTE band (right plot).

while the simulated and measured output 1-dB compression point IIP3 for the UMTS band are 20.4 dBm and 21.2 dBm, respectively,
power (OP1dB) are 7.4 dBm and 5.2 dBm, respectively. Concerning and the simulated and measured OIP3 are 16 dBm and 16.6 dBm,
the LTE band, the IP1dB and OP1dB are 24 dBm and 19.6 dBm respectively. For the LTE band, the simulated and measured IIP3
respectively. We could not measure the 1-dB compression point are 30.6 dBm and 29.3 dBm, respectively, and the simulated and
at this band because it exceeds the maximum power of the used measured OIP3 are 27.3 dBm and 25 dBm, respectively. For this
signal generator. A maximum difference of 2.2 dB is noted between parameter, the maximum difference between simulations and
simulations and measurements, which is probably due to cumula- measurements is 2.3 dB, which is probably due to losses in the
tive losses in the measurements setup. measurements setup.
From these values, it is clear that this filter presents good linear
4.2.2. 3rd order intercept point (IP3) characteristics, over the frequency range from 2.14 GHz (UMTS) to
Another parameter used to characterize the circuit non- 2.655 GHz (LTE), since it can support an input power level up to
linearity is the third order intercept point (IP3). When the device 11.4 dBm without compression, which is a high value compared
is fed with two sine tones (f 1 ; f 2 ) then the third order intermodu- with the weak signals received by the antenna (up to 20 dBm
lation products (IM3) appear in the low side (2f 1 -f 2 ) and the high according to standards specifications).
side (2f 2 -f 1 ). This non-linearity is evaluated by the IP3 at the After all these characterizations, Table 5 provides a comparison
device input (IIP3) or output (OIP3) either for the low or high sides. of the proposed filter results with some previous tunable filters.
In Fig. 11, two tones separated by 5 MHz around the center fre- According to Table 5 and from the previous study, the proposed
quency of both the UMTS and LTE bands are used. We show only filter has a wide tuning range for both center frequency and band-
the IP3 simulation regarding the low side intermodulation which width, which can be exploited to cover many wireless standard in
is nearly the same for the other side. The simulated and measured that band which ranges from 1.5 GHz to 2.7 GHz. Moreover, the

Fig. 11. Simulations and measurements of third order intercept point at UMTS band (left plot) and at LTE band (right plot).

Table 5
Comparison table of tunable bandpass filters.

[2] [3] [6] [7] This work

CFc tuning (GHz) 0.56–1.15 0.7–1 1.11–1.5 1.25–2.1 2.142–2.65
BWd tuning (MHz) 65–180 60–150 46–130 54–162 86–108
Filter order 2 3 – 4 3
ILe (dB) 1.4–4.5 1.5–7 2.2–7 3.5–8.5 5.9
RLf (dB) > 12 >8 > 10 > 10 > 14
Non linear parameters (dBm) – IIP3 = 8–20 – IP1dB = 12.5 IP1dB = 11.4–24
IIP3 = 13–19 IIP3 = 21.2–30.6
Maximum power consumption 2.4 lW 18 nW – 4.8 lW 7.2 lW
c
CF: Center frequency.
d
BW: Bandwidth.
e
IL: Insertion loss.
f
RL: Return loss.
 A. Othman et al. / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 102 (2019) 69–77 77

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