Parallel-Coupled Line Bandpass Filter Design Using

Different Substrates for Fifth Generation Wireless

Communication Applications
Nadera Najib Al-Areqi, Norhudah Seman and Tharek Abdul Rahman
Wireless Communication Centre (WCC),
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
[email protected], [email protected] and [email protected]

Abstract—The aim of this paper is to propose well bandwidth performance of 300 MHz with return loss
characterization of a compact microstrip bandpass filter (BPF) greater 10 dB and insertion loss of 2.806 dB. On the contrary,
design for fifth generation (5G) wireless communication the designed BPF in [3] offered narrower bandwidth of 80
applications concerning the design frequency of 15 GHz. The MHz with return loss better than 16.1 dB and insertion loss of
BPF design consists of quarter wave parallel-coupled line 3.1 dB. In [5], a parallel-coupled BPF design for S-band
resonators and additional small resonator attached between the application was proposed using higher relative permittivity
first/last coupled-line section and the ports’ 50 ohm transmission substrate of RT/Duriod 6010. The simulation results showed
line. The characterization is based on the analysis of different significantly better bandwidth of 66% for 2 to 4 GHz
substrates with the selected relative permittivity of 2.2
frequency range with return loss of 11 dB and insertion loss of
(RT/Duroid 5880), 3.55 (RO4003C), 4.70 (TMM4), 10.7 (RO6010)
1 dB. While, [1] proposed BPF design implementing stub-
and 11.20 (RO3010). The proposed design with RO6010 substrate
exhibits an improvement in the bandwidth performance. The inserted interdigital coupled-lines using FR-4 substrate with
design and analysis are performed via the use of Keysight’s design frequency of 4 GHz. This BPF has displayed overall
Advanced Design System (ADS) 2015 simulator. improved results of insertion loss and return loss, but slightly
narrower fractional bandwidth performance than [5]. The
Keywords—bandpass filter; coupled-line; fifth generation; proposed BPF achieved bandwidth up to 40% for frequency
microstrip; resonator. range of 3.2 GHz to 4.8 GHz with very well insertion loss of
0.92 dB and with return loss better than 15 dB. In addition,
I. INTRODUCTION Saad et. al. [6] proposed a BPF design at the design frequency
of 5 GHz using Ferro Tape as the substrate with thickness of
Currently, there is an increasing demand for bandpass filter 0.635 mm. However, performance of this BPF showed quite
(BPF) as it has been considered as an important component in high insertion loss of 4.9 dB for bandwidth of 180 MHz with
designing any modern front-end of the wireless communication return loss of 7 dB. Authors in [7] took a different approach
systems such for the future fifth generation (5G) using Teflon substrate with thickness of 0.504 mm. The design
communication. 15 GHz band is one of the candidates to be by using T-feeder coupling lines and hairpin resonator at the
considered for use in 5G cellular technology, besides other center frequency of 5.205 GHz. Simulation analysis showed
bands in the spectrum above 6 GHz. Thus, in order to keep the that bandwidth of 10.34% with return loss of 23 dB and
wireless communications up-to-date, various researches on the insertion loss of 1.4 dB at resonant frequency of 5.13 GHz.
BPF have been conducted [1, 2]. As a matter of fact in very The reviewed previous works above have been designed with
high frequency applications, lumped components are not frequencies less than 6 GHz. Currently, 5G cellular
practically to be implemented, therefore; the lumped element technology is being researched with consideration of a higher
BPF circuit is transformed to the planar transmission line spectrum than 6 GHz band.
circuit [3]. In this study, insertion loss method, which uses
network synthesis technique with a completely specified The design based on an ultra-thin liquid-crystal polymer
frequency response, has been applied to design the BPF filter. substrate at higher design frequency of 9.4 GHz was proposed
in [8] showing the insertion loss of 2.1 dB and the return loss
Moreover, there are different types of microstrip line filters better than 20 dB with 5.7% bandwidth. Another design at
such as hairpin, coupled-line, step impedance, and stub millimeter-wave band concerning design frequency of 25 GHz
impedance [1, 3-9]. At microwave frequencies, the design of was reported in [9] achieving 20% bandwidth along with
BPF often uses the parallel-coupled line technique due to the return loss better than 15 dB and insertion loss of 2 dB.
simple structure, good performance and the easy fabrication Meanwhile, Tsai et al. in [10] proposed a higher millimeter-
process. Authors in [4] and [3] presented the design of wave band design using coupled microstrip resonators
coupled-line BPF that optimized using flame retardant 4 (FR- concerning the design frequency of 77 GHz. Where, the
4) substrate with a center frequency of 1.42 GHz and 2.44 performance of this BPF demonstrated the return loss better
GHz, respectively. In [4], the designed BPF demonstrated a than 15 dB and insertion loss of 1.3 dB in the pass band with
The authors are grateful to Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia
(MOHE) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) for the financial
assistance via Research University Grant (RUG) with Vote Number of 05H43.

ISAP2015 953 Copyright (C) 2015 IEICE

the bandwidth of 9.5%. 1

Thus in this paper, a compact BPF consisting of quarter ⎧ πΔ ⎫ 2

J 0ʹ′,1 = J kʹ′ , k +1 = ⎨ ⎬ (3)
wave parallel-coupled line resonators is proposed by studying
the effect of different substrates of RT/Duroid 5880,
⎩ 2 g0 g1 ⎭
RO4003C, TMM4, RO6010 and RO3010 that having the πΔ
dielectric constant in the range of 2 to 11.5. To enhance J kʹ′ ,k +1 = (4)
passband and bandwidth performance, small resonator is 2 g k g k +1
added to the first and end section of coupled-line. The design
where, g k and Δ are the normalized elements obtained from the
concerns a center frequency of 15 GHz, which simulated and
analyzed using Keysight’s Advanced Design System (ADS) Chebyshev table and the fractional bandwidth, accordingly.
2015 simulator. The fractional bandwidth, Δ can be given by (5):
w2 − w1
II. PARALLEL-COUPLED LINE BANDPASS FILTER DESIGN Δ= (5)
w0
Chebyshev type filter with the number of order, N set to be
five is chosen for this design. Whilst, the passband ripple is 0.5 where, w0 , w1 and w2 are the design, lower and upper end of
dB. Then, the conversion to the parallel-coupled BPF structure angular frequency, respectively. The calculated parameters
that having schematic and layout as shown in the following obtained by using (1) to (5) are tabulated in Table I.
Fig. 1 can be performed by computing the even and odd
characteristic impedances of coupled-line as expressed in (1)
and (2). Small resonators have been added to the first and end TABLE I. THE CALCULATED PARALLEL-COUPLED BPF PARAMETERS
section of coupled line to improve the bandwidth and passband Even Mode Odd Mode
Normalized Admittance
response. Stage
Element, gk Inverter, J’k,k+1
Impedance Impedance
(Z0e) (Z0o)
1 1.7058 0.3034 69.77 39.43
2 1.2296 0.1084 56.06 45.16
3 2.5408 0.0888 54.83 45.95
4 1.2296 0.0888 54.83 45.95
5 1.7058 0.1084 56.06 45.16
6 1 0.3034 69.77 39.43

TABLE II. THE USED SUBSTRATES IN THE STUDY WITH DIFFERENT THICKNESS
AND RELATIVE PERMITTIVITY  
(a)
Loss
Dielectric Thickness
Substrates Tangent, tan
Constant, εr (mm)
δ
RT/Duroid 5880 2.2 0.508 0.0009
RO4003C 3.55 0.508 0.0027
TMM4 4.70 0.508 0.0020
RO6010 10.7 0.635 0.0023
RO3010 11.20 0.640 0.0022

TABLE III. THE OPTIMIZED DIMENSIONS IN MM OF THE DESIGNED BPFS

Substrates
BPF
Dimension RT/Duroid
RO4003C TMM4 RO3010 RO6010
(b) 5880
Fig. 1. (a) Schematic and (b) layout of the proposed parallel-coupled line BPF W1 1.55 1.13 0.93 0.56 0.58
L1 3.62 2.96 2.61 1.77 1.80
W2 0.53 0.57 0.42 0.29 0.13

[
Z 0ek ,k +1 = Z 0 1 + J kʹ′ ,k +1 + J kʹ′ ,k +1
2
] (1) L2
W3
0.09
0.53
0.09
0.57
0.09
0.42
0.09
0.29
0.09
0.13

[
Z 0ok ,k +1 = Z 0 1 − J kʹ′ ,k +1 + J kʹ′ ,k +12 ] (2)
S3
L3
0.02
3.55
0.13
3.20
0.08
2.73
0.16
1.82
0.10
1.81
W4 0.45 1.09 0.46 0.25 0.22
where, k varies from 0 to N. While, J kʹ′ , k +1 and Z 0 represent the
S4 0.10 0.13 0.34 0.49 0.10
admittance inverter and the characteristic impedance that has a L4 3.69 2.92 2.70 1.83 1.78
typical value of 50Ω. The admittance interver for first and last W5 0.37 0.85 0.62 0.25 0.14
stage can be given by (3), while the other stages are computed
S5 0.10 0.40 0.40 0.58 0.17
using (4).
L5 3.34 2.98 2.66 1.83 1.72

954
 Afterward, by utilizing Rogers RT/Duroid 5880,
RO4003C, TMM4, RO6010 and RO3010 substrates with
specifications stated in Table II and the parameters in Table I,
the dimensions of coupled-line width, W and gap spacing, S
can be calculated. While, the length, L of each coupled-line
resonator at each stage can be computed from (6). The
respective calculated dimensions for BPFs operate at 15 GHz
are designed, simulated and optimized using ADS software.
The optimized dimensions are summarized in the Table III.

λ 3×108
L= = (6)
4 4 f εe

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Referring to Fig. 2 and 3, the insertion loss of RO6010 BPF
across the passband is 1 dB. While, the bandwidth is 44.7% Fig. 3. S11 of 15 GHz parallel-coupled BPFs using different substrates
across 12.85 to 19.56 GHz with return loss better than 10 dB.
Meanwhile, RT/Duroid 5880 BPF has insertion loss of 0.8 dB
TABLE IV. SUMMARY AND COMPARISON OF THE BPF WITH DIFFERENT
as depicted by Fig 2. 37% of the bandwidth from 12.6 to 18.16 SUBSTRATES
GHz is demonstrated by the BPF using this substrate.
Furthermore, the RO3010 BPF has insertion loss of 2 dB and Operating
S11
return loss that greater than 10 dB with 21.73% of the Substrates S21 (dB) Frequency BW (%) Size (mm2)
(dB)
(GHz)
bandwidth from 13.5 to 16.8. In addition, the insertion loss of RT/Duroid
TMM4 BPF is 1.5 dB and the return loss more than 10 dB. ≥ -0.8 ≤ -10 12.6 – 18.16 37 25.4 x 5.5
5880
Whereas, the bandwidth is 18%. Then, it can be noted that RO4003C ≥ -1.7 ≤ -10 14.48 – 15.62 4.33 25.5 x 10.8
RO4003C BPF has the worse bandwidth of 4.33%. Its TMM4 ≥ -1.5 ≤ -10.2 13.7 – 16.5 18.6 22.6 x 6.7
insertion loss and return loss are better than 1.7 dB and 10 dB, RO6010 ≥ -1 ≤ -10 12.85 – 19.56 44.7 15.2. x 3.4
accordingly. The designed BPFs’ performances are then RO3010 ≥ -2 ≤ -10 13.5 – 16.8 21.73 14.7 x 6.4
summarized in Table IV.
Based on this study, RO6010 substrate offers the best IV. CONCLUSION
bandwidth performance of 44.7% compared to other substrates In this study, the design of band pass filter using microstrip
with agreeable well insertion loss and return loss. This can be parallel-coupled resonator has been presented using Keysight’s
due to its characteristic good thermal mechanical stability. ADS software with the concern of operating frequency at 15
While, RT/Duroid 5880 provides the best insertion loss of 0.8 GHz. The design has been performed with implementation of
dB that contributed by its low dissipation factor. However, it different substrates of RT/Duroid 5880, RO4003C, TMM4,
has a slightly narrower bandwidth than RO6010. In term of RO6010 and RO3010. These BPFs exhibit well insertion loss
BPF size, the designs using RO6010 and RO3010 substrate and return loss with significantly different bandwidth
depict quite similar size of 15.2. x 3.4 mm2 and 14.7 x 6.4 performance. The best performance with compact size can be
mm2 due to the close relative permittivity of 10.7 and 11.2, observed from the design using substrate of RO6010.
accordingly.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors are grateful to Ministry of Higher Education
Malaysia (MOHE) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)
for the financial assistance via Research University Grant
(RUG) with Vote Number of 05H43.

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