152 IEEE MICROWAVE AND WIRELESS COMPONENTS LETTERS, VOL. 19, NO.

3, MARCH 2009

Quadruple-Mode UWB Bandpass Filter

With Improved Out-of-Band Rejection
Sai Wai Wong, Student Member, IEEE, and Lei Zhu, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract—A quadruple-mode ultra-wideband (UWB) bandpass

filter with sharp out-of-band rejection is presented in this work.
As a starting part of designing a quadruple-mode filter, a mode
graph of the initial triple-mode resonator is studied to choose
its proper dimensions. Based on these pre-determined dimen-
sions of this triple-mode resonator, two short-circuited stubs are
introduced in this resonator to generate two transmission zeros
near the lower and upper cut-off frequencies, leading to a higher
rejection skirt outside the desired passband. Moreover, as these
two stubs are installed, the fourth resonant mode falls down and
works together with the first three resonant modes to form a novel
quadruple-mode UWB filter. Finally, a filter prototype is designed
and fabricated to experimentally validate the attractive in-band
and out-of-band performances as predicted in theory.
Index Terms—Bandpass filter (BPF), multiple-mode resonator
(MMR), out-of-band rejection, ultra-wideband (UWB). Fig. 1. The proposed triple-mode UWB BPF on microstrip line topology.
(a) Schematic. (b) Equivalent transmission line model.

I. INTRODUCTION
R ECENTLY, the technique based on the multiple-mode
resonator (MMR) has been increasingly applied to de-
sign a class of ultra-wideband (UWB) bandpass filters (BPFs)
[1]–[4]. In [1], an initial MMR with stepped-impedance config-
uration was originally reported to make use of its first three res-
onant modes in building up a BPF that covers the overall UWB
passband, i.e., 3.1 to 10.6 GHz. In [2], capacitive-ended inter-
digital coupled lines are constructed to allocate coupling zeros
at the fourth resonant mode of the initial MMR, thus certainly
widening the upper-stopband of the resultant triple-mode UWB
filter. In [3], three triple-mode resonators are properly coupled
together to make a ninth-order wideband filter with enhanced
out-of-band rejection and extended upper-stopband at the cost
of enlarged overall size. In [4], [5], an electromagnetic bandgap
(EBG)-embedded MMR is implemented to highly extend the
upper-stopband with the help of its high-band attenuation. Even
though all of the above- described UWB filters have exhibited
satisfactory performance in the desired wide passband, it is still
a challenging research topic to make up such a UWB BPF with
small size, sharp rejection skirts and wide upper-stopband.
The primary objective of this work is to explore a novel
quadruple-mode UWB BPF with highly-attenuated wide
upper-stopband. As part of the designing quadruple-mode
UWB filter, an initial triple-mode UWB BPF is firstly consti-
tuted and characterized to exhibit good harmonic suppression in
Manuscript received August 17, 2008; revised October 30, 2008. Current ver-
sion published March 11, 2009.
The authors are with the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798 (e-mail: ezhul@ntu.edu.
sg).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LMWC.2009.2013735
1531-1309/$25.00 © 2009 IEEE
Section II. Then, two short-circuited stubs are properly attached
to the initial MMR to form a quadruple-mode UWB BPF in
Section III. After the principle of these two filters is explained,
their performances are optimized via Agilent ADS Momentum.
Finally, one filter prototype is fabricated for experimental
verification of the predicted results.
The substrate used herein is RT/Duroid 6010 with a thickness
of 0.635 mm, permittivity of 10.8 and loss tangent 0.0023.
II. TRIPLE-MODE UWB BPF
As a starting part of this work, a modified triple-mode UWB
BPF is at first discussed. Fig. 1(a) and (b) denote its schematic
and equivalent transmission line model, respectively. Herein,
the two interdigital coupled lines are formed to provide suffi-
ciently strong coupling degree in the desired UWB band. These
two coupled line sections are then directly tap-connected to the
two sides of a uniform half-wavelength resonator. As discussed
in [6], a transmission zero can be generated by the tapping tech-
nique, and further, its position can be controlled via the tapping
position, i.e., length ratio . Fig. 2(a) shows the mode chart
for normalized resonant frequencies of the first eight modes and
those of a few zeros of the UWB filter in Fig. 1 with respect
to the ratio of . Following the studies in [1], [2] and [6],
our target herein is to make use of the first three resonant fre-
quencies, , and , to constitute the desired UWB passband
while cancelling the 4th one, , using the 2nd zero of the cou-
pled line, i.e., .
At , the MMR in Fig. 1 is almost the same as the
original one in [1] in terms of the resonant-mode distribution.
The first three modes with , and constitutes the desired
passband and those with and form the unwanted har-
monic passband. As the value of increases, , and
WONG AND ZHU: QUADRUPLE-MODE UWB BPF 153

Fig. 3. The proposed quadruple-mode UWB BPF on microstrip line topology.

Fig. 2. (a) Mode chart that shows normalized resonant-mode frequencies and (a) Schematic. (b) Equivalent transmission line model. (c) Simulated S - and
transmission zeros versus u=v . (b) Simulated S -S -magnitudes of the triple- S -magnitudes for d = 4 25
: and 1.5 mm.
mode UWB BPF with d = 4 25
: and 1.5 mm respectively.

the results in Fig. 2(b), we can figure out that as the coupling
tend to move closer to each other, especially in the range from length increases, the -magnitude curve in the UWB band
to 0.25. Meanwhile, the 3rd zero with the nor- can gradually rise up towards the ideal 0-dB line. In the case of
malized frequency, , can be excited by adjusting the stub (solid line in Fig. 2(b)), a desired UWB pass-
length, . This gives us a hint to suppress all the resonant modes band is satisfactorily realized with the bandwidth dominated by
with , and by properly choosing near the vertical the first three resonant frequencies, i.e, , and . Further-
a-a’ plane as shown in Fig. 2(a). On the other hand, the 8th res- more, the 2nd to 4th transmission zeros, i.e., , and
onant mode with can be suppressed by the 3rd zero of the , have suppressed the 4th to 8th resonant modes. Thus, a
coupled line, i.e., , as shown in Fig. 2(a). As a result, wide upper-stopband can be achieved from the higher cut-off
the triple-mode UWB BPF can be worked out in terms of its frequency to 30 GHz with the rejection larger than 15.0 dB.
first three resonant modes. By canceling its 4th to 8th resonant
modes, its upper stopband can be significantly extended. In de- III. QUADRUPLE-MODE UWB BPF
sign, is found in the a-a’ plane. For a fixed length Fig. 3(a) and (b) illustrates the schematic and the equivalent
of the vertical part in Fig. 1(a), we can obtain and transmission line model of the proposed quadruple-mode UWB
. BPF respectively. The two identical short-circuited stubs with
Fig. 2(b) shows the simulated - and -magnitudes of an approximate quarter-wavelength at the center of the desired
the triple-mode UWB BPF as explained in Fig. 2(a) under the passband are simultaneously placed at the tapped points of the
selected coupling length of (tight coupling case) and triple-mode resonator as shown in Fig. 1(a). These short-cir-
(weak coupling case), respectively. In weak cou- cuited stubs have been successfully applied to the design of an
pling case as discussed in Fig. 2(a) and also in [1], the first three alternative class of UWB BPFs as reported in [7]. They are uti-
resonant modes, ranged in the 3.1–10.6 GHz band, can work lized herein to push the 4th resonant mode into the desired pass-
together to make up the desired UWB passband. In addition, band while sharpening the rejecting skirt of the passband.
due to existence of the 3rd zero , the , and are Fig. 3(c) shows the simulated - and -magnitudes of
highly suppressed in both tight and weak coupling cases. From this quadruple-mode UWB BPF under the coupling lengths
154
Fig. 4. Predicted and measured frequency responses of the proposed
quadruple-mode UWB BPF: (a) Top-view photograph. (b) S - and S -mag-
nitudes. (c) Group delay.
of and 1.50 mm respectively. As demonstrated in
Fig. 3(c), the 4th resonant mode is really moved down to its
first three counterparts (dotted-line) and it works with them to
make a UWB passband (solid-line). As compared to the results
in Fig. 2(b), this quadruple-mode UWB filter has enlarged
attenuation skirts near the lower and higher cut-off frequencies
in addition to keeping its wide upper-stopband performance.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
To provide verification on the predicted passband and
upper-stopband performances, a quadruple-mode UWB filter is
IEEE MICROWAVE AND WIRELESS COMPONENTS LETTERS, VOL. 19, NO. 3, MARCH 2009
fabricated and its photograph is shown in Fig. 4(a). Fig. 4(b) and
(c) show the comparison between the predicted and measured
frequency responses of - and -magnitudes as well as
group delay. They are found in good agreement with each other,
thereby the actual realization of the preferred UWB passband
and extended upper-stopband is well confirmed in experiment.
Looking at Fig. 4(b) closely, the measured upper-stopband is
now dramatically extended up to 30 GHz with an insertion
loss larger than 15 dB. The measured insertion loss is found
less than 1.1 dB within the desired UWB passband. The 3-dB
passband covers the range of 2.8–11.0 GHz and it has a frac-
tional bandwidth of 119%. Moreover, the rejection skirt near
the cut-off frequencies are sharpened to a great extent against
the MMR-based UWB filters in [1]–[6]. In addition, the group
delay varies between 0.19–0.52 ns within the UWB passband
(e.g., 3.1–10.6 GHz), showing a good linearity.
V. CONCLUSION
In this work, a triple-mode UWB BPF is first studied and
designed. By tap-connecting a half-wavelength resonator and
feeding this MMR via interdigital coupled-lines, its upper-stop-
band is extended to 30 GHz. Then, by introducing two short-cir-
cuited stubs with one quarter-wavelength to this initial MMR,
a quadruple-mode MMR is constituted. Based on this modified
MMR, a UWB BPF is designed to exhibit its attractive sharper
rejection skirts and extended upper-stopband. Also, a filter pro-
totype is fabricated to demonstrate the predicted UWB perfor-
mances in experiment.
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