Journal of Engineering Research and Studies E-ISSN 0976-7916

Research Article
LOW PASS FILTER FOR L-BAND APPLICATION USING STEPPED-
IMPEDANCE MICROSTRIP LINES
Navita Singh, Dr.Avinash Kumar and Pravesh Singh
Address for Correspondence
Department of Electronics & Communication, Krishna Institute of Engineering & Technology, Ghaziabad, INDIA.
E-mail: singh.navita@ rediffmail.com
ABSTRACT
There is an increasing demand for newer microwave and millimeter-wave systems to meet the emerging telecommunication challenges with
respect to size, performance and cost. This paper presents a low cost and low insertion loss L-band lowpass filter (LPF) based on high-resistivity
silicon substrate.Microstrip technology is used for simplicity and ease of fabrication. The design and simulation are performed using 3D full
wave electromagnetic simulator IE3D. The simulated filter achieved an insertion loss of less than 1.0dB in the passband. The filter has a center
fiequency of 1.5GHz with covering the frequency range from 0.5 GHz to 1.55 GHz.
KEYWORDS Low pass Filter, Dielectric Constant, Microstrip filter, Millimeter wave filter
I. INTRODUCTION for simplicity and ease of fabrication.The design and
Microwave communication systems are expanding rapidly simulation are performed using 3D full wave electromagnetic
to higher frequency such as L-band since they can provide simulator IE3D. This filter is widely used today in
many advantages over conventional wireless links, for radar,satellite and terrestrial communication applications.
example the larger bandwidth and smaller device size. II. DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF MICROSTRIP
Waveguide components are widely used at these frequencies FILTER
and offer very good performance but the result in high The design of low pass filters involves two main steps. The
production costs and bulky systems. Conventional planar first one is to select an appropriate low pass prototype. The
filter structures suffer from radiation from the resonators into choice of the type of response, including Pass band ripple
the substrate and from high ohmic loss, and therefore give and the number of reactive elements will depend on the
high insertion loss and poor filter rejection However, there is required specifications. The element values of the low pass
still a challenge in lowering the cost of the commercial RF prototype filters, which are usually normalized to make a
micromachined device since the devices are fabricated in source impedance go = 1 and a cutoff frequency Ωc = 1.0,
semiconductor- like process. The filters are one of the are then transformed to the L-C elements for the desired
primary and necessary components of a microwave cutoff frequency and the desired source impedance, which is
system.Microstrip line is a good candidate for filter design normally 50 ohms for microstrip filters. The next main step
due to its advantages of low cost, copact size, light weight, in the design of microstrip low pass filters [1] is to find an
planar structure and easy integration with other components appropriate micro strip realization that approximates the
on a single circuit board. Conventional filter structures like lumped element filter. The element values for the low pass
equal ripple and butterworth low pass filters are requirement prototype with Chebyshev response at pass band ripple
of special fabrication methods. Conventional low frequency factor LAR = 0.1 dB, characteristic impedance source/load
techniques for fabrication does not fit at these frequencies Zo = 50 ohms, are taken from normalized values gi i.e. g1,
due to the very high losses associated. Although microstrip is g2, g3, g4......, gn. The filter is assumed to be fabricated on a
not the highest performance filter technology, still it is the substrate of dielectric constant εr and of thickness h mm. for
preferred choice in many thin-film on ceramic and printed Angular (normalized) cutoff frequency Ωc, using the
circuit board applications. RF pre-selector filters, image element transformation [1].
rejection filters, local oscillator (LO) filters and intermediate The filter design steps are as follows:
frequency (IF) filters can all be realized in microstrip. The 1. Determine the number of sections from the specification
recent advance of novel materials and fabrication characteristics for microstrip parameters.
technologies, including monolithic microwave integrated Filter Specifications:
circuit (MMIC), microelectromechanic system (MEMS), Relative Dielectric Constant, єr = 4.4
micromachining, high-temperature Superconductor (HTS), Height of substrate, h = 1.6 mm
and low-temperature co fired ceramics (LTCC), has The substrate used –
simulated the rapid development of new microstrip and other The loss tangent tanδ = 0.02
filters. In this paper, low pass filter is optimized for high Zo=50 Ω
performance and an efficient. Microstrip technology is used Ωc = 1

JERS/Vol.II/ Issue II/April-June, 2011/22-24

 Journal of Engineering Research and Studies E-ISSN 0976-7916

2. Determine the values of the prototype elements to realize IV. RESULTS & ANALYSIS
the specifications. Also we have taken the element value for The simulated filter as shown in Figure 1and 2, predicts the
low pass filters from table 3.2 [1] for n=3 geometry & response of low pass filters for n=3.The graph is
Li = (Zo/go) (Ωc/2πfc) gi plotted by taking gain (dB) on the Y-axis and frequency in
Ci = (go/Zo) (Ωc/2πfc) gi GHz on the X-axis. From the graph it is clear that the cut-off
lL = λgl /2π Sin-1 (ωc Li / ZOL) frequency is found to be 1.5GHz for stepped-impedance low
lC = λgc /2π Sin-1 (ωc Ci Zoc) pass filter. Hence stepped-impedance low pass filter is
3. To calculate the width of capacitor and inductor we use capable of passing the frequency less than 1.5GHz & reject
the following formula the frequency after 1.5GHz for the thickness of the substrate
W/h = 8 exp (A)/exp(2A)-2 1.6 mm and relative dielectric constant 4.4.
A= Zc / 60 {εr+1}^0.5+ εr+1/ εr-1{0.23+0.11/ εr} V. CONCLUSION
Zc = η / 2 π √ εre [ln (8h/w+ 0.25 w/h)] A 1.5GHz filter has been successfully demonstrated using
η = 120 π ohms is the wave impedance in free space. microstrip technology. The simulated LPF achieved an
4. The effective dielectric constant can be found by the insertion loss of less than 1.0dB with a 3dB bandwidth about
following formula 33% which is smaller in size and larger bandwidth than
εre = (εr+1)/2+(εr-1)/2 [(1+12h/W)-0.5] previous microstrip fiters of this type. The filter is designed
5. Effective wavelength is also found as on high- resistivitysilicon substrate which is compatiable
λge=300/(6√εree) with the new SiGe Process In general, the transmission
TABLE I: DIMENSIONS FOR A STEPPED- characteristic (S21) of the filter is very well except for an
IMPEDANCE LOW PASS FILTERS (FOR N=3) additional loss of less than 1.0dB in the low frequency of the
Dimension Value pass band. This could be due to radiation loss, or the
Microstrip line width in mm WC=11.10,WO=3.059,WL=2.22 relatively thin metal used This filter is widely used today in
Characteristic impedance in ohm ZOC = 20,ZO = 50, ZOL = 60 radar, satellite and terrestrial communications, and electronic
Effective dielectric constant (εre)C = 3.788, (εre)O = 3. 381,
counter measure applications, both militarily and
(εre)L = 3.294
commercially.
III.SIMULATION RESULTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
In order to verify the validity of the above expressions in
The authors would like to thank authorities of Krishna
millimeter wave regime, a simulation study was performed
Institute of Engineering & Technology for all the support
using IE3D. To get the exact response for our purpose, an
provided.
optimization was performed using software. The dimensions
REFERENCES
of the filters are given in the above table.
1. Jia-Shen G. Hong & M.J. Lancaster, “Microstrip Filters
for RF/ Microwave Applications” John Wiley & Sons
Inc., 2001.
2. D.M.Pozar, “Microwave Engineering,” John Wiley,
2000.
3. G. Mathaei, L.Young & E.M.T. Jones, “Microwave Filter
Fig.1. Layout of a 3-pole, stepped-impedance Microstrip
impedance matching networks and coupling structures,”
low pass filter on a substrate with εr= 4.4 and h = 1.6 mm Artech House, Norwood, MA, 1980.
at 1.5 GHz frequency. 4. Jia-Sheng Hong; Lancaster M.J, “Recent progress in
planar microwave filters,” IEEE Trans. Antennas
Propagat., Vol. 2, pp. 1134 – 1137, August 1998.
5. B.M Stiff man; and G.L Mathae, “Exact Design of Band-
Stop Microwave Filters,”
6. IEEE Trans.vol.CT-5, January 1964.
7. IE3D Software Release – 8, Developed by M/S Zeland
Software Inc.
8. Tae-Yeoul Yun; and Kai Chang, “Transaction on
Microwave Theory and Techniques,” IEEE Trans, Vol
49, No.3, March 2001.
9. M.Makimoto; and S.Yamoshita, “Microwave Resonators
and Filters, “IEEE Trans.Wireless communication Vol.2,
August 1986.
10. H.Ozalki and J.Ishii, “Synthesis of transmission -line
networks and the Design of UHF filters,” IRE Trans. On
Fig.2. Full-wave EM simulated performance of the
circuit theory, vol. CT-2, pp.325- 336; December 1955.
stepped-impedance low pass filter for n = 3 at 1.5GHz.

JERS/Vol.II/ Issue II/April-June, 2011/22-24

 Journal of Engineering Research and Studies E-ISSN 0976-7916

11. E.N. Torogow, Senior member, IEEE, and G. E Collins,

“Band-Stop Filters for High-Power Applications”, IEEE
Trans. Vol 40, pp 185-196; September 1965
12. Blondy P., Brown A.R., Cros D. and Rebeiz G.M., “Low-
loss micromachined filters for millimeterwave
communication systems”, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory
Tech., Vol. 46(12), 1998, pp. 2283-2288.
13. Edwards T.C. and Steer M.B., Foundation of Interconnect
and Microstrip Design, John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2000.
14. Tentzeris M., Laskar J., Sutono A., Lee C.-H., Davis
M.F., Obatoyinbo A. and Lim K., “Development of
Highly Integrated 3D Microwave-Millimeter Wave
Radio Front-End System-on-Package (SOP)”, European
GaAs Conference, 2001, pp. 235-238.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Navita Singh is Sr. lecturer with Department of Electronics &
Communication, Krishna Institute of Engineering & Technology,
Ghaziabad, INDIA.
Dr. Avinash Kumar is Head of Department Electronics & Communication,
with Krishna Institute of Engineering & Technology, Ghaziabad, INDIA,
previously with G.B.Pantnagar University, Pantnagar.
Pravesh Singh is Assistant Professor with the Electronics &
Communication Engineering, Krishna Institute of Engineering &
Technology Ghaziabad, INDIA).
This work was supported in part by the Department of Electronics &
Communication Engineering, Krishna Institute of Engineering &
Technology, Ghaziabad.

JERS/Vol.II/ Issue II/April-June, 2011/22-24