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Abstract—This paper addresses the application of the branch- sign techniques of digital filters [4]. In transversal structures, the
line directional coupler to the design of microwave bandpass fil- input signal to be filtered is split into a multiplicity of subcompo-
ters. The basic idea consists of using the branch-line coupler as nents propagating through the different feedforward signal paths
a transversal filtering section by loading the coupled ports of the
coupler with suitable transmission-line segments ending in an open that make up the overall filter. Thus, the filtering action comes
circuit and taking the isolated port as the output node. Thus, under about through the combination of these signal subcomponents
the signal interference philosophy involved in classic transversal once they have been processed. By forcing a passband construc-
filter schemes, bandpass transfer functions with perceptible stop- tive interference and out-of-band signal energy cancellations to
bands and sharp cutoff slopes are derived. Furthermore, the main produce power transmission zeros, high-selective filtering re-
characteristics of the synthesized filtering response, such as the
bandwidth or the position of the out-of-band power transmission sponses with sharp cutoff slopes can be derived. Furthermore,
zeros, can be easily controlled by means of the design parameters of since only feedforward techniques and not feedback principles
the transversal section. Hence, a large variety of bandpass filtering are used in microwave transversal filters, instability problems
profiles different from those offered by classical filter schemes can caused by the presence of active devices to carry out active fil-
be realized. Finally, the experimental usefulness of the transversal tering functions are avoided [5].
filtering section based on the branch-line coupler is proven with the
design and construction in microstrip technology of two microwave Traditionally, the main drawback to overcoming in mi-
bandpass filter prototypes at 5 GHz. crowave transversal filter design has been the large number of
transversal branches needed to synthesize high-order transfer
Index Terms—Branch-line directional coupler, microstrip,
microwave bandpass filter, transmission line, transmission zero, functions, usually leading to circuits with excessive physical
transversal filtering section. dimensions. In the most basic transversal structures, which are
made up of constant amplitude-weight and time-delay blocks
and where interactions between signals is the only available
I. INTRODUCTION medium to define the bandpass filtering response, this imped-
iment has become unaffordable [6]. Lately, the inclusion of
V ERY sophisticated filter solutions are required in the
development of high-performance RF subsystems for
modern wireless and high-speed data communication appli-
frequency-dependent processing blocks in the filter branches
or even the use of more advanced feedfordward architectures
cations [1]. In the design of passive filters, the major issue emerging as generalizations of the transversal arrangement
is the realization of low insertion-loss and high-selectivity have allowed the size constraint in high-selectivity situations to
filtering responses to accomplish appropriate band selections be partially circumvented, but at the expense of increasing the
by efficiently rejecting spurious signals and out-of-band noise design complexity [7], [8]. The introduction of monolithic-mi-
[2]. Regarding active filters, some other important factors, such crowave integrated-circuit (MMIC) technology has also been
as linearity, noise performance, and power transmission gain, important to demonstrate transversal filtering concepts in small
must also be considered [3]. circuits for low-pass, high-pass, bandpass, and stopband appli-
Over the last few years, one of the most followed choices in cations with the tunability as an added feature [9], [10].
research into novel microwave filter topologies is based on the A new alternative to designing microwave bandpass filters
use of circuits providing more than one input-to-output signal using signal-interference sections based on the branch-line di-
propagation path. Microwave transversal filters are a good ex- rectional coupler is presented in this paper [11]. The idea is to
ponent of this trend, appearing from the extrapolation to the use the branch-line coupler as a transversal filtering section by
analog domain of the theoretical concepts involved in classic de- connecting the coupled ports to opened load stubs. Thus, taking
the isolated port of the coupler as the output node, two input-to-
output signal paths are generated so that bandpass transfer func-
Manuscript received March 3, 2005; revised May 11, 2005. This work was
supported in part by the National Board of Scientific and Technology Research tions can be obtained through the transversal combination of the
under Project TIC2002-04569-C02-01 and Project TIC2002-02657, and in part signal components derived from the input signal and traveling
by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture under a doctoral scholarship. through these propagation paths.
R. Gómez-García and J. I. Alonso are with the Grupo de Microondas
y Radar, Departamento de Señales, Sistemas y Radiocomunicaciones, The main advantage of the proposed transversal filtering
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain (e-mail: topology with respect to the existing ones is its capability to
roberto.gomez.garcia@ieee.org; ignacio@gmr.ssr.upm.es). achieve high-selectivity performances by producing appropriate
D. Amor-Martín is with INDRA Sistemas S.A., 28850 Torrejón de Ardoz,
Madrid, Spain (e-mail: damor@indra.es). amplitude and phase relationships between the transversal sig-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMTT.2005.855140 nals to be combined. This is experimentally proven in this study
0018-9480/$20.00 © 2005 IEEE
3222 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 53, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2005
(1)
(4)
(5)
(7)
Fig. 4. Dependence of the 3-dB relative bandwidth 1 dB (continuous line) Fig. 5. Simulated power transmission response of the ideal designed passive
and the relative spectral separation between the adjacent transmission zeros
1 (dashed line) of the transversal filtering section on the design parameters filter.
=1 =2
Z , Z (m , n , Z Z = = Z ).
sult is not satisfied in all the specified frequency
III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS range since the condition is not always met. There-
The usefulness of the transversal filtering section based on fore, the overall filter should be optimized as a unit using the
the branch-line directional coupler in microwave bandpass filter design parameters of the transversal filtering section, the trans-
design is experimentally validated here. mission-line segment cascading the sections, and the filter input
Specifically, the design, construction in microstrip tech- line as degrees of freedom.
nology, and characterization of both a passive and an active The commercial simulator HP-EEsof Libra has been used in
microwave filter prototype at 5 GHz using the proposed the design and optimization process of the filter. For both the
transversal filtering section is described below. transversal filtering sections, the obtained values for the char-
acteristic impedances of the transmission-line segments making
A. Microwave Passive Filter With Sharp-Rejection Stopbands up the coupler are and , where
The design of a microwave passive bandpass filter with is the reference impedance. The load stubs are designed as 50-
sharp-rejection stopbands has been approached. This kind of ( , ) line segments with electrical lengths
filter is especially suitable for the input duplexer of transceiver and at 5 GHz. The filter input line and the line
subsystems directed at full-duplex communication applications, cascading the transversal sections are implemented as quarter
where hard isolation levels between the adjacent channels cor- center-wavelength-long line segments with 25- and 100- char-
responding to the transmitter and receiver modules are required. acteristic impedance, respectively.
The overall filter has been derived empirically, but using the The simulated power transmission response of the ideal de-
design rules provided in Section II, starting from the cascade signed overall filter is shown in Fig. 5. The attenuation mask
connection of two identical transversal filtering sections based to be satisfied is also provided. As shown, a highly selective
on the branch-line coupler. Thus, without coupling gaps be- filtering response with sharp-rejection stopbands is achieved
tween the transversal sections and the input/output lines, the avoiding the use of cross-couplings.
filter insertion losses are minimized by avoiding any radiation The designed ideal filter has been constructed in microstrip
and inter-stage mismatching losses. Consequently, the filter technology. The parameters of the selected Cu-clad microstrip
noise performance is also improved. The initial specifications to substrate are a relative dielectric constant , dielectric
be met are a 5-GHz center frequency, a 3-dB relative bandwidth thickness m, and metal thickness m. The
equal to 10%, and a power transmission rejection level higher dimensions of the lines making up the filter have been computed
than 40 dB in the bands allocated at 3.3–4.2 and 5.8–6.7 GHz. making use of the line calculator LineCalc. A photograph of the
Note that if the two transversal filtering sections are directly developed microstrip filter prototype is given in Fig. 6. When
cascaded, then the power transmission parameter of the overall the circuit size is a critical issue, further reductions in the filter
filter is surface area can be achieved by using fractal-type geometrical
arrangements for the couplers and the load stubs [13] or other
miniaturization techniques [14]–[16].
(11)
The measured and simulated power reflection and transmis-
sion responses of the constructed filter prototype are shown in
where and are the reflection and transmission scat- Fig. 7(a). The results corresponding to the single transversal fil-
tering parameters of the transversal section. Obviously, the re- tering section are given in Fig. 7(b). These measurements have
3226 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 53, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2005
comparable to that of more complex active-filter topologies has [3] L. Billonnet, B. Jarry, S. E. Sussman-Fort, E. Rius, G. Tanné, C. Person,
been demonstrated [4], [7], [8]. This is done with an obvious and S. Toutain, “Recent advances in microwave active filter design. Part
I and II,” Int. J. RF Microwave Computer-Aided Eng., pp. 159–189, Mar.
reduction in the number of elements needed to achieve similar 2002.
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transversal notch filter using recursive principles,” in IEEE MTT-S Int.
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priate opened load stubs just to generate two input-to-output [10] R. Gómez-García, C. Briso-Rodríguez, M. Mahfoudi, and J. I. Alonso,
signal paths. Thus, using signal-interference techniques, band- “MMIC tunable transversal bandpass active filter at 9–12 GHz,” in Proc.
11th Eur. Gallium Arsenide and Other Compound Semiconductors Ap-
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[15] K. O. Sun, S. J. Ho, C. Yen, and D. van der Weide, “A compact branch-
at 5 GHz have been manufactured in microstrip technology line coupler using discontinuous microstrip lines,” IEEE Microw. Wirelss
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sharp-rejection stopbands, and a highly selective microwave ac- [16] S. S. Liao, P. T. Sun, N. C. Chin, and J. T. Peng, “A novel compact-size
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT MA: Artech House, 1980.
José I. Alonso (M’04) was born in Villacañas Daniel Amor-Martín (M’04) was born in Madrid,
(Toledo), Spain. He received the Ingeniero de Spain, in 1980. He received the Ingeniero de Teleco-
Telecomunicación and Ph.D. degrees from the municación degree from the Universidad Politécnica
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain, de Madrid (UPM), Madrid, Spain, in 2003, and is cur-
in 1982 and 1989, respectively. rently working toward the Ph.D. degree at UPM.
From 1982 to 1985, he was a Microwave Design Since November 2003, he has been with INDRA
Engineer with Telettra España S.A. (now Alcatel Sistemas S.A., Madrid, Spain, where he is involved in
Standard S.A.). In 1985, he joined the Departamento the fields of microstrip filter design and heterolithic-
de Señales, Sistemas y Radiocomunicaciones, microwave integrated circuit (HMIC) assemblies. His
Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Tele- research interests are in the area of high-frequency
comunicación, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, circuit design for communication and radar systems
where he is currently a Full Professor. He has taught courses in microwave and robotics.
circuits design, electrical networks and filter theory, test and measurements of
microwave circuits, and laboratories related to analog and digital communica-
tion systems. He has developed his research with the Grupo de Microondas y
Radar in the areas of the analysis and simulation of high-speed/high-frequency
integrated circuits and their interconnections, the computer-aided design and
measurements of hybrid and GaAs monolithic microwave integrated circuits
(MMICs) and their applications in the development and implementation of
mobile, satellite, optical-fiber communication, and adaptive antenna systems.
He is also involved in the development of circuits and subsystems for the
local multipoint distribution system (LMDS) and wireless local-area networks
(WLANs).