Design and Modelling of a Compact Triband Passband Filter for GPS, WiMAX, and Satellite Applications with Multiple Transmission Zero’s

Designing microwave filters with high selectivity and sharp roll-off between the stop and pass bands can be challenging due to the complex nature of the R.F. signals and the requirements for achieving high performance in a limited physical space. To achieve a high selectivity and sharp roll-off rate, this paper presents a compact filter with a triple passband response. The two different passbands at 1.57 GHz and 3.5 GHz are achieved using a step impedance resonator (SIR) with metallic slots perturbation added to the lower corner of the high impedance section of the SIRs, which helps to enhance the filter’s selectivity and size reduction greatly. The embedded L-shaped structure originates a third passband at 4.23 GHz, resulting in a triband response with eight transmission zeros below and above the passbands at 1.22/1.42/1.98/3.18/3.82/3.98/4.38/4.53 GHz, respectively. The prototype has low signal attenuation of <1.2 dB and high signal reflection of >25 dB for the three passbands. The fractional bandwidths achieved are 2.54%, 4.2%, and 1.65% at 1.57/3.57/4.23 GHz, respectively, with rejection levels in the stopband greater than 15 dB. Lastly, the structure is fabricated on RO-4350B PCB and observed good matching between experimental and measured results. This demonstrates that the prototype can be successfully implemented in real-world applications such as GPS, WiMAX, and Satellite systems. The area occupied by the filter on a substrate or in a circuit is 0.31 λ_g × 0.24 λ_g, where λ_g is the guided wavelength of the material calculated at the lowest frequency.