European Journal of Scientific Research ISSN 1450-216X Vol.46 No.4 (2010), pp.503-509 EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2010 http://www.eurojournals.com/ejsr.

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Ultra-Wideband Dielectric Resonator Bandpass Filter

Mohd F. Ain Associate Prof., Universiti Sains Malaysia E-mail: mohdfadzilain@yahoo.com.my Ahmad A. Sulaiman Research Student, PhD, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia E-mail: asari100@yahoo.com Zainal A. Ahmad Professor, Universiti Sains Malaysia E-mail: zainal@eng.usm.my M.A. Othman Research Student, PhD, Universiti Sains Malaysia E-mail: andikalusia83@yahoo.com Ali Othman Research Student, PhD, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia E-mail: aliman@ppinang.uitm.edu.my Ihsan A. Zubir Research Student, Msc, Universiti Sains Malaysia E-mail: ihsan_zubir@yahoo.com.my Abstract This paper presents a novel design of a bandpass filter using combination of a simple transmission line and cylindrical dielectric resonator for X-Band application. Three dielectric resonators with same permittivity and diameter of 60 and 5 mm respectively are identified to be contributed to an ultra-wideband bandwidth of the filter. This new approach increases the coupling effect as well as minimizing the insertion loss in the passband. Experimental results from the simulation are closely agreed to the measured values. In order to prove that the new approach contributes more advantages and viable at the desired application band, the return and insertion losses of the filter were analyzed.

Keywords: Bandpass filter, Dielectric resonator, ultra-wideband

1. Introduction
A high performance resonator is an important element in many microwave circuits such as filters, amplifiers, couplers, and antennas for electronic and microwave communication systems. A variety of geometrical resonators have been reported by Virdee [1]. Dielectric resonator (DR) offers a lot advantages in increasing the performance of RF and microwave devices which make it as an ideal

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candidate for wireless application; low design profile and wide bandwidth [2]. However, the performance of the most distributed resonators is limited due to the use of effective dielectric constant and discontinuity of the transmission line. Strip line structures have grasped substantial research interests due to the advantages such as easy realization both series and shunt stubs and no need for via holes [3-5]. The design procedure of bandpass filter microstrip lines is well documented in literature [6]. Dielectric resonators are mainly designed to replace resonant cavities in microwave circuits such as filters and oscillators. Like resonant cavities, they present the resonant modes of frequency determined by the dimensions and high Q-factors. The advantages of dielectric resonators are more compact, higher temperature stability and easy to use. Moreover the ability of amenable in multitechnology such as printed circuit and surface mounts technology. The dielectric resonators are also usually shielded to prevent radiation as well as maintain a high-Q that required by filters and oscillators circuits [7]. The most famous filter in microwave applications is the bandpass filter [3]. The filter can be narrow- or wide-bands depend on the applications. A narrow-band bandpass device is designed for stringent specifications of passband insertion loss and stopband rejection. While a wide-band bandpass filter is normally used for high data transmission involving a lot of video and data communications [6]. Their practical realization varies depending on the applications. The DR filters are good for mobile and satellite communications. A typical DR filter consists of a number of dielectric resonators that are mounted in a planar configuration to obtain a good resonant frequency [7]. The relative dielectric constant of the materials for constructing DR in microwave filters generally was chosen from a higher value compared to the base substrate. The primary advantage in using a high dielectric constant is to miniaturize the filter size. The size of DR filter is considerably smaller than the dimension of waveguide filters operating at the same frequency. Furthermore, these DR filters are employed to replace waveguide filters in applications such as satellite communication systems where the planar filters cannot be used because of their inherently high loss. In this paper, a novel bandpass filter that consists of three dielectric resonators were excited with microstrip line that were used to increase the bandwidth of a bandpass filter. The idea of using the three dielectric resonators is to generate additional frequency which can merge together to produce a wideband devices, increase the transmitting power and reduce the insertion loss. The optimum coupling effect in the filter was obtained from the matching position of the resonators on the microstrip line. This match port for signal transmission has been calculated and simulation with the help of CST Microwave Studio while measurement on the S-parameter was done by E8364B Network Analyzer.

2. Design Methodology
The dielectric resonator can increase Q-factor in a circuit. The size, location and shape of the dielectric were influencing the matching of the circuit. In this project, three dielectric resonators were excited with a microstrip line in order to obtain the optimum coupling effect. The dielectric resonators offer advantages in increasing the signal transmission performance of RF and microwave devices. The match combination of dielectric resonators and microwave circuit capable to generate additional coupling affect that can be merged together to produce a wideband device as well as increasing the transmitting power and reduce the insertion loss. This combination proficiently produces a low design profile. The dielectric constant is a parameter that reflects the capability of a material to confine a microwave. The higher this parameter means better in term of microwave confinement in the substrate. There is an inversely proportional between size and dielectric constant. A high dielectric constant is required to reduce circuit size of a device. A significant miniaturization can be achieved, thus highquality filters can be realized.

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Mohd F. Ain, Ahmad A. Sulaiman, Zainal A. Ahmad, M.A. Othman, Ali Othman and Ihsan A. Zubir The main difference lies in the fact that the wavelength in dielectric materials is divided by the
g = o

square root of the dielectric constant, r in a function of

, where o is the free space wavelength at the resonant frequency. Moreover, unlike resonant cavities, the reactive power stored during resonance is not strictly confined inside the resonator. The leakage fields from the resonator can
r

be used for coupling or adjusting the frequency. The wavelength inside the DR, g is also inversely proportional to the square root of the dielectric The resonant frequency and radiation Q-factor can be varied even dielectric constant of the materials are fixed due to the dielectric resonators able to offer flexibility in dimensions. It is amenable in integrating to existing technologies by exciting using probes, slots, microstrip lines, dielectric image guides or coplanar waveguide.
Figure 1: Geometry of the simulated and fabricated bandpass filter.
Vacuum box Input and output ports Dielectric resonator Substrate DR1 DR2 DR1

Strip line

(a) Simulated layout

(b) Fabricated layout Fig. 1 shows the simulated and fabricated circuit layouts of the bandpass filter. The strip transmission line is made up from copper metal with electrical conductor of 5.8 e+7 S/m, while dielectric resonator is a ceramic type made up from ZnSnTio with dielectric constant, r = 60 and tangent loss of 0.002. The base substrate is a Duriod type with r = 2.5 and tangent loss is about 0.002. The overall circuit length is 49 mm, while the location of dielectrics are DR1 = 14.5 mm, DR2 = 24.5 mm and DR3 = 41.55 from the input port. Since cylindrical shape of dielectric resonators have a flexible radius, r , height, h and dielectric constant, due to various sizes can be bought from the market. The applications of these resonators have been used in filters and oscillators [7]. Such shape offers a wide degree of freedom in microwave

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circuit designs since the ration of r/h could determine the Q-factor for a given dielectric. Thus a height, slender cylindrical DR can be made to resonate at the same frequency as a wide and thin DR. However, the Q-factors for these two resonators will be different. This characteristic offers a flexible degree for choosing the most suitable aspect ratio to the best frequency and bandwidth. The high Q-factor and compact size make it an ideal couple especially in microstrip technology.

3. Results and Discussion

Wideband devices can be designed using two or more DRs. All DRs are operating in a same principle. Each DR will resonate for a same mode but with different frequency such that the combination response is an additional result from the single response which able to increase the overall bandwidth. For example if DR1 has a normalized resonant frequency of f1 and bandwidth of BW1, while DR2 has a normalized resonant frequency of f2 and bandwidth of BW2, then the combination response could has a bandwidth BW that is larger than the sum of BW1 + BW2, if f1 and f2 are properly chosen. If the Qfactors of the two resonators are approximately the same ( Q 1 Q 2 = Q o ) and if the return loss of the combined response is equal to or better than 10 dB over the bandwidth BW, then the required values for the resonant frequencies of the individual DRs can be approximately equal to [2]: 5 5 f1 1 , f2 1 + 6Q o 6Qo (1) Assuming the bandwidths of the two DRs are also similar ( BW BW = BW ), then the combined bandwidth is approximately BW 3 BW o by ignoring any mutual interaction as well as any loading effects of the feed, that could either increase or decrease the bandwidth response. For example, if all DRs having a Q-factor of 7, the cutoff frequencies can be simplified as equation below [2]:
1 2 o

(2) where fl and fh are the lower and upper cutoff frequencies, respectively. The combined response would have a 10 dB return loss bandwidth of 30%. Fig. 2 shows the ultra-wideband of simulation and measurement results from the filter for a comparison. Both of the graphs are almost having a same pattern. However insertion loss from measurement is higher than the simulation. The simulated result shows a very good flat insertion loss in the passband frequencies. The return loss from the simulated result is higher than the measured value. These mean that the simulated results are better than the measured values. In term of transition bands, the results from the simulation are steeper than the measurement. It is also clearly shows that the bandwidth of the simulated result is wider than the measurement. Table 1 shows the summary of few parameters from simulated and measured responses for apparent critical points as a comparison. The best insertion loss of -0.86 dB is obtained from the simulated result, while only -3.53 dB from the measured response. This is due to high dissipation effect of the material loss in microwave frequencies. However, the maximum return loss of measurement value in the pass band of the filter is about 4 dB better than the simulated result. The bandwidth of the measured circuit is only 1.03 GHz compared to 1.28 GHz from the simulation result. The wideband was obtained from both result are due to the implementation of few dielectric resonators on the design. The combination of dielectric and microstrip line in designing a bandpass filter with such structure is a novel. The idea of designing this bandpass filter was due to the dielectric resonator can increase Q-factor in a circuit response and able to maximize power transfer in dielectric resonator antennas. Since antenna is a single port device and filter is a two ports device, the same advantages and design techniques have been used to achieve the objectives.

5 71 fl = 1 fo , fo = 360 72

5 73 fh = 1 + fo = 360 72

fo

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Mohd F. Ain, Ahmad A. Sulaiman, Zainal A. Ahmad, M.A. Othman, Ali Othman and Ihsan A. Zubir
Figure 2: Measured and simulated results.
0 -5 -10 Insertion and Return losses (dB) -15 -20 -25 -30 M ea su re d S11 -35 M ea su re d S21 -40 -45 -50 9 9 .5 10 Fr eque ncy ( GH z ) 10. 5 11 Sim ulat ed S1 1 Sim ulat ed S2 1

Table I:

Comparison values of simulation and measurement

Items Simulation -0.86 dB -15.54 dB 1.28 GHz Measurement -3.53 dB -19.42 dB 1.03 GHz

Insertion loss Return loss Bandwidth

A more dominant parameter affecting the degree of coupling is the dielectric constant of the DR. For the higher values of dielectric constant, the stronger coupling will be. Nevertheless, the maximum amount of coupling is significantly reduced if the dielectric constant of the DR is low. This can become a problematic if low dielectric constant values are applied to obtain a wideband operation. In order to obtain a compact size of a design is using a DR that contain of a high dielectric constant. However, the range of dielectric constants that can be used is limited, since there is a tradeoff between the compact circuit and the dielectric constant due to the high percentage of power being trapped in the surface waves of the microstrip substrate. Since surface waves are not generated in DRs, the radiation efficiency is not affected by the highest dielectric constant on the top. At the same time, the Q-factor is increases proportionally to the dielectric constant will reduce the bandwidth of the filter. By properly choosing the dielectric constant, the Q-factor can be reduced. The volume of the DR and Q-factor can be traded off depending on the particular design application. For a low profile design, a combination of high dielectric constant and large DR area can be used to obtain a reasonable bandwidth.
Figure 3: The effect of dielectric length of radius on return loss

Losses

(dB)

Frequency (GHz)

Ultra-Wideband Dielectric Resonator Bandpass Filter

Figure 4: The effect of dielectric length of radius on insertion loss

508

Frequency (GHz)

Feed line is very important in microwave devices. The design and implementation of this network involves a significant part of the overall design effort. A proper design of the feed networks is able to minimize losses due to a match combination circuit reduces the reflected signal. However, the bandwidth specifications must be achieved within the limited circuit area. The choice and design of a feed network involves a tradeoff between bandwidth and circuit efficiency. If the circuit does not match, no maximum power transfer due to the signal was reflected back to the source. Alternatively, series feeding technique results in a more compact size together with a lower loss network compared to parallel method for the combination of DR devices. Power is transferred from the line to the DRs by electromagnetic coupling that can be controlled by adjusting the spacing between the DRA and the line. In the resonant approach, the microstrip line is terminated in an open circuit by the DRs. This approach will create a standing wave on the line where the voltage maxima/minima of each wave are located at multiples of g/2 such as in slotted line. Normally this approach is used to achieve a systematic approach for controlling the amplitude weighting of the elements [8]. Input signal can be coupled into or out of the DR through one or more ports. The port types and position can determine which mode will be excited and how much power will be coupled between the port and the device. The amounts of coupling and resonant frequency are important in order to determine the performance of the device that applies DRs. These quantities can be predicted by approximately calculate the field distributions of modes of the isolated DRs and using the Lorentz Reciprocity Theorem and coupling theories such as in resonant circuits that explained by [9]. The analysis on the DR radius shows a major influence to the response of the filter. The radius affects on the coupling performance inherently relates to the insertion, S21 and return, S11 losses. Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 show four samples size of the radius from the cylindrical dielectric resonators. The response of S11 and S21 will be shifted to the higher frequency when the radius was increased. The size of the dielectric will become larger. The relationship between wavelength and frequency has known as inversely proportional according to the equation, = c/f. This analysis has proven that the results of the filter are agreed well to the microwave theory. However the magnitude values of both insertion and return losses almost have no change.

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Mohd F. Ain, Ahmad A. Sulaiman, Zainal A. Ahmad, M.A. Othman, Ali Othman and Ihsan A. Zubir

4. Conclusion
A bandpass filter was designed to operate at center frequency of 10 GHz. The filter has advantages of very small ripple at the passband insertion loss and able to operate with a wide bandwidth. The structure of the filter is simple for ease fabrication process. The measurement values are closely agreed to the simulation results.

Acknowledgement
Authors would like to thank Universiti Teknologi Mara, and Universiti Sains Malaysia for supporting the project.

References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Bal S. Virdee, Christos Grassopoulos, Folded Microstrip resonator, IEEE MTT-S Int. Microwave Symp. Dig.,vol. 3, pp. 2126-2164, June 2003 A. Petosa, Dielectric Resonator Antenna Handbook, Artech House, Bolton, 2007. Matthei, G.L, Young, L, Jones, E.M.T., Microwave Filters, Impedance Matching Networks, and Coupling Structures, Artech House, MA, 1980. Edwards, T.C., Foundations for Microstrip Circuit Design, Wiley and Sons, 2nd Ed., 1991. A.M. Street, A.P. Jenkins and D. Abbott, Filter design using CAD. I. Linear circuit simulation, IEE Colloquium on Microwave CAD, (Ref. No: 1997/377), 1997. D. M. Pozar, Microwave Engineering, Addison Wesley, MA, 1990. Xiaoming, X. and R. Sloan,"Distributed coupling model of the dielectric resonator to microstrip line." IEEE Microwave and Guided Wave Letters, vol. 9, pp. 348-350, Sept 1999. Huang C.Y., J.Y. Wu and K.L Wong, Cross-slot-coupled microstrip antenna and dielectric resonator antenna for circular polarization, IEEE Trans. on Antennas & Propagation, vol. 47, No. 4, pp. 605-609, Apr. 1999. Collin, R.E, Foundations for Microwave Engineering, New York: McGraw Hill, 1966.

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