Int. J. Electron. Commun.

(AEÜ) 68 (2014) 90–96

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International Journal of Electronics and

Communications (AEÜ)
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Multi-band bandstop filter using inner T-shaped defected microstrip

structure (DMS)
Jian-Kang Xiao a,∗ , Yu-Feng Zhu b
a
School of Electro-Mechanical Engineering, Xidian University, Xi’an 710071, China
b
China Telecom Corporation Limited Nanjing Branch, Nanjing 210000, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this paper, inner T-shaped defected microstrip structure (DMS) is studied, and new bandstop filters
Received 3 February 2013 with a single band, dual-band and tri-band are developed. The new designs have adjustable multi-band
Accepted 4 July 2013 operation and simple circuit topologies, and the symmetrical periodic T-shaped DMS introduces trans-
mission zeros which improve the filter frequency selectivity greatly. The circuit sizes are also reduced
Keywords: because of the inner T-shaped DMS introduces more resonances in a frequency range of 10 GHz but
Inner T-shaped defected microstrip
without the requirement of certain coupled lines or resonators. The dual-band and tri-band designs are
structure
demonstrated by measurement.
Bandstop filter
Dual-band © 2013 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
Tri-band
Transmission zeros

1. Introduction dual-band BSFs are their low passband insertion loss and group
delay, since their resonators resonate in the stopband rather than
Since the defected ground structure (DGS) was proposed by Park in the passband [12]. Multi-band bandstop filter also has a broad
et al. in 1999, DGS had been applied to many microwave circuits application foreground due to its ability to treat the unwanted sig-
such as filters, oscillators, power amplifiers and antennas because nals of RF circuits by using only a single filter, which decreases the
of its excellent electromagnetic band-gap characteristic and slow circuit size and cost greatly.
wave effect [1–5]. Recently, defected microstrip structure (DMS) In this paper, inner T-shaped defected microstrip structure
has attracted interests of researchers and engineers because of the (DMS) with a pair of transmission zeros is proposed, and a new
simple circuit topology, and the properties of rejecting electromag- dual-band bandstop filter which operates at 2.71 GHz and 4.97 GHz,
netic waves in certain frequencies and directions which are similar and a tri-band bandstop filter which operates at 2.71 GHz, 4.88 GHz
to the widely applied DGS, however, there is no harmful radiation and 7.25/7.56 GHz are designed without increasing the circuit
from ground plane. DMS is made by etching a periodic or non- size compared with the original inner T-shaped DMS which only
periodic pattern over the microstrip line (commonly over 50-ohm has one band at 2.8 GHz. The dual and tri-band BSFs also can
conductor strip), and there is no etching in ground plane. In DMS, be designed for operating at other frequency bands. The dual
the radiation from conductor strip defection can be greatly reduced and multi-band characteristics of the inner T-shaped DMS are
for existence of image current [6], so, it is desired to use DMS to beneficial to its narrow band performance and the microstrip defec-
design microwave components. DMS has been used for design- tions, the defections create multiple resonances in the frequency
ing lowpass filter, bandstop and bandpass filters, UWB filter and response. The new bandstop filters have novel structures, minia-
millimeter wave filter [7–11]. ture sizes, controllable center frequencies and good performances
Microwave bandstop filters are highly desired for their effective of transmission zeros and low losses. The new DMS bandstop fil-
suppression of spurious signals in wireless communication applica- ters have simpler circuit topologies and more operation bands
tions. Dual-band bandstop filter (BSF) is attractive due to its ability compared with relative reported works in [13–16]. Our designs
to treat the unwanted double-sideband spectrum of high power do not need to manipulate on the ground plane, and simulta-
amplifiers and mixers by using a single filter. Other benefits of the neously have better frequency selectivity compared with [16]. The
DMS in [16] only can be used for realizing single and dual-band
BSF. The dual-band and tri-band bandstop filters have been fabri-
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86-029-88203015. cated and measured, and the experimental results have verified the
E-mail address: xiaojk@[Link] (J.-K. Xiao). designs.

1434-8411/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
[Link]
 J.-K. Xiao, Y.-F. Zhu / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 68 (2014) 90–96 91

Fig. 1. Traditional DMS and the new inner T-shaped DMS.

2. Analysis of inner T-shaped DMS inductance of the equivalent LC circuit model can be calculated
as about C = 159 pF, L = 0.02 nH. While, for the traditional T-shaped
2.1. Characteristics of the symmetric inner T-shaped DMS DMS as L = 18 mm, a = 0.8 mm, b = 0.2 mm, c = 0.2 mm, the equiva-
lent capacitance and inductance can be taken as about 11 pF and
The traditional DMS as shown in Fig. 1(a) is constructed by a hor- 0.2 nH, respectively.
izontal slot and a vertical slot in 50-ohm microstrip line, and the Simulated current distributions of the traditional DMS and the
horizontal slot length and vertical slot width dominantly affects inner T-shaped DMS are shown in Fig. 2. Where, the red region
the effective inductance and capacitance. The configuration of the means the peak surface current, while the blue area has low surface
proposed inner T-shaped DMS is shown in Fig. 1(b). The figure current. For the inner T-shaped DMS, it is seen that the surface
shows a 50-ohm microstrip line where a rectangular pattern of current is concentrated on the top edge and the bottom edge of
dimensions L1 × h1 has been deleted. A T-shaped metallic stub is microstrip line. Meanwhile, the current magnitude is reducing on
placed in the middle of the rectangular pattern. The main body the T-shaped stub, and nearly vanishes at the foot of the inverted “T”
of the T-shaped stub which we entitle inner T-shaped DMS has a stub. The surface current at the edge of DMS leads to strong slow-
foot dimension of L2 × h2 and a neck dimension of a × h3 . Rough wave effect, and this effect afford the fundamental resonance and
equivalent transmission line model of the inner T-shaped DMS is strong rejection level for the stopband. Fig. 3 plots the simulated
plotted in Fig. 1(c), and it can be calculated that Z1 = Z3 = 94.5 ohm, S-parameters comparison of the new DMS and the traditional DMS,
Z2 = 76.9 ohm,  1 = 81.43◦ ,  2 = 7.34◦ and  3 = 20.8◦ . The inner T- where, it can be seen that the traditional T-shaped DMS provides
shaped DMS also can be described by an equivalent circuit model, as a resonance frequency of 3.37 GHz, but the inner T-shaped DMS
is shown in Fig. 1(d), and the variation of the inner T-shaped stub provides a lower resonance frequency of 2.83 GHz when both have
affects the effective inductance and capacitance. In the research the same dimensions. Simultaneously, the inner T-shaped DMS has
it is shown that the parameters L1 and L2 have obvious effect on a smaller 3-dB bandwidth, so it has narrow band characteristic.
the effective inductance and capacitance. The effective capacitance It also shows that the new DMS has better frequency selectivity
increases with L1 , while it decreases with L2 . The effective induct- and better out-band performance than that of the traditional DMS.
ance decreases with L1 and increases with L2 . Lower capacitance In this article, all of the calculations and designs are carried out
induces to a higher resonant frequency f0 when L2 is fixed. The by using 50-ohm ceramic microstrip line with a substrate relative
equivalent capacitance C and inductance L can be expressed as [8] permittivity of 10.2 and a thickness of 1.27 mm. The loss tangent
1 1 of the substrate is 0.001. Simulations have been carried out with
C= ,L= (1) Ansoft’s planar simulator Ensemble which bases on the method of
2Z0 (fu − fl ) 42 f02 C
moment (MoM).
where, fu and fl are upper and lower cutoff frequency Calculated characteristics of the inner T-shaped DMS are shown
at 10 dB, respectively. For the new inner T-shaped DMS in Table 1, where, L3 = 1.9 mm, a = 0.8 mm, b = 0.2 mm, h1 = 0.8 mm,
as L1 = 18 mm, L2 = 4.6 mm, L3 = 1.9 mm, a = 0.8 mm, b = 0.2 mm, h2 = 0.2 mm and h3 = 0.4 mm. It can be seen that both the reso-
h1 = 0.8 mm, h2 = 0.2 mm, h3 = 0.4 mm, the effective capacitance and nance frequency and the 3-dB bandwidth decrease, while Q factor

Fig. 2. Current distribution of the traditional DMS and the inner T-shaped DMS.
92 J.-K. Xiao, Y.-F. Zhu / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 68 (2014) 90–96

0
a

S21 h3 L3 h1
h2
-10 L4 L2
d
L1
-20
Fig. 4. Asymmetric inner T-shaped DMS.
S11
Magnitude (dB)

-30
the first resonance decreasing, the total circuit area of the sym-
metric inner T-shaped DMS will increase. This phenomenon makes
-40
the proposed DMS limit for practical application, so an asymmetric
inner T-shaped DMS is proposed, as Fig. 4 shows. Fig. 5 shows the
-50
simulated S-parameters comparison of the symmetric and asym-
metric DMSs. It can be seen that for the same dimensions as given
-60 New inner T-shaped DMS above and when d = 1.6 mm, the new asymmetric DMS operates at
Traditional T-shaped DMS 2.85, 6.38 and 8.92 GHz, respectively, which shows that the asym-
-70 metric structure introduces more resonances in a certain frequency
2 4 6 8 band for the asymmetric DMS brings about more effective capaci-
Frequency (GHz) tance and inductance. However, the symmetric and the asymmetric
DMS keep the first resonance nearly unchangeable for they nearly
Fig. 3. Simulated S-parameters of the 50-ohm Microstrip line with DMS unit.
have the same value of L1 × C1 , here, L1 and C1 are the effective
inductance and capacitance for the first resonance frequency.
Table 1 Calculated results of the resonance frequencies versus param-
Characteristics of the inner T-shaped DMS versus lengths L1 and L2 .
eter d for the asymmetric DMS are plotted in Fig. 6. It shows that
L1 and L2 Resonance 3 dB Q-factor the resonance frequencies of the first and the third bands increase
frequency bandwidth along with parameter d increasing, while, it is opposite for the sec-
(GHz) (GHz)
ond band, and the first band has minor changes. This provides a
L1 (mm) (L2 = 4.6 mm) 14 3.41 0.087 39.25 basic principle for designing a dual-band bandstop filter in a certain
16 3.09 0.058 53.58
frequency range by using the new DMS without increasing circuit
18 2.83 0.045 62.79
20 2.60 0.035 74.25 size.
22 2.39 0.027 88.14 We know that the microstrip line only has transmission char-
acteristic, but the DMS introduces resonances because of the
L2 (mm) (L1 = 18 mm) 2.6 3.01 0.020 151.87
3.6 2.92 0.032 91.34 defection pattern destroys the microstrip transmission mode
4.6 2.83 0.045 62.79 which leads to changes for the original current distribution and
5.6 2.74 0.058 47.08 electromagnetic field. For the same circuit dimension, the sym-
6.6 2.66 0.072 36.93
metric inner T-shaped DMS only generates a single resonance in
a certain frequency band, for example 1–8 GHz, and the higher
order resonances such as the 2nd and the 3rd resonances appear
increases with L1 increasing. The resonance frequency and Q factor in the frequency band which is more than 8 GHz, but the asym-
decrease but the 3-dB bandwidth increases with L2 increasing. It metric inner T-shaped DMS creates a new resonance in the certain
shows that the resonance frequency, 3-dB bandwidth and Q factor band of 1–8 GHz for the asymmetry introduces additional induct-
of the new DMS are mainly dependent on parameters L1 and L2 . ance and capacitance. It also shows that longer defection length
Table 2 shows the calculated characteristics of the traditional DMS (such as L1 in Fig. 4) brings more resonances for longer defection
which has the same dimension as the inner T-shaped DMS, and it length introduces larger total value of inductance and capacitance.
proves the differences between the traditional and the new DMS as
we draw from Fig. 3. It also shows that the new DMS has adequate
external quality factor. 0
S21
2.2. Analysis of the asymmetric inner T-shaped DMS -10

For the symmetric inner T-shaped DMS as is shown in Fig. 1(b) S11
-20
and a fixed dimension which is specified above, it shows that there
Magnitude (dB)

is only one resonance in the frequency range of 8 GHz, while, the

-30
second resonance appears at 8.32 GHz, and which lowers as param-
eters L1 and L2 increasing. We also notice that when the second
resonance decreases to less than 6.5 GHz, while accompanies with -40

-50
Table 2
Characteristics of the traditional DMS versus length L (a = 0.8 mm, b = c = 0.2 mm).
-60 Symmetric DMS (d=0mm)
L (mm) Resonance 3 dB bandwith Q-factor Asymmetric DMS (d=1.6mm)
frequency (GHz) (GHz)
-70
14 4.29 1.08 3.98 2 4 6 8 10
16 3.78 0.96 3.94
Frequency (GHz)
18 3.36 0.84 3.99
20 3.04 0.76 4.02
Fig. 5. Comparison between symmetric DMS and asymmetric DMS.
 J.-K. Xiao, Y.-F. Zhu / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 68 (2014) 90–96 93

10.0
0
9.5
S21
9.0
-10
8.5
Resonance Frequency (GHz)

8.0
-20 S11
7.5

Magnitude (dB)
7.0 -30
6.5
6.0 -40
5.5
5.0 The first band -50
4.5 The second band
4.0 The third band -60
3.5
c=0.4mm
3.0 -70
c=2.0mm
2.5
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 -80
2 4 6 8
d (mm)
Frequency (GHz)
Fig. 6. Relationships of the resonance frequency and parameter d for the asymmetric
DMS. Fig. 8. Simulated S-parameters of the dual-band bandstop filter with different
parameter c.
Compared with the asymmetric inner “⊥” DMS, the inner “”
DMS has fewer resonances in the same frequency band, and trans- that parameter c which denotes the distance between a pair of
mission zeros are hardly realized. The symmetric structure of the inner T-shaped metallic stubs controls the operation frequency of
“” DMS (a pair of inner “” DMS) brings transmission zeros, how- the second band, and the second resonance frequency increases as
ever, only realizes a single stopband. The inner “” DMS without c increasing, while, the first band has little changes, so the new
any other assistance such as DGS has dual-stopband at the most, filter has a controllable center frequency. When c = 2 mm, the dual-
and it nearly has no transmission zeros. band bandstop filter operates at 2.71 GHz with relative bandwidth
of 2.66%, and 4.97 GHz with relative bandwidth of 5.63%, respec-
3. Dual-band and tri-band bandstop filters base on inner tively. The filter has good frequency selectivity and low insertion
T-shaped DMS losses.
Fig. 9 shows the simulated frequency responses comparison of
Our research shows that the performance of the periodic DMS three different structures. It can be seen that the second band of
is better than that of the non-periodic DMS. According to this the periodic structure has a lower resonance frequency than that of
result and the above analysis, new multi-band bandstop filters the non-periodic structure, and compares to the non-periodic sym-
have been presented. Topology of the proposed dual-band band- metric inner T-shaped DMS, the operation frequency of the second
stop filter, and its rough equivalent transmission line model, band for the periodic structure decreases 3.35 GHz, but the first
and the filter current distributions are plotted in Fig. 7(a)–(d), band only changes 0.11 GHz. It also shows that the performance
respectively. It can be calculated that Zi (i = 1, 2, 3) has the of the new dual-band bandstop filter has been greatly improved,
same value as shown in Section 2, and  1 = 54.5◦ ,  2 = 7.34◦ and however, keeps the circuit dimension unchanged.
 3 = 20.8◦ . Where, L1 = 18 mm, L2 = 4.6 mm, a = 0.8 mm, h1 = 0.8 mm, In order to verify the design, the proposed dual-band bandstop
h2 = 0.2 mm, h3 = 0.4 mm, c = 2 mm, d = 1.6 mm. Simulated frequency filter is fabricated and tested, and photograph of the hardware
responses of the dual-band filter are plotted in Fig. 8, and it shows is shown in Fig. 10(a), and the measured results are shown in

Fig. 7. Dual-band bandstop filter using inner T-shaped DMS.

94 J.-K. Xiao, Y.-F. Zhu / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 68 (2014) 90–96

0 A Tri-band bandstop filter using inner T-shaped DMS is also

S21 designed, as Fig. 11(a) shows, and the current distributions are
-10 shown in Fig. 11(b)–(d). It is notable that the surface current is
S11 concentrated on the top edge and the bottom edge of DMS. The
-20
current magnitude at the first resonance (corresponding to the 1st
-30 band) is stronger than that at the 2nd and the 3rd resonances. This
Magnitude (dB)

means that the effective inductance and capacitance at the 1st res-
-40 onance is higher than that at the 2nd and the 3rd resonances. The
current distributions illustrated in Fig. 7 may be explained in a sim-
-50
struture ilar way. Simulated frequency responses are plotted in Fig. 12. It is
-60 of interest to see that three operation bands are introduced within
struture 8 GHz, and the filter has wider stop bandwidth and more desired
-70 bands in a frequency range of 8 GHz compared with the structure
struture shown in Fig. 4, and simultaneously, keeps the same circuit area.
-80
0 2 4 6 8 It can be seen from Fig. 12(a) that the operation frequency of the
Frequency (GHz) third stopband decreases as parameter L4 reducing, but the first
and the second bands have little variation. When L4 = 2.0 mm, it
Fig. 9. Simulated S-parameters of three different DMSs. can be seen that the tri-band bandstop filter centers at 2.65 GHz,
4.85 GHz and 7.59 GHz with relative bandwidth of 5.3%, 8.66% and
3.95%, respectively, and the filter has good frequency selectivity.
Fig. 10(b). The fabricated filter has a miniature circuit size of The filter low loss is due to the adequate external quality factor.
26 mm × 1.2 mm. The measurements which are carried out by Agi- The tri-band bandstop filter also can be designed for operating at
lent E5071C vector network analyzer are similar to the simulation. 2.16 GHz, 3.98 GHz and 5.96 GHz as that is shown in Fig. 12(b). Of
The measured passband insertion loss between the 1st and the 2nd course, the filter also can be designed for operating at other fre-
stopband is about 2.2 dB, and the measurement demonstrates the quency bands, this is to say that the filter operation frequencies are
good frequency selectivity. controllable.

Fig. 10. Filter fabrication and measurement.

Fig. 11. Tri-band bandstop filter using inner T-shaped DMS.

 J.-K. Xiao, Y.-F. Zhu / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 68 (2014) 90–96 95

Fig. 12. Simulated S-parameters of the tri-band bandstop filter, (a) L1 = 18 mm, L2 = 4.6 mm, a = 0.8 mm, b = 0.2 mm, c = 0.6 mm, h1 = 0.8 mm, h2 = 0.2 mm, h3 = 0.4 mm; (b)
L1 = 24 mm, L2 = 4.6 mm, L4 = 2.3 mm, a = 0.8 mm, b = 0.2 mm, c = 2.6 mm, h1 = 0.8 mm, h2 = 0.2 mm, h3 = 0.4 mm.

Fig. 13. Filter fabrication and measurement.

The new tri-band bandstop filter which operates at 2.16 GHz, Acknowledgments
3.98 GHz and 5.96 GHz is fabricated and measured, as Fig. 13 shows.
The filter has a circuit size of 32 mm × 1.2 mm, and the experiment This work was supported in part by the Fundamental Research
demonstrates the simulation. The measured minimum passband Funds for China Central Universities (K5051204014). The authors
insertion loss between the 1st and the 2nd stopband is about 1.2 dB, sincerely thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable sug-
and that between the 2nd and the 3rd stopband is about 1.4 dB. The gestions.
error between simulation and measurement is due to the material
discrepancy, conductor and dielectric loss, and fabrication uncer-
tainty.
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