Synthesis of ultra-wideband bandpass filter employing parallel-coupled stepped-impedance resonators

To design an ultra-wideband (UWB) bandpass filter with the fractional bandwidth (FBW) up to 110% (3.1%10.6%GHz), a new filter prototype consisting of multi-stage parallel-coupled stepped-impedance resonators (SIRs) is synthesised based on the transmission-line theory rather than the conventional multi-mode property. Asymmetrical SIRs are employed instead of the conventional symmetrical/quasi-symmetrical ones, so that an extra degree of freedom is introduced in circuit parameter selection. As a result, the minimum dimension of the coupling gaps between the adjacent SIRs is successfully enlarged to be more than 0.1%mm, which alleviates the requirement on fabrication precision. A simple equivalent circuit for this filter prototype is represented in the form of distributed parameters and the corresponding Chebyshev filtering function is derived as well. The relation between the number of poles in passband, N _p, and the stage of the filter, n, is summarised to be N _p=3n+2. To validate the newly derived synthesis theory, a one-stage UWB filter is first synthesised to compare with the previously published results obtained by the electromagnetic (EM) simulator. Furthermore, a two-stage filter is synthesised to successfully meet the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)+s indoor/outdoor spectrum specifications. The fabricated UWB filter exhibits a compact size of 26.58+mm in total length, low insertion loss (0.9+dB at 6.85+GHz), flat group delay (0.5+0.1+ns), good stopband characteristics (+S21+++40+dB at 1+2+GHz) and steep skirt property (+28+dB/GHz) as well. It should be noted that the proposed filter prototype can be also used to realise aUWB filter with an FBW even greater than 110+.