DESIGN OF LOW PASS FILTER USING MICRO STRIP LINES:

INTRODUCTION:
The use of microstrip in the design of microwave components and integrated circuits has gained
tremendous popularity since the last decade because microstrips can operate in a wide range of
frequencies. Furthermore, microstrip is lightweight, easy to fabricate and integrate in a cost
effective way.
To arrive at practical filters, the lumped component filters must be converted into distribution
element realizations.
In this , Ansoft Designer was used for the purpose of designing and simulating Microstrip low
pass filter. Ansoft Designer is a very powerful microwave simulator. Ansoft Designer is the first
suite of design tools to fully integrate high-frequency, physics-based electromagnetic simulation,
modeling, and automation into a seamless environment for circuit and system analysis. Ansoft
Designers unique Solver on Demand technology allows flexible and highly accurate modeling
and verification of unrestricted structures used in high-frequency component, circuit, and system
designs.
RICHARDS TRANSFORMATION
To accomplish the conversion from lumped and distributed circuit designs, Richards proposed a
special transformation that allows open and short circuit transmission line segments to emulate
the inductive and capacitive behavior of the discrete components. The input impedance of a short
circuit transmission line of characteristic impedance Zo is purely reactive.
Zin = j Zo tan (l) = j Zo tan
Here the electric length can be rewritten in such a way as to make the frequency behavior
explicit. If we pick the line length to be o/8 at a particular reference frequency fo = Vp/o the
electric length becomes
= (/4)
On substituting we get
jL = j Zo tan ((/4) ) = SZo
jC = j Yo tan ((/4) ) = SYo , here S= j tan ((/4) ) is Richards transform
Richards transformation allows us to replace lumped inductors with short circuit st
and capacitors with open circuit stubs of characteristic impedance Zo= 1/ C

DESIGN STEPS
Design specifications:

Maximally Flat Low Pass Filter

Input and output are matched to 50 ohm impedance
Cut off frequency: 2.4 GHz

STEP 1:
The order of the filter is 3, with coefficients

Fig: Coefficients for Maximally Flat Low pass filter (N = 1 to 10)

g1=1= L1
g2=2= C2
g3=1= L3

The normalized low pass filter is given as:

STEP 2:
The inductances and capacitances are replaced by open and short circuit series and shunt stubs.
This is direct consequence of applying Richards Transformation. The characteristic line
impedances and admittances are Z1 =g1; Y2=g2; Z3=g3

STEP 3:
To match the source and load sides, and to make the filter realizable, unit elements are
introduced with the intent to apply the first and second Kurodas identities to convert all series
stubs to shunt stubs. Since we have a third order filter we must deploy a total of two elements to
convert all series connected short-circuited stubs into shunt connected open-circuited stubs. To
clarify this process we divide this step into several sub steps.
a: We introduce two unit elements on the input and output ends of the filter

b: The introduction of unit elements does not affect the filter performances since they are
matched to source and load impedances.
c: Applying Kurodas identities to the circuit, we finally arrive at the realizable filter design

UNIT ELEMENTS
When converting lumped components into transmission line sections, there is a need to separate
the transmission line elements spatially to achieve practically realizable configurations. This is
accomplished by inserting unit elements (UEs). The unit element has an electric length of
= /4 (f/fo) and a characteristic impedance Zue.
KURODAS IDENTITIES
In addition to the unit elements, it is important to be able to convert a practically difficult to
implement design to a more suitable filter realization.
For example, a series inductance implementation by a short circuit transmission line segment is
more complicated to realize than a shunt stub line. To facilitate the conversion between various

transmission line realizations Kuroda developed four identities.

Fig. Realizable Filter Circuit obtained by Converting series and shunt stubs using Kurodas
Identities

STEP 4:
De-normalization involves scaling the unit elements to the 50 ohm input andoutput impedances
and computing the length of the lines based on formulas. Using Vp=0.6c=1.85*10^8 m/sate
length is found to be l=7.5mm
MICROSTRIP BASICS:
A general microstrip structure is shown in the figure, a microstrip transmission line consists of a
thin conductor strip over a dielectric substrate along with a ground plate at the bottom of the
Dielectric.

Microstrip Lines - Transmission Line Parameters

W/h 1:

Characteristic Impedance(Zc)

Wave Impedence in free space:

 Effective Dielectric Constant (re)

W/h 1:

Characteristic Impedance(Zc)

Effective Dielectric Constant (re)

For W/h2

For W/h 2

Guided Wavelength

where g is the free space wavelength at frequency f.

Propagation Constant

Phase Velocity

Electrical Length

is called the electrical length whereas l is the physical length of the microstrip. Thus, =
/2 when l=g/4 and = when l=g/2. These are called quarter wavelength and half

wavelength microstrip line and are important in the filter design.

Lumped Elements to Microstrip Transform
The following figure shows a simple LC low pass filter circuit. At microwave frequencies the
Microstrip lines act as inductor and capacitor. The Microstrip line has both capacitance and
inductance. If the Microstrip lines are made wide they have more capacitance and lower
inductance and vice versa

The following figure shows the equivalent microstrip realization of the lumped element filter.

The following figure shows the equivalent microstrip realization of the lumped element filter.

Fig. Microstrip Lowpass Filter at 2.4 Ghz

The important consideration while transforming is Z0C << Z0C << Z0L where Z0C and Z0L
denote the characteristic impedances of the low and high impedance lines, respectively, and Z0 is
the source impedance, which is usually 50 ohms for microstrip filters.
A lower Z0C, results in a better approximation of a lumped-element capacitor, but the
resulting line width W, must not allow any transverse resonance to occur at operating
frequencies.
A higher Z0L, leads to a better approximation of a lumped-element inductor, but Z0L must not be
so high that its fabrication becomes inordinately difficult as a narrow line, or its current-carrying
capability becomes a limitation.
The length of the capacitive and inductive microstrip lines can be calculated from the
following equations

where

and

respectively and
strip filters.

are the guided wavelength of the inductive and capacitive micro strip line
is the frequency of operation in radians. which is usually 50 ohms for micro

Fig: - S21 and S11 parameter response for the designed microstrip low pass filter

Fig. Insertion Loss and Return Loss Response