volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

A microstrip filtering balun with a wide stopband is presented. Its filtering function is realized by four meandering stepped impedance resonators (SIRs). Except for an identical fundamental-mode resonant frequency, the SIRs have different high-order resonant frequencies. Thus, the parasitic passbands are suppressed, and a wide stopband is achieved. The unbalance-to-balance transition is accomplished by introducing two coupling output ports at two symmetry positions of the output SIR. The voltages at symmetrical positions have equal magnitudes and opposite phases, thus, signals coupled from the symmetry positions also have equal magnitude and opposite phase, i.e., balanced output signals are achieved. A more general design approach is discussed in detail, and the proposed approach is similar to the design method of the conventional filter except that a small modification is made. Additionally, two kinds of external coupling structures, microstrip coupling lines and tapped line, are compared in terms of stopband performance. The comparison shows that better stopband performance is observed when utilizing the microstrip coupling lines as the external coupling structure. A filtering balun with central frequency of 2.4 GHz and Chebyshev frequency response is designed, fabricated and measured. The measured results give a reasonable agreement with the simulated ones, which verifies the effectiveness of the filtering balun.

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Dr. Jun-Mei Yan

Professor Liangzu Cao

Dr. Hai-Ying Zhou