ELECTRICAL FILTER STRUCTURE

Abstract

An electrical filter structure for forwarding an electrical signal from a first port, e.g. P1, to a second port, e.g. P2, in a frequency selective manner, wherein the filter is a microwave filter, the electrical filter structure comprising: a plurality of pairs of an open stub and a short-circuited stub coupled electrically in parallel to a transmission line comprising a plurality of transmission line portions at a plurality of respective junctions between adjacent transmission line portions, e.g. Cross junction; and wherein the first port is connected with a first of the junctions having a first pair comprising a first open stub and a first short-circuited stub; wherein the second port is connected with a last of the junctions having a last pair comprising a last open stub and a last short-circuited stub; wherein lengths of the pair of the open stub and the short-circuited stub coupled to a same of the junctions are chosen such that electrical lengths of the open stub and short-circuited stub of the respective pairs are equal within a tolerance of +/−10%.

Claims

1. A microwave filter structure for forwarding an electrical signal from a first port to a second port in a frequency selective manner, the microwave filter structure comprising: a plurality of pairs of an open stub and a short-circuited stub coupled in parallel, wherein the plurality of pairs is coupled electrically to a transmission line, and wherein the transmission line comprises a plurality of transmission line portions and wherein the plurality of pairs couple to the plurality of transmission line portions at a plurality of junctions between adjacent transmission line portions; and wherein the first port is coupled with a first junction of the plurality of junctions that is coupled to a first pair comprising a first open stub and a first short-circuited stub; wherein the second port is connected with a last junction of the plurality of junctions that is coupled to a last pair comprising a last open stub and a last short-circuited stub; and wherein lengths of a pair of an open stub and a short-circuited stub coupled to a same one of the plurality of junctions are sized such that electrical lengths of the open stub and short-circuited stub of respective pair are equal within a tolerance of substantially +/−10%.

2. The microwave filter structure according to claim 1, wherein lengths of the plurality of transmission line portions are sized wherein electrical lengths of each of the plurality of transmission line portions are shorter, by at least 10 percent, than a fourth of a wavelength of a signal having a frequency of a passband center frequency of the microwave filter structure.

3. The microwave filter structure according to claim 2, wherein the lengths of the transmission line portions are sized wherein electrical lengths of each of the plurality of transmission line portions are shorter, between 15 to 50 percent than a fourth of a wavelength of a signal having a frequency of a passband center frequency of the microwave filter structure.

4. The microwave filter structure according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of pairs and the plurality of junctions create a symmetrical structure, and wherein the plurality of pairs and the plurality of transmission line portions comprise: N short-circuited stubs having lengths, SST(s; with 1≤s≤N, N open stubs having lengths, OST(s); and N−1 transmission line portions having lengths, TLs; and wherein the N short-circuited stubs are configured to fulfil a formula (1), the N open stubs are configured to fulfil a formula (2) and the N−1 transmission line are configured to fulfil a formula (3); $\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{SST}\left(k\right)=SST\left(N+1-k\right),\left[k\le \mathrm{floor}\left(N/2\right)\right]& \left(1\right)\\ \mathrm{OST}\left(k\right)=\mathrm{OST}\left(N+1+k\right),\left[k\le \mathrm{floor}\left(N/2\right)\right]& \left(2\right)\\ \mathrm{TL}\left(k\right)=TL\left(N-k\right),\left[k\le \mathrm{floor}\left(N/2\right)\right]& \left(3\right)\end{array}$ k=a positive integer.

5. The microwave filter structure according to claim 1, characterized as a Chebyshev filter having a pass-band ripple of 0.1 dB with a tolerance of +/−5 percent.

6. The microwave filter structure according to claim 1, characterized as a band pass filter.

7. The microwave filter structure according to claim 1, wherein an open stub and a short-circuited stub of a respective pair of the plurality of pairs comprise the same characteristic impedance.

8. The microwave filter structure according to claim 1, wherein an electrical length of an open stub and a short-circuited stub of a respective pair of the plurality of pairs is an eighth of a wavelength of a signal having a frequency of a passband center frequency of the electrical filter structure with tolerance of +/−2 to 5%.

9. The microwave filter structure according to claim 1, wherein a short-circuited stub of a respective pair of the plurality of pairs comprises end capacitance configured to electrically short circuit at the design center frequency.

10. The microwave filter structure according to claim 1, characterized as a Chebyshev filter having a pass-band ripple of 0.1 dB with a tolerance of +/−2 percent.

11. An apparatus comprising: an electrical filter operable to forward an electrical signal from a first port to a second port in a frequency selective manner, wherein the electrical filter is characterized as a microwave filter, and wherein the electrical filter further comprises: a plurality of pairs of an open stub and a short-circuited stub coupled in parallel, wherein the plurality of pairs is coupled electrically to a transmission line, wherein the transmission line comprises a plurality of transmission line portions and wherein the plurality of pairs couple to the plurality of portions at a plurality of junctions between adjacent transmission line portions; and wherein the first port is coupled with a first junction of the plurality of junctions coupled to a first pair comprising a first open stub and a first short-circuited stub; wherein the second port is coupled with a last junction of the plurality of junctions coupled to a last pair comprising a last open stub and a last short-circuited stub; and wherein lengths of a pair of an open stub and a short-circuited stub that are coupled to a same one of the plurality of junctions are sized wherein electrical lengths of the open stub and short-circuited stub of a respective pair are equal within a tolerance of substantially +/−10%.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein lengths of the plurality of transmission line portions are sized wherein electrical lengths of each of the plurality of transmission line portions are shorter, by at least 10 percent, than a fourth of a wavelength of a signal having a frequency of a passband center frequency of the electrical filter.

13. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the lengths of the transmission line portions are sized wherein electrical lengths of each of the plurality of transmission line portions are shorter, between 15 to 50 percent than a fourth of a wavelength of a signal having a frequency of a passband center frequency of the electrical filter structure.

14. The apparatus according to claim 1, characterized as a Chebyshev filter having a pass-band ripple of 0.1 dB with a tolerance of +/−5 percent.

15. The apparatus according to claim 1, characterized as a band pass filter.

16. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an open stub and a short-circuited stub of a respective pair of the plurality of pairs comprise a same characteristic impedance.

17. An apparatus comprising: an electrical filter for forwarding an electrical signal from a first port to a second port in a frequency selective manner, wherein the electrical filter comprises a microwave filter, and wherein the electrical filter further comprises: a plurality of pairs of an open stub and a short-circuited stub coupled in parallel, wherein the plurality of pairs is coupled electrically to a transmission line, wherein the transmission line comprises a plurality of transmission line portions and wherein the plurality of pairs couple to the plurality of portions at a plurality of junctions between adjacent transmission line portions; and wherein the first port is connected with a first of the plurality of junctions coupled to a first pair comprising a first open stub and a first short-circuited stub; wherein the second port is connected with a last of the plurality of junctions coupled to a last pair comprising a last open stub and a last short-circuited stub; and wherein lengths of the plurality of transmission line portions are sized wherein electrical lengths of each of the plurality of transmission line portions are shorter, by at least 10 percent, than a fourth of a wavelength of a signal having a frequency of a passband center frequency of the electrical filter.

18. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein lengths of a pair of an open stub and a short-circuited stub coupled to a same one of the plurality of junctions are sized wherein electrical lengths of the open stub and short-circuited stub of a respective pair are equal within a tolerance of +/−10%.

19. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein lengths of the transmission line portions are sized wherein electrical lengths of each of the plurality of transmission line portions are shorter, between 15 to 50 percent than a fourth of a wavelength of a signal having a frequency of a passband center frequency of the electrical filter structure.

20. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the microwave filter is a Chebyshev filter having a pass-band ripple of 0.1 dB with a tolerance of +/−5 percent.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0021] Embodiments according to the invention will subsequently be described taking reference to the enclosed figures in which:

[0022] FIG. 1 shows a schematic illustration of possible structures for a direct-coupled-stub filter, DCSF, according to the prior art;

[0023] FIG. 2 shows a schematic graph representing theoretical response of an ideal DCSF;

[0024] FIG. 3 (a) shows a schematic illustration of a single stub structure of a possible printed realization of DCSF according to the prior art;

[0025] FIG. 3 (b) shows a schematic illustration of a double inner-stub structure of a possible printed realization of DCSF according to the prior art;

[0026] FIG. 4 (a) shows a response of a designed, or simulated, DCSF according to a conventional structure and DCSF according to the first embodiment of the present application;

[0027] FIG. 4 (b) shows a response of a realized filter according to the first embodiment of the present application further to the responses depicted in FIG. 4 (a);

[0028] FIG. 5 shows schematic responses of conventional DCSFs according to the prior art and a measured result of the DCSF according to the first embodiment of the present application;

[0029] FIG. 6 (a) shows a schematic illustration of possible structure for a DCSD according to the first embodiment of the present application;

[0030] FIG. 6 (b) shows a schematic illustration of possible structure for a DCSF according to the second embodiment of the present application;

[0031] FIG. 7 shows a proof of a circuit equivalence of the DCSF according to the second embodiment of the present application.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0032] An electrical filter structure according to a first embodiment of the present application, the filter structure of a direct-coupled-stub filter, DCSF, is topologically identical to a conventional DCSF. That is, the DCSF according to a first embodiment of the present application has topologically the same structure as indicated in FIG. 3 (a) or (b). However, lengths of the transmission line portions are chosen such that electrical lengths of the transmission line portions are shorter, by at least 10 percent, than a fourth of a wavelength of a signal having a frequency of a passband center frequency of the electrical filter structure.

[0033] In addition, lengths of the stubs are chosen such that electrical lengths of the stubs are longer, by at least 2%, than a fourth of a wavelength of a signal having a frequency of a passband center frequency of the electrical filter structure.

[0034] Furthermore, as indicated in FIG. 3, the microwave filter has a symmetrical structure. The symmetrical structure is defined as:

[0035] when the electrical filter structure comprises N stubs having lengths, SST(s), with 1≤s≤N and N−1 transmission line portions having lengths, TLs, wherein the stubs are configured to fulfil a formula (1) within a tolerance of +/−5 percent or +/−2 percent, and the transmission line portions are configured to fulfil a formula (2) within a tolerance of +/−5 percent or +/−2 percent;

[00002]$\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{ST}\left(k\right)=\mathrm{ST}\left(N+1-k\right),\left[k\le \mathrm{floor}\left(N/2\right)\right]& \left(1\right)\\ \mathrm{TL}\left(k\right)=TL\left(N-k\right),\left[k\le \mathrm{floor}\left(N/2\right)\right]& \left(2\right)\end{array}$

[0036] k=a positive integer.

[0037] FIG. 4 shows schematic responses of a conventional DCSF and a DCSF according to a first embodiment of the present application. FIG. 4 (a) shows a response of a designed, or simulated, DCSF according to a conventional structure and DCSF according to the first embodiment of the present application. FIG. 4 (b) shows a response of a realized filter according to the first embodiment of the present application further to the responses depicted in FIG. 4 (a). In FIG. 4, the response of the conventional DCSF is indicated as a long dashed line, the response of the DCSF according to the first embodiment of the present application is indicated as a dash-dot line and the measured result of the realized DCSF according to the first embodiment of the present application is indicated as a line.

[0038] The criterion for simulating/designing DCSF is: [0039] DCSFs with N=9, pass-band 13 to 26 GHz. [0040] Chebyshev design with pass-band ripple of 0.1 dB (in-band return- loss˜16.4 dB). [0041] Semi-ideal models for stubs and transmission lines (including loss). [0042] x-axis: frequency in GHz. [0043] y-axis: power transfer ratio (|S.sub.21|) in dB

[0044] As indicated in FIG. 4 (a), the response of the conventional DCSF has better selectivity at the high-pass side than the DCSF according to the first embodiment of the present application. At the low-pass side, the DCSF according to the first embodiment of the present application has a better selectivity.

[0045] According to FIG. 4 (b), the measured response of the DCSF according to the first embodiment of the present application seems to be better than the response of the simulated DCSF according to the first embodiment of the present application. That is, as shown in FIG. 4 (b), the high-pass selectivity of the measure response is almost the same as the conventional design, and the low-pass selectivity is almost the same of the simulated DCSF according to the first embodiment of the present application. Therefore, the DCSF according to the first embodiment is possible to provide better selectivity of the pass-band, i.e., improve the characteristic of the electrical filter by adjusting the length of the transmission line portions, and/or the length of the stubs.

[0046] FIG. 5 shows responses of conventional DCSF, Chebyshev filters with different order, i.e., 15.sup.th order filter and 10.sup.th order filter. The response of the 15.sup.th order is indicated as dot line and the response of the 10.sup.th order is indicated as dot-dashed line in FIG. 5. In the conventional DCSFs, it is designed as pass-band ripple 0.2 dB, dissipation loss considered to simulate the response. The discrepancy with the response indicated in FIG. 4 on order and pass-band ripple are mainly due to the fact that the filter here considered is purely ideal (with losses) and canonical, while the DCSF is redundant: the transmission lines generate some additional selectivity.

[0047] As indicated in FIG. 5, the filter structure according to the first embodiment of the present invention shows an equivalent order of 15 in the low-pass side, with an improvement of 50% on the existing solution. That is, the filter structure according to the first embodiment of the present invention significantly improve filter characteristics without changing the topological structure of the filter.

[0048] As a modification, the lengths of the transmission line portions are chosen such that electrical lengths of the transmission line portions are shorter, between 15 to 50 percent, preferably between 20 to 40 percent, more preferably between 20 to 35 percent, than a fourth of a wavelength of a signal having a frequency of a passband center frequency of the electrical filter structure. In addition, the lengths of the stubs are chosen such that electrical lengths of the stubs are longer, between 2 to 5 percent, than a fourth of a wavelength of a signal having a frequency of a passband center frequency of the electrical filter structure.

[0049] FIG. 6 shows a schematic possible structure for a DCSF according to the second embodiment of the present application. FIG. 6 (a) shows a DCSD according to the first embodiment of the present application, and FIG. 6 (b) shows a DCSF according to the second embodiment of the present application.

[0050] The DCSF structure as indicated in FIG. 6 (b) is one more variation of the first embodiment as indicated in FIG. 6 (a). The DCSF structure of FIG. 6 (b) is based on a circuit equivalence, i.e., two stubs in parallel (one open-circuited and one short-circuited) with the same electrical length and characteristic impedance, are equivalent to one single short-circuited stub with double electrical length and half characteristic impedance as indicated in FIG. 6 (a). The proof of the circuit equivalence is indicated in FIG. 7. In the ideal case it is I.sub.a=I.sub.b=λ/8, i.e., within tolerance of +/−10%, practically that identity is only approximately respected, due to non-ideality elements on physical short and open circuit.

[0051] Furthermore, lengths of the transmission line portions could be chosen such that electrical lengths of the transmission line portions are shorter, by at least 10 percent, than a fourth of a wavelength of a signal having a frequency of a passband center frequency of the electrical filter structure. In this case, the lengths of the transmission line portions are chosen such that electrical lengths of the transmission line portions are shorter, between 15 to 50 percent, preferably between 20 to 40 percent, more preferably between 20 to 35 percent, than a fourth of a wavelength of a signal having a frequency of a passband center frequency of the electrical filter structure.

[0052] As a modification, the microwave filter has a symmetrical structure, when the electrical filter structure comprises N short-circuited stubs having lengths, SST(s), with 1≤s≤N, N open stubs having lengths, OSTs, and N−1 transmission line portions having lengths, TLs, wherein the short-circuited stubs are configured to fulfil a formula (1), the open stubs are configured to fulfil a formula (2) and the transmission line are configured to fulfil a formula (3);

[00003]$\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{SST}\left(k\right)=SST\left(N+1-k\right),\left[k\le \mathrm{floor}\left(N/2\right)\right]& \left(1\right)\\ \mathrm{OST}\left(k\right)=\mathrm{OST}\left(N+1+k\right),\left[k\le \mathrm{floor}\left(N/2\right)\right]& \left(2\right)\\ \mathrm{TL}\left(k\right)=TL\left(N-k\right),\left[k\le \mathrm{floor}\left(N/2\right)\right]& \left(3\right)\end{array}$

[0053] k=a positive integer.

[0054] As a further modification, the microwave filter is a Chebyshev filter having a pass-band ripple of 0.1 dB in a tolerance of +/−5 percent or +/−2 percent. In addition, the microwave filter is a band pass filter. Furthermore, the open stub and the short-circuited stub of a pair comprise the same characteristic impedance. In addition, the electrical length of the open stub and short-circuited stub of the respective pairs is an eighth of a wavelength of a signal having a frequency of a passband center frequency of the electrical filter structure in tolerance of +/−2 to 5%.