In this paper, we propose a novel feeding structure for a coaxial-excited compact waveguide filter, which is composed of planar resonators called frequency-selective surfaces (FSSs). In our proposed feeding structure, new FSSs located at the input and output ports are directly excited by the coaxial line. By using the FSSs, the transition from the TEM mode to the TE10 mode is realized by the resonance of the FSSs. Therefore, the backshort length from the coaxial probe to the shorted waveguide end can be made much shorter than one-quarter of the guided wavelength. Additionally, the coaxial-excited FSS provides one transmission zero at each stopband. As a design example, a three-stage bandpass filter with 4% bandwidth at the X band is demonstrated. The designed filter has a very compact size of one cavity and has high skirt selectivity with six transmission zeros. The effectiveness of the design is confirmed by the comparison of frequency characteristics obtained by the simulation and measurement.

To realize the compact ultra-wideband (UWB) bandpass filters, a novel filter prototype with two short-circuited stubs loaded at both sides of a stepped-impedance resonator (SIR) via the parallel coupled lines is proposed based on a distributed filter synthesis theory. The equivalent circuit of this filter is established, while the corresponding 7-pole Chebyshev-type transfer function is derived for filter synthesis. Then, a distributed-circuit-based technique was presented to synthesize the elements' values of this filter. As an example, a FCC UWB filter with the fractional bandwidth (FWB) @ -10 dB up to 110% was designed using the proposed prototype and then re-modeled by commercial microwave circuit simulator to verify the correctness and accuracy of the synthesis theory. Furthermore, in terms of EM simulator, the filter was further-optimized and experimentally-realized by using microstrip line. Good agreements between the measurement results and theoretical ones validate the effectiveness of our technique. In addition, compared with the conventional SIR-type UWB filter without short-circuited stubs, the new one significantly improves the selectivity and out-of-band characteristics (especially in lower one -45 dB@1-2 GHz) to satisfy the FCC's spectrum mask. The designed filter also exhibits very compact size, quite low insertion loss, steep skirts, flat group delay and the easily-fabricatable structure (the coupling gap dimension in this filter is 0.15 mm) as well. Moreover, it should be noted that, in terms of the presented design technique, the proposed filter prototype can be also used to easily realize the UWB filters with other FBW even greater than 110%.

Two type measurement methods of the unloaded Q-factor of a microwave resonator, the insertion loss method and the return loss method, are reexamined theoretically and compared experimentally. An error formula is derived to estimate the errors between the unloaded Q-factors measured by the two different methods. Measured results of a stripline resonator verified well the derived formula, and proved that the return loss method is more accurate and reliable than the traditional insertion loss method.

Novel microstrip lowpass filters are developed with reduced size and significantly improved stopband characteristics. After introducing quarter-wavelength open stubs, we get one or two transmission zeros in the stopband. By folding the high impedance microstrip lines, we reduce the size of the filter. Three-pole and five-pole lowpass filters are designed, and their measured frequency responses agree well with theoretical predictions.

A new structure of a low-loss high temperature superconducting (HTS) filter is proposed by using quarter-wavelength coplanar waveguide (CPW) resonators. A 4-pole Chebyshev band-pass filter with the center frequency 5.0 GHz and the 0.01 dB-ripple fractional bandwidth 3.2% is designed based on the theory of direct-coupled resonator filters using K- and J-inverters. This filter is fabricated by using a high-Tc superconductive YBCO film deposited on a MgO dielectric substrate. The frequency response of the filter measured at 60 K agrees very well with the theoretical one. The insertion loss is 0.22 dB. The insertion loss of this filter is the lowest in HTS-CPW filters presented so far.

A novel compact 5-pole bandpass filter (BPF) using two different types of resonators, one is coaxial TEM-mode resonator and the other dielectric triple-mode resonator, is proposed in this paper. The coaxial resonator is a simple single-mode resonator, while the triple-mode dielectric resonator (DR) includes one TM01δ mode and two degenerate HE11 modes. An excellent spurious performance of the BPF is obtained due to the different resonant behaviors of these two types of resonators used in the BPF. The coupling scheme of the 5-pole BPF includes two cascade triplets (CTs) which produce two transmission zeros (TZs) and a sharp skirt of the passband. Behaviors of the resonances, the inter-resonance couplings, as well as their tuning methods are investigated in detail. A procedure of mapping the coupling matrix of the BPF to its physical dimensions is developed, and an optimization of these physical dimensions is implemented to achieve best performance of the filter. The designed BPF is operated at 1.84GHz with a bandwidth of 51MHz. The stopband rejection is better than 20dB up to 9.7GHz (about 5.39×f0) except 7.85GHz. Good agreement between the designed and theoretically synthesized responses of the BPF is reached, verifying well the proposed configuration of the BPF and its design method.

This paper proposes a new three-mode resonator, which consists of a parallel-coupled microstrip line resonator embedded with a slotline resonator, and develops a compact low-loss bandpass filter (BPF) with a sharp roll-off response because of four transmission zeros (TZ) located very near the passband. Resonance mechanism and properties of the three modes are first analyzed by using an eigen-mode analysis, and then an equivalent circuit model is established for expressing a novel coupling scheme of the developed BPF. It is made clear from the results of circuit analysis that the four TZs are produced because of multiple paths between the input/output stub lines formed by the three resonant modes and the direct source/load coupling. The validity of the proposed resonator and filter is supported by the comparison between simulated and measured results.

The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method incorporating Berenger's PML absorbing boundary condition is developed to model three-dimensional dielectric resonators. The fast Fourier transform (FFT) coupled with the Pade interpolation technique is employed to obtain frequency domain results with satisfactory resolution and accuracy, and to reduce the computation time significantly compared with that needed when the conventional FFT algorithm is used. Computed resonant frequencies of two types of cylindrical dielectric resonators are compared with theoretical and measured results. A good agreement is observed.

A high temperature superconductor (HTS) 5 GHz 10-pole bandpass filter (BPF) is designed by using coplanar waveguide (CPW) quarter-wavelength resonators. The 10-pole Chebyshev BPF has a center frequency 5.0 GHz and a fractional bandwidth 3.2%. Based on an equivalent circuit with J- and K-inverters, the filter is first designed by using an EM simulator. Next an optimization algorithm is employed to diagnose the discrepancy between the filter responses calculated by the EM simulator and the equivalent circuit. Adjustment of the dimensions of the filter is made thereby. The frequency response of the adjusted filter satisfies well the design specifications.

Two compact and low loss dual-mode filters are proposed by using degenerate modes of slotted triangular microstrip patch resonators. The geometrical size and radiation loss of the triangular patch are reduced simultaneously by loading both horizontal and vertical slots. The resonant frequencies of two degenerate modes can be easily controlled by varying the dimensions and positions of the slots. A two-pole dual-mode filter operating at 3.94 GHz with a fractional bandwidth of 4.3% is designed, fabricated, and measured. The measured results verify well the theoretical predictions.

The recently proposed modified PML (MPML) absorbing boundary condition is extended to three dimensions. The performance of the MPML is investigated by FDTD simulation of a typical microstrip line and a rectangular waveguide. The dominant and higher order modes of the microstrip line and the waveguide are excited separately in the computation. In all of the cases of excitation, the reflection properties of the MPML boundaries are examined for the side walls and the end walls, respectively. Various values of the permittivity and permeability of the MPML medium are tested in the computation, and the variation behavior of reflection from the MPML boundaries is examined. The numerical results reveal that by choosing appropriate values of the permittivity and permeability of the MPML, we can realize efficient absorption of both evanescent waves and propagating waves over a wide frequency band.

A grooved circular cavity is designed for the millimeter wave measurements of dielectric substrates. The grooves are introduced to separate the degenerate TE01p and TM11p modes in circular cavities. A rigorous mode-matching method is used to investigate the influence of grooves on both the TE01p and TM11p modes. The dimensions of the grooves are determined from the numerical results. Comparative experiments of circular cavities with and without grooves validate the design method.

The purpose of this paper is to propose an efficient and effective design scheme to implement compact, high-performance wideband bandpass filters based on a novel compound three-line unit consisting of a stub-loaded short-circuited parallel-coupled three-line structure and two lead lines. Firstly, a simulative investigation is conducted on the transmission characteristics of the proposed coupling unit. The results show that the bandwidth of such structure can be predicted by a symmetric parallel-coupled short-circuited three-line unit, whereas the transmission zeros by a three-section stub composed of the loaded stub, one of the parallel-coupled three lines and the lead line. Accordingly, given specifications, a pseudo-elliptical filter can be designed in an novel three-coupled-line based two-step design scheme: 1. after the derivation of the new closed-form synthesis formulae, a Chebyshev ultra-wideband (UWB) filter is synthesized on a desired passband using symmetric three-line coupling units. 2. By designing the stubs and choosing the proper lengths of the lead lines, multiple transmission zeros are then introduced to improve the skirt and stopband characteristics, whereas the equiripple characteristics are kept in passband. As an example, a UWB bandpass filter covering the Japan's lower UWB band (BW: 3.1-4.8 GHz, FBW: 43%) is designed to describe the proposed design procedure. The measured filtering characteristics agree very well with the theoretical predictions, which validate the effectiveness of the proposed new coupling structure and corresponding filter design technique. In addition, the designed filters exhibit good characteristics, such as steep skirt selectivity, very wide stopbands, a compact size compared with the filter based on short-circuited three-line structure, etc.

Two-Thickness-Method (TTM) based on an open-ended coaxial probe was investigated with an emphasis on uncertainty analysis to perfect this technique. Uncertainty equations in differential forms are established for the simultaneous measurement of complex electromagnetic (EM) parameters in the systematical consideration of various error factors in measurement. Worst-case differential uncertainty equations were defined while the implicit partial derivation techniques were used to find the coefficients in formulation. The relations between the uncertainties and test sample's thicknesses were depicted via 3D figures, while the influence of the coaxial line's dimension on the measurement accuracy is also included based on the same analysis method. The comparisons between the measured errors and theoretical uncertainty prediction are given for several samples, which validate the effectiveness of our analysis.

A novel method is proposed to synthesize dual-band bandpass filters (BPFs) from a prototype lowpass filter. By implementing successive frequency transformations and circuit conversions, a new filter topology is obtained which consists of only admittance inverters and series or shunt resonators, and is thereby easy to be realized by using conventional distributed elements. A microstrip dual-band BPF with central frequencies of 1.8 GHz and 2.4 GHz is designed and fabricated using microstrip lines and stubs. The simulated and measured results show a good agreement and validate thereby the proposed theory.

A novel high temperature superconducting interdigital bandpass filter is proposed by using coplanar waveguide quarter-wavelength resonators. The CPW resonators are arranged in parallel, and consequently the filter becomes very compact. The filter is a 5-pole Chebyshev BPF with a midband frequency of 5.0 GHz and an equal-ripple fractional bandwidth of 3.2%. It is fabricated using a YBCO film deposited on an MgO substrate. The measured filtering characteristics agree well with EM simulations and show a low insertion loss in spite of the small size of the filter.

A circular cavity resonance method is improved to measure the frequency dependence of complex permittivity of a dielectric plate by using multimode TE0m1 with integer m. The measurement principle is based on a rigorous analysis by the Ritz-Galerkin method. A new circular cavity with lowered height is designed from a mode chart of a cavity to decrease the number of unwanted modes near the TE0m1 modes. A copper cavity having 20 GHz for the TE011 mode was constructed based on this design. For glass cloth PTFE, RT/duroid 6010 and FR-4 dielectric plates, the frequency dependences are measured from resonant frequencies for the TE0m1 (m = 1, 2, 3 ...) modes. These measured results agree well with ones measured by using the conventional four different size cavities with TE011 mode. It is verified that the designed cavity structure is useful to measure the frequency dependence of low loss dielectric plates.

In this paper, a novel hybrid technique for analyzing complex antennas around the coated object is proposed, which is termed as “iterative vector fields with Physical Optics (PO)”. A closed box is used to enclose the antennas and the complex field vectors on the box' surfaces can then be obtained using Huygens principle. The equivalent electromagnetic currents on Huygens surfaces are computed by Higher-order Method of Moments (HOB-MoM) and the fields scattered from the coated object are calculated by PO method. In addition, the parallel technique based on Message Passing Interface (MPI) and Scalable Linear Algebra Package (ScaLAPACK) is employed so as to accelerate the computation. Numerical examples are presented to validate and to show the effectiveness of the proposed method on solving the practical engineering problem.

At frequencies currently used by mobile communications, many of the microstrip half-wavelength resonators are too large to realize miniaturized filters. For this reason, very small-sized microstrip spiral resonators and filters, using high-temperature superconductors (HTS), have been studied recently. In this paper, the resonant and coupling characteristics of microstrip G-type and S-type spiral resonators are investigated first by using an electromagnetic simulator. Then small-sized 4-pole, 8-pole, and 16-pole Chebyshev bandpass filters using S-type spirals are designed, respectively, with a midband frequency f0 = 1.93 GHz. The frequency responses of the filters satisfy well the desired specifications, and the measured frequency response of the 8-pole HTS filter agrees well with the theoretical prediction.