Mismatch in EBG Common-Mode Filters Implemented on PCBs

In this article, impedance mismatch effects on the characteristics of common-mode (CM) electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) filters are studied using three-dimensional (3-D) full-wave numerical simulations. The CM EBG filters considered herein are designed using standard printed circuit board technology and contain either microstrip (MS) differential pairs running above the EBG plane, or stripline (SL) differential pairs running on one of the layers next to the EBG plane. First, the terminations are fixed at 50 Ω, and the effects of the differential line impedance variations on the EBG filter parameters are studied. Overall, the considered variations in the widths of the traces and edge-to-edge separation distances in both the MS and SL structures do not drastically deteriorate the performance of the EBG CM filters. Then impedances of the ports are set different from 50 Ω, and the effects of this mismatch on the baseline SL and MS EBG structures are studied. It is shown that lower port impedances may have significant effect on the characteristics of filters. In addition, baseline EBG filters are cascaded with unmatched four-port load, and this may also deteriorate performance of filters.