Ultra-Wideband (UWB) Bandpass Filters With Hybrid Microstrip/Slotline Structures

A novel ultra-wideband (UWB) bandpass filter is presented using back-to-back microstrip-slotline transition and triple-mode slotline resonator. A uniform slotline resonator is constructed with a length of one full wavelength at the central frequency. Two microstrip feed lines are then placed above the slotline resonator to make up a back-to-back microstrip-slotline transition, where two intersection points are equally located at one quarter-wavelength away from two short-ends. By properly stretching the microstrip line lengths, an ultra-wide passband is constituted with the lower/upper cut-off edges dominated by the first/third resonant modes.By forming a W-shaped slotline resonator, introducing a cross coupling and cascading two lowpass filters, two UWB bandpass filters with improved out-of-band performances are designed, fabricated and measured. Measured results achieve a 2.56-to-10.90 GHz or 124% passband with return loss >12.04 dB, group delay variation <0.58 ns, sharpened rejection skirts and extended upper-stopband.