Design of a novel compact highly selective wideband bandstop RF filter using dual path lossy resonator for next generation applications

This article presents the design of a wideband bandstop RF filter intending to improve selectivity and compactness. Conventional bandstop filter topology with finite unloaded quality factor produces degraded bandstop filter performance due to dissipation loss. In the proposed filter design, a novel dual path Capacitive Coupled Step Impedance Resonator (CCSIR) structure is used to obtain an infinite stopband attenuation. A uniform impedance resonator is used in Path 1, whereas Path 2 contains a resonator that is twice coupled to the transmission lines. The electrical length of both paths is chosen to be out of phase, resulting in a high rejection level at higher frequencies. It has been analyzed that the selectivity can be improved by increasing the order of the dual coupled step impedance resonator. The proposed design produces a wideband BSF centered at 5.25 GHz with a high rejection level of 104.3 dB and fractional bandwidth of 58.5%. The results have demonstrated that the resonant frequencies are regulated by varying the electrical length of CCSIR. Moreover, it has been realized that out of phase signal cancellation due to the dual path is involved in producing the finite frequency transmission poles, which further enhances the filter selectivity. However, the same electrical performance can only be achieved from coaxial cavities and waveguides due to the high-quality factor. The proposed topology is fabricated and measured on a high-frequency microstrip substrate having a low-quality factor with a compact output and better electrical performance compared to coaxial cavities or waveguides. Due to its high electrical performance and small size, the proposed BSF is appropriate for 4G and 5G (FR1) applications. The measurement shows good concurrence with the full-wave EM simulated results. The fabricated prototype of third order BSF has a compact size of (0.7 × 0.77)λg at 5.25 GHz.