Investigations on Three-Pole Microstrip Low-Pass Filters Incorporated with DGS and Fractals for Selectivity Improvement

Abstract

In this paper, an investigation on compact microstrip low-pass filters (MLPFs) with extremely perfect low-pass characteristics and improved out-band suppression has been carried out for the improvement of the selectivity parameter ([Formula: see text]). For this purpose, two different defected ground structures (DGSs) based on Moore fractals and Meander line have been designed and experimentally validated. The proposed third-order low-pass filter (LPF) configurations are designed and simulated using the High-Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS). To validate the simulation models, the prototypes of the suggested low-pass filters are fabricated using Teflon (TM) substrate having a relative permittivity of 2.65 and a loss tangent of 0.001, and measured using the Vector Network Analyzer. The simulation and measurement results are in good agreement. The proposed filters occupy a compact size of [Formula: see text]. The selectivity parameter values for the proposed Moore fractals- and Meander line-modeled DGS-based LPFs are 425[Formula: see text]dB/GHz and 850[Formula: see text]dB/GHz, respectively. The proposed microstrip low-pass filters offer a significant improvement in the selectivity parameter, offering a maximum value of 850[Formula: see text]dB/GHz. The proposed filters exhibit a very high figure of merit (FOM), reporting 71,335 for Moore fractals-based LPF and 118,354 for the Meander line-based LPF. These proposed filters are suitable for advanced mobile phone services, [Formula: see text]-band radar, Global Positioning System, mobile, paging services, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and wireless LAN.