A Compact LTCC Dual-Band WLAN Filter using Two Notch Resonators

This paper presents compact dual-band WLAN filter and filter module. They were developed by embedding all of the passive lumped elements into a LTCC substrate. In order to reduce the size/volume of the filter and avoid EM parasitic couplings between the passive elements, the proposed filter was designed using a 3rd order Chebyshev circuit topology and J-inverter transformation technology. The 3rd order Chebyshev bandpass filter was firstly designed for the band-selection of the 802.11b and was then transformed using finite transmission zeros technologies. Finally, the dual-band filter was realized by adding two notch resonators to the 802.11b filter circuit for the band-selection of the 802.11a/g. The maximum insertion losses in the lower and higher passbands were better than 2.0 and 1.3 dB with minimum return losses of 15 and 14 dB, respectively. Furthermore, the filter was integrated with a diplexer to clearly split the signals between 2 and 5 GHz. The maximum insertion and minimum return losses of the fabricated module were 2.2 and 14 dB at 2.4 - 2.5 GHz, and 1.6 and 19 dB at 5.15 - 5.85 GHz, respectively. The overall volume of the fabricated filter was 2.7 x 2.3 x 0.59 mm3.