Synthesis of an in-line prototype filter with two transmission zeros without cross couplings

This letter describes a method for synthesizing a general in-line prototype filter presenting one or two transmission zeros without using cross couplings; the basic topology is constituted by resonators coupled through inverters, with input and/or output taken at the second and/or last but one resonators. In this case, the first and last resonators, tuned at frequencies in the stopband, produce two zeros in the transfer function. It is shown that, even if it is not possible to exactly synthesize this structure with extracted poles techniques, an approximated design procedure can be derived; the procedure is based on the synthesis of a low pass prototype with multiple couplings starting from source and/or load, followed by suitable network transformations. This design technique can be easily implemented in case of classical combline or interdigital filters.