UWB Bandpass Filter with Notched Band for the

Rejection of 5 GHz WLAN Using Hexagonal

Multiple Mode Resonator
Thirumalaivasan K and Nakkeeran R
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
Pondicherry Engineering College, Puducherry-605014, India
thirumalaivasank@rediffmail.com and rnakeeran@pec.edu

Abstract—This paper presents an ultra-wideband (UWB)
bandpass filter for UWB applications and notch filter for the
purpose of reducing interference from the WLAN (802.11a)
when it coexist with UWB radio system. The bandpass filter
consists of a hexagonal shaped multiple mode resonator
(MMR) with interdigital coupling at both sides. The notch filter
consists of four identical open ended stubs nearby the MMR
which introduce a narrow rejection band in the UWB
passband. Such UWB bandpass filter with notched band is
useful and required in practical systems in order to avoid the
interference from the existing WLAN to the UWB radio
system. The analysis of the proposed filter is performed by
using an electromagnetic (EM) solver, IE3D. The group delay
obtained for bandpass filter is below 0.2 ns and for notch filter
it is about 0.3 ns. With the above structural features the overall
dimension of the filter is 38 mm (length) × 3.2 mm (breadth) ×
1.6 mm (height) and the fractional bandwidth of the UWB
bandpass filter is about 120.48% with return loss is about
-40 dB.
Keywords - Ultra-wideband, bandpass filter, notched band,
microstrip, group delay.
quarter-wavelength transmission lines which provide
appropriate rejection at the specific frequency range
[7–8]. Conventional UWB filter’s designs have been
discussed in many references, example [9–11]. In the
literature [12-15] the simulation, design, fabrication and
measurement of UWB bandpass filters and notched filters
have been discussed using different geometry like
rectangular, circular, ring etc. However, developing such a
filter is definitely a challenging work. The first challenge is
to achieve 110 % fractional bandwidth requirement, which
is used for broadband design. Second comes in the form of
requirement of the small and flat group delay over the band.
The proposed UWB bandpass and notch filters in this
paper are designed with a compact hexagonal MMR. The
filters are distinctive in their structure and they have simple
design with less number of design parameters compared to
the existing filter designs in the literature [16-18]. The paper
is organized as follows: Section II brings out UWB
bandpass filter design. Section III explains UWB notch filter
design. Simulation results and analysis are presented in
Section IV. Section V concludes the paper.

I. INTRODUCTION
II. UWB BANDPASS FILTER
A UWB wireless system uses signal with a low spectrum
density in the bandwidth of 3.1–10.6 GHz and transmits the The basic circuit consists of the feed lines, coupling gaps,
signal at a high transmission speed of 100–480 Mbps [1]. and the resonator. Power is coupled into end out of the
The maximum distance between the UWB systems to resonator through feed lines and coupling gaps. If the
communicate with each other is about 10 m, and UWB distance between the feed lines and the resonator is large,
system enables transmission at a higher speed than the then the coupling gaps do not affect the resonant frequencies
conventional WLAN [2]. The filters are one of the primary of the hexagon.
and necessary components of a microwave system.
Microstrip line is a good entrant for filter design due to its
advantages of low cost, compact-size, light weight, planar
structure and easy integration with other components on a
single circuit board. Due to the low energy per pulse, UWB
systems are subject to high levels narrow-band interferences
(NBI) even though UWB systems may enjoy a high
spreading gain due to the large bandwidths. Specifically,
IEEE 802.11a systems operate around 5 GHz, which overlap
the band of UWB signals regulated by the FCC, and will
bring significant interference to UWB systems. If such
interference is not suppressed properly, the UWB receiver Figure.1 Geometry of the proposed UWB bandpass filter
will be jammed. In this case, a UWB filter is required to
provide rejection capability in a band from 5 to 6 GHz [3-6]. The UWB bandpass filter studied in this paper consists of
One solution to this specification is to employ open-ended a single hexagonal structure. The filter is designed in such a
way that its dielectric substrate FR4 with 1.6 mm thickness
and a relative permittivity of 4.4, so that it can be easily
integrated with Printed Circuit Board (PCB) [19]. The
multiple coupled line structure is incorporated with MMR to
provide wide transmission band and enhance out-of band
performance. The interdigital coupled line structure and
MMR are adopted and implemented to design the
3.1-10.6 GHz UWB bandpass filter as shown in Figure 1.
The dimensions of the filter are mentioned in the geometry.

III. UWB NOTCH FILTER

We must keep the UWB bandpass filtering performance

while introduce a good rejection performance at some
specified frequency bands [20]. A simple structure to realize
the notched band is shown in Figure 2, where a hexagonal
MMR with its interdigital coupled conductors is integrated
with the microstrip conductors.
Figure.3 Simulated S parameters of the proposed UWB bandpass
filter

The simulated S parameter of the proposed notch filter is

shown in Figure 4. It is clear from the response that the
proposed filter has better insertion loss of -3 dB over both
the passbands and the return loss of about -27 dB. The notch
is obtained with linear phase over the passband which can
capable of eliminating the influence of IEEE 802.11a. The
notch filter proposed here is to trap the upper and lower
Figure.2 Geometry of the proposed UWB notch filter. bands of WLAN exists in the frequency range 5-6 GHz from
the available passband. The filter performance parameters
like insertion loss, return loss, fractional bandwidth,
The notch filter consists of four identical open ended passband and group delay of the filters discussed above are
stubs. It is noted that two folded arms of each stepped tabulated in Table I.
impedance resonator (SIR) are coupled to each other to
realize inter-coupling between the ports. The four open stubs
nearby the MMR introduce a narrow rejection band in the
UWB passband. The notched rejection band can be easily
designed to some specific frequency band(s) by varying the
size of the open stubs. The novelty of the proposed filter is
introduction of hexagonal shaped MMR to act as a bandpass
filter as well as a notch filter for the rejection of WLAN
interference. The proposed notch filter is simple, compact
and easy to fabricate compare with the existing notch filter
designs in the literature.

IV. SIMULATION RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed

UWB bandpass and notch filter designs, the filters are
simulated through the simulation tool IE3D [21]. To analyze
the wide band coverage of the filter, the effects of adjusting Figure.4 Simulated S parameters of the proposed UWB notch filter
the filter parameters are investigated. The analysis of the
filter for different parameters has been carried out by Ensuring the same time differences between signal
varying one parameter and keeping other parameters spectrum components before and after the filtering is very
constant. The simulated S parameter of the proposed UWB important, especially for wideband signals. This requirement
bandpass filter using hexagonal MMR is shown in Figure 3. is met if phase response of the filter is linear. Then, the
It is clear from the response that the proposed filter has group delay function is constant. Such a condition is enough
better insertion loss of -2 dB and the low return loss of about to assure the linearity of the UWB filter phase response.
-35 dB. The -10 dB fractional bandwidth computed from the
response is about 120.48 %.
 Figure.5 Simulated group delay UWB bandpass filter
Figure.8 Phase measurement of UWB notch filter

Figure 7 shows the simulation result of phase of S21 for

UWB bandpass filter whereas Figure 8 shows the simulation
result of phase of S21 for UWB notch filter. Linear phase is a
property of a filter, where the phase response of the filter is
a linear function of frequency, excluding the possibility of
wraps at ±180 degree. The response of the Figure 8 shows
that the phase of S21 throughout the passband of presented
filter is acceptably linear for UWB applications.

TABLE I OBSERVED RESULTS FROM THE SIMULATION

FILTER |S11| |S21| FRACTIONAL PASSBAND GROUP

TYPE (dB) ( dB) BANDWIDTH (GHz) DELAY
Figure.6 Simulated group delay UWB notch filter (%) (ns)
UWB
The simulated group delay for the both bandpass and Bandpass -35 -2 120.48 8.3 <0.2
notch filter is shown in Figures 5 and 6. Figure 5 exhibits a Filter
flat group delay response below 0.2 ns over the whole
passband. It implies that the proposed UWB filter has a very UWB
162.5 1.5 – 5.4
Notch -27 -3 <0.1
good linearity of signal transfer as well. It is evident from Filter
132.35 6 – 10.5
the Figure 6 that the UWB lower and upper passbands the
group delay is below 0.3 ns, which ensures the minimum
distortion to the input pulse when implemented in the UWB
system.
V. CONCLUSION

In this paper, we have presented a hexagonal shaped

Figure.7 Phase measurement of UWB bandpass filter
MMR based UWB bandpass filter and notch filter for
reducing the influence of WLAN effectively in UWB
environment. The bandpass filter was realized by integrating
hexagonal MMR coupled with interdigital conductors of the
filter. The four open stubs nearby the MMR introduce a
narrow rejection (notched) band in the UWB passband. The
UWB bandpass filter with such notched bands is useful and
strongly required in practical systems in order to avoid the
interference from the WLAN. The proposed bandpass filter
demonstrated with excellent ultra-wide passband from
2.2 -10.5 GHz with an insertion and return loss is about
-2 dB and -35 dB respectively. Rejection performance for
the notch filter is about – 27 dB at the centre frequency of
5.4 GHz, the proposed filter also has good outband
performance higher than the requirement of FCC’s mask.
The group delay obtained for bandpass filter at the operating
is about 0.2 ns and for notch filter it is below 0.1 ns. With
the above structural features the overall dimension of the
filter is 38 mm (length) × 3.2 mm (breadth) ×1.6 (height)
mm and the fractional bandwidth of the UWB bandpass
filter is about 120.48 %. The obtained S parameter
characteristics of both UWB bandpass and notched filter
convey optimal performance in terms of insertion and return
loss measurements. Since the frequency where notch occurs
is exactly match with center frequency of WLAN, these
types of filters are highly suitable for filtering when they
coexist with other radio systems.
[18] Oudaya coumar S, Nakkeeran R and Thirumalaivasan K,” Resonator
Based Compact Ultra-Wideband and Notched WidebandFilters”NCC-
IITM 2010.
[19] Wong, S. W. and L. Zhu, “EBG-embedded multiple-mode resonator
for UWB bandpass filter with improved upper-stopband
performance,”IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., Vol. 17, No. 6,
421–423, June 2007
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Notch Ultra-Wideband Filter Using Ring Resonator for the Rejection
of IEEE 802.11a”, in the Proc. of IEEE International Conference on
Computing, Communication and Networking ICCCNT 2010, July
29-31 2010, India
[21] IE3D 14, Zeland Software, Ins., Fremont, USA.

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