Journal of Superconductivity, ~qd. IO, No.

[o t997

1.5-GHz High-T Superconducting Microstrip Bandpass Filter

of niaturizedConfiguration

A k i r a E n o k i h a r a ~ and K e n t a r o Setsune ~

Received 5 ?vS:)vember 1996

A 1.5-GHz four-stage microstrip bandpass filter was designed with the miniaturized hairpin
resonator structure to reduce the configuration in size. The filter was fabricated using high-
Yc superconducting films on a 12 x 12 mm 2 LaAIO3 substrate. The passband insertion loss of
the filter was measured to be -0.4 dB at 77 K, while it was estimated by a planar electromag-
netic simulator to around -19 dB when gold films are used instead of the superconducting
films.

KEY WORDS: High-T~ superconductor; filter; miniaturized hai~in resonator; microstrip;

miniaturization.

One of the promising applications of high-Y~
superconducting (HTS) microstrip filters is as the
receiver front end in base stations of mobile communi-
cation systems, where a low insertion loss and sharp
filter skirt are required for reception sensitivity and
selectivity. However, in the frequency regions of such
systems (less than 2 GHz), microstrip bandpass filters
designed with conventional half-wavelength resona-
tors exhibit a considerably large configuration. With
regard to a cryogenic environment t'or superconduct-
ing filters, the large device size is directly related to
the heavy retS-igeration burden. Developing HTS fil-
ters with a miniaturized configuration is, therefore,
very important in reducing the size and operating
power of the refrigeration systems. Hairpin-shaped
resonators are usuNly used for miniaturizing the con-
figuration of HTS microstrip filters [1,2]. For larger
reduction in s~e an adequate modification of the
resonator structure is required. The authors previ-
ously presented a novel microstrip HTS filter consist-
ing of miniaturized-hairpin resonators, which have a
newly developed compact configuration [3,4]. This
paper describes a 1.5-GHz HTS microstrip bandpass
filter of miniaturized configuration designed using the
concept of a miniaturized-hairpin resonator filter.
~Central Research Laboratories, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.
Ltd., Soraku-gun, Kyoto, Japan.
A 1.5-GHz four-stage microstrip filter with a
Tchebyscheff bandpass property was designed. The
relative bandwidth and the passband ripple were fixed
at 1% and 0.2 dB, respectively. Figure 1 shows the
conductive film pattern of the filter, which should be
prepared on a 0.5-ram-thick LaA103 crystal (er = 24)
substrate with a ground plane on the reverse surface.
A circuit similator and a planar electromagnetic
simulator were used in the design process. The
designed structure includes four miniaturized-hairpin
resonators. Each resonator consists of a symmetrical
parallel coupled line and a single line where one end
of the coupled line is open and the other end is con-
nected in parallel by the single line. By adequately
adjusting their impedance the resonator length is
shortened compared with the conventional hairpin-
shaped resonator [4]. In this case, the geometric mean
of the even- and odd-mode impedence of the parallel
line was set at 25 f2 and the characteristic impedence
of the single line was at 50 fL The configuration of
each resonator was, thereby, defined within an area
of about 1.2 x 9.4 mm 2 even at such a low resonant
frequency. In addition, with respect to the outline
shape of the resonator, it is desirable to design the
compact multi-stage filter onto a square-shaped sub-
strate. An area of 12 x 12 mm 2 is sufficient for the
substrate of the present four-stage filter. This is less
than one-fourth in area compared with the previously

49
0896-1107/97/02004)049512.50/0 ~' 1997PlenumPublishingCorporation
50 Enokihara and Setsune

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Fig. 1. Conductor film pattern for the 1.5-GHz tour-stage band- Frequency Variation (MHz)
pass filter, which should be prepared on a 0.5-ram-thick LaAIO3
crystal ( s , = 2 4 ) substrate with a ground plane on the reverse Fig. 2. Calculated frequency responses of the designed filter, where
surface. a perfect conductor (a), gold at 77 K (b), and gold at room tem-
perature (c) are assumed as a material of both the patterned con-
ductor film and the ground p l a n e The frequency variation is
demonstrated HTS four-stage filter with similar elec- normalized with the center frequency in the case of a perfect
trical specifications, which was designed with conven- conductor
tional hairpin-shaped microstrip resonators and was
prepared on a 25.4 x 25.4 mm 2 MgO substrate [2].
Figure 2 shows the frequency responses of the The designed filter was fabricated with
designed filter calculated by the planar electromag- T12Ba2CaCu2Ox thin films of 700 nm thickness depos-
netic simulator, where a pergect conductor (a), gold ited on both surfaces of a i2 x 12 mm 2 LaA103 sub-
at 77 K (b), and gold at room temperature (c) are strate The usual photolithographic technique with
assumed as a material of both the patterned conduc- argon ion-beam etching was employed for patterning
tor film and the ground plane. The t~equency varia- the film on the upper surface The film on the reverse
tion is n o ~ a l i z e d with the center frequency in the surface was used as the microstrip ground plane Fig'
case of the perfect conductor. The line a shows the ure 3 shows the frequency responses of the filter
response of the filter where no dissipation loss is
induced in the filter circuit. It is assumed that the
insertion loss is strongly affected by the surface resist-
ance of the conductor material. This is attributable
to the high current concentration in the conductor
caused by the miniaturized configuration. The
passband insertion loss is estimated to - 1 9 and "•-20 . . . . . .

- 3 9 dB for gold at 77 K and at room temperature,

respectively, from the figure. A -19-dB insertion loss
means that the output signal power is only 1.3% of
that of the input signal. The surface resistance of HTS j 7-- ............ ; ........................... i--
materials at this frequency region is lower than that
_ I + : ! _L i
of n o d a l metals by two to three orders of magnitude
at temperatures below the critical temperature. There- -50 . . . . . . . . . . .
fore the insertion loss should be effectively reduced 1.:37' 1.47 1.57
Frequency (GHz)
by using HTS films, while in the case of using gold
films it is obviously too high tbr practical use even at Fig. 3. Frequency responses of the HTS filter at 77 K, where curves
a temperature of 77 K. A and B show scattering parameters Sl~ and $2~, respectively
1.5-GHz High-T_~ Superconducting Microstrip Bandpass Filter
rneasured at 77 K, where cur~Tes A and B show the
scattering parameters S~ and S:~, respectively. The
responses are typical of the Tchebyscheff-type four-
stage bandpass and agree well with the design param-
eters. The passband insertion loss was - 0 . 4 dB and
the return loss was higher than - 1 0 dB within the
passband. It is seen that the insertion loss is dramat-
ically reduced by using HTS films instead of gold
films. The feasibility of the filter is clearly demonstra-
ted by the results obtained.
In conclusion, a 1.5-GHz four-stage microstfip
bandpass filter of miniaturized configuration was
designed and fabricated using HTS thin films pre-
pared on a 12 x 12 m m 2 LaAtO3 substrate. The inser-
tion loss of the HTS filter was measured to b e - 0 . 4 dB
at 77 K. The HTS filter offers both small size and low
insertion-loss performance in the frequency range of
practical mobile communication systems. This shows
51
great promise t2or the application of HTS microstrip
filter technology.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to thank Dr. M. Makimoto,
M. Sagawa, and M. Matsuo for valuable discussions.
This work is supported by MITI.
REFERENCES
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A. Meulenberg, and R. E. Howard, Trans. Magn. 27, 2537
(1991).
2. Y. Nagai, K. Itoh, N. Suzuki, and O. Michikami, J[pn. J. AppL
Phys. 32, L260 (1993).
3. A. Enokihara, K. Setsune, K. Wasa, M. Sagawa, and M. Maki-
moto, Electron. Lett. 28, 1925 (1992).
4. M. Sagawa, K. Takahashi, and M. Makimoto, Trans.
Microwave Theory Tech. 37, 1991 (1989).