Planar diplexer for microwave integrated circuits

Z.C. Hao, W. Hong, J.X. Chen, X.P. Chen and K. Wu

Abstract: A planar microwave diplexer based on the substrate integrated waveguide (SIW)
technique is presented in the paper. The SIW-microstrip transition and SIW lter are
experimentally investigated, and then a C-band SIW diplexer is designed and fabricated using a
standard PCB process. The relative bandwidths of up and down channels are 3% and 4.8% at
5.96GHz and 5.42GHz, respectively. The measured results show good channel isolation, moderate
insert losses and small return losses in pass-bands. The diplexer takes a planar form and can be
easily integrated in microwave integrated circuits.
1 Introduction
Increasing development of microwave communication
systems, such as wireless local-area networks (WLAN)
and local multipoint distributions systems (LMDS) etc.,
greatly stimulates the need for compact low-loss microwave
diplexers or multiplexers, which serve as channel separators.
The waveguide diplexers/multiplexers are well studied and
widely used in wireless communication systems, due to their
excellent performance [1, 2]. However, waveguide compo-
nents cannot be integrated with microwave or millimetre-
wave planar integrated circuits. To overcome this drawback,
substrate integrated waveguides (SIWs) are the appropriate
choice for the design of microwave and millimetre-wave
integrated circuits [325]. SIW is synthesised by metallic-via
arrays in substrate which can be easily integrated with other
microwave and millimetre-wave circuits [38]. As the eld
distribution in an SIW is similar to that in a conventional
rectangular waveguide, then SIW components take advan-
tages of high Q-factor, low insertion loss and high-power
capability etc. [925]. Similar structures realised in LTCC
processes are also known as laminated waveguides and
post-wall waveguides [46, 2125]. This scheme is also
feasible for ridged waveguides in LTCC [4, 5, 912], where
some wideband ridge-waveguide bandpass lters and
multiplexers with good experiment results were reported.
In this paper, based on the studies in [7, 8], we obtain the
equivalent conventional rectangular waveguide for SIW
with a closed-form formula, and then equivalent circuits for
SIW steps are proposed. Using these models, we designed
the SIW inductive window lter. To ensure the SIW
components can be measured or integrated with other
components in a planar form, SIW-microstrip transition is
studied. Finally, an SIW diplexer is designed, fabricated and
measured. The measured results show that the microstrip-
SIW transition can be operated in a wide frequency range,
the performances of SIW inductive window lters are
reasonably good, and the diplexer has good channel
isolation, moderate insertion loss and small return loss.
The whole structure is fabricated on a single substrate. As a
result, not only the size, weight and cost of the components
are reduced, but also the manufacturing repeatability and
reliability are enhanced.
2 SIW-microstrip tapered transitions
To measure or integrate the SIW diplexer with other
microwave integrated circuits conveniently, the design for
SIW transitions is very important [3, 13]. The SIW-
microstrip tapered transition shown in Fig. 1 with its
geometrical parameters inuences the performance of
SIW diplexer directly. An SIW-microstrip tapered transition
includes a segment of 50O microstrip, a segment of tapered
microstrip and the discontinuity between microstrip and
SIW. The tapered microstrip is used to excite the waveguide
mode and match the impedance with the SIW. By
optimising the length and width of the taper, the transition
can be operated in a wide frequency range.
To ensure the SIW supports the TE
10
-like mode
exclusively in the operating frequency range, the SIW should
be designed carefully. The necessary physical parameters in
the design of the SIW include the diameter Dof metallic vias,
the space VSP between metallic vias, and the SIW width
WSIW. From the viewpoint of dispersion characteristics and
the leakage loss, the SIW can be treated as a conventional
rectangular waveguide if the SIW physical parameters are
determined by using the following closed-form formula [8]:
"a
a
rec
WSIW
x
1

x
2
VSP
D

x
1
x
2
x
3
x
3
x
1
1
where "a is the normalised coefcient, a
rec
is the width of the
corresponding conventional rectangular waveguide, and x
1
,
x
2
, x
3
are dened as
x
1
1:0198
0:3465
WSIW
VSP
1:0684
x
2
0:1183
1:2729
WSIW
VSP
1:2010
x
3
1:0082
0:9163
WSIW
VSP
0:2152
2
The authors are with the State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves,
Department of Radio Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096,
Peoples Republic of China
E-mail: zchao@emeld.org
r IEE, 2005
IEE Proceedings online no. 20050014
doi:10.1049/ip-map:20050014
Paper received 18th January 2005
IEE Proc.-Microw. Antennas Propag., Vol. 152, No. 6, December 2005 455
Using (1) and (2), the SIW can be treated as a conventional
rectangular waveguide, and the equivalent impedance Z
e
of
the SIW can be determined as
Z
e

p
2
8

h
a
rec

e
r
e
0
m
r
m
0

1:0

1:0 l=2 a
rec

3
where h, e
r
, m
r
are the thickness, relative permittivity and
permeability of the substrate, respectively, e
0
and m
0
are the
permittivity and permeability in vacuum, l is the operating
wavelength.
Using (3), the design for SIW-microstrip taper transition
can be treated as the design for a linearly tapered microstrip
line (LTML) [27, 28] to match the SIW and the 50O
microstrip. The characteristic impedance Z
c
of a tapered
microstrip line can be dened as
Z
c
C
0

Z
t
jo

1:0

e
eff
p
4
where C
0
is the light velocity in vacuum, o is the operated
angle frequency, Z
t
is the distributed series impedance of
equivalent transmission line for the linearly tapered micro-
strip line (LTML), e
eff
is the effective relative dielectric
constant for an LTML [28]. Using (3), (4) and solving a
matrix equation from [27], the width and length of the
SIW-microstrip transition can be determined and the S
parameters can be obtained.
A C-band SIW-microstrip taper transition has been
designed and fabricated on a substrate with h0.5mm
using a standard PCB process. The substrate has a relative
permittivity of e
r
3.0 (75%) and a loss tgd of 0.001
at 10GHz. The width of the SIW is WSIW20.5mm, the
diameter of the metallic vias is 0.5mm, the space between
metallic vias is VSP1mm, the length of taper is 25mm,
the width of the taper is 6mm and the width of the 50O
microstrip is 1mm. The summation length of two taper
transitions and a segment of SIW is 10.0cm, and a 10.0cm
50O microstrip is measured for comparison. The measured
results are shown in Fig. 2. It can be seen that the transition
can be operated from 5.0GHz to 6.8GHz with return loss
of less than 12dB, and the insert loss is less than 1.5dB in
the operating frequency range.
3 Design for SIW inductive window lter
The channel lter plays an important role in designing the
SIW diplexer. In this design, we adopt SIW inductive
window lters as channel lters. The conguration of an
SIW inductive lter is shown in Fig. 3 with its geometrical
parameters. In Fig. 3, the SIW steps play the role of
inductive irises with thickness corresponding to the
conventional rectangular waveguide inductive window
lters.
The equivalent circuits for the SIW steps can each be
roughly treated as an iris which has a round corner and
some thickness, and their equivalent circuits are shown in
Fig. 4, where the normalised parameters are determined as
follows [29]:
X
a
Z
0

2a
rec
l
g
a
rec
pD
0

2
;
pD
0
l
(1
X
b
Z
0

a
rec
8l
g
pD
1
a
rec

4
;
pD
0
l
(1
5
L
taper
W
t
a
p
e
r
D
W
S
I
W
V
S
P
h
Fig. 1 SIW-microstrip tapered transition
0
10.0cm microstrip
the transition
5
10
15
20
25
30
5.0 5.2 5.4 5.6 5.8 6.0 6.2 6.4 6.6 6.8 7.0
frequency, GHz
m
a
g
n
i
t
u
d
e
,

d
B
6.0 GHz, 0.6dB
6.0 GHz, 1.0dB
Fig. 2 Measured results for SIW-microstrip taper transition and
10cm 50O microstrip
L
ta
p
e
r
W
v
r
W
S
I
W
L
i
(i =
1
,2
... n
)
W
t
a
p
e
r
S
H i
(
i
=

1
,
2
.
.
.
n
)
Fig. 3 Conguration of SIW inductive window lter with its
geometrical parameters
j X
b
j X
b
j X
a
Z
0
Z
0
b a
Lvs
a
rec
d /2
Fig. 4 Equivalent circuits for SIW steps
a SIW step with its geometric parametes
b Equivalent circuits for the SIW step
456 IEE Proc.-Microw. Antennas Propag., Vol. 152, No. 6, December 2005
where l
g
is the guided wavelength, D
0
and D
1
are dened as
D
0

d
0

2
p
a
0
Ea
0
a
2
F a
0

; otherwise;
d
0

2
p 1
Lvs
pd
0
ln
4pd
0
el

;
Lvs
d
0
(1

D
1

a
2
a
02
3
4

d
0
Ea a
02
F a
otherwise;

4
3p
Lvsd
03
4

Lvs
d
0
(1

6
In (6), the functions E(a) and F(a) are the complete elliptic
integrals of the rst and second kind, respectively, and a is
determined by
Lvs
d
0

Ea
0
a
2
F a
0

Ea a
02
F a
; a

1 a
02
p
7
Using (5)(7), we rst get the equivalent circuits for SIW
steps, and then, taking a canonical lter design procedure
[29], an SIW lter can be designed. Practically, the lengths
of SIW cavities obtained by this model will be adjusted a
little bit to satisfy the specication, and we can use full-wave
commercial simulators, such as HFSS, CST etc., to achieve
the specications [26].
We designed a C-band SIW inductive lter using this
design method. It is fabricated on a substrate with thickness
of 1mm, relative permittivity of 2.65(73%) and loss tgd of
0.001 at 10GHz. The geometrical parameters are listed in
Table 1. After the design was nished, we simulated the
whole structure with a full-wave eld solver HFSS. The
simulated results and the measured results which include
the effects of the two SMA connectors are shown in Fig. 5.
It can be seen from Fig. 5 that a return loss of less than
14.4dB, and an insertion loss of about 1.2dB are achieved
in the pass-band from 6.05GHz to 6.55GHz. A 50MHz
frequency shift between the simulated results and the
measured results should be caused by the tolerance of
relative permittivity (73%).
4 Design and optimisation for SIW diplexer
Figure 6 depicts the conguration of the proposed SIW
diplexer with its physical parameters. The diplexer consists
of two SIW channel lters and three SIW-microstrip
transitions for input or output purpose. The whole structure
is fabricated on a single-layer substrate using a standard
PCB process.
In the designing of the SIW diplexer, direct integration of
channel lters into the SIW branches may result in a poor
performance. Hence, an optimum procedure for diplexer
design is necessary. In the optimisation design of SIW
diplexers, initial values of the SIW diplexers must be
provided. The initial dimensions of the channel lters
satisfying the given specications can be obtained from the
preceding description. As shown in Fig. 6, because the
two lters have a relatively narrow bandwidth, the rst
resonator of lter 1 is relatively loosely coupled to the
main SIW, hence the input SIW steps in lter 1 introduce
only small discontinuities in the main SIW, and these
discontinuities disturb the response of lter 2 slightly. To
overcome these discontinuities, the SIW steps of the rst
resonator in lters 1 and 2 should be tuned in the design.
If the lter 1 is placed approximately one-quarter guided-
wavelength (or three quarters guided-wavelength for
fabrication purpose of the centre frequency of lter 2) from
the rst SIW steps of lter 2, the lter 2 reects an open
circuit to the plane of these SIW steps. Thus, the lter 2 will
be roughly decoupled. Then the initial values for distances
space 4 and space 5 shown in Fig. 6 are set to be l
g1
/4
and 3l
g2
/4WSIW/2, respectively. Here, l
g1
and l
g2
are
waveguide wavelengths of lters 1 and 2, respectively. In
the rst step of the optimisation procedure, only the
junction parameters, i.e. lengths of the connecting SIWs
space 4 and space 5 shown in Fig. 6 are optimised.
In the next optimisation step, more parameters should be
Table 1: Dimensions of SIW step lter
L
1
, mm 12.565 L
2
, mm 15.451 L
3
, mm 16.128
L
4
, mm 15.451 L
5
, mm 12.565 W
vr
, mm 4.0
SH
1
, mm 2.9365 SH
2
, mm 4.5075 SH
3
, mm 5.034
SH
4
, mm 5.034 SH
5
, mm 4.5075 SH
6
, mm 2.9365
WSIW, mm 21.5 D, mm 0.5 VSP, mm 1.0
L
taper
, mm 19.0 W
taper
, mm 9.6 W
50
, mm 2.76
4.5
0
10
20
30
40
50
5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5
frequency, GHz
measured results
design results
6.35GHz, 1.2dB
m
a
g
n
i
t
u
d
e
,

d
B
Fig. 5 Measured and simulated results for SIW inductive window
lter
L
taper
space4
channel filter 1
space3
W
taper
SH
2i
(i = 15)
SH
1i
(i = 16)
L
2i
(i = 14)
L
1i
(i = 15)
WSIW
space1 space5
W
vr
space2
channel filter 2
Fig. 6 Conguration of the proposed SIW diplexer with its
geometrical parameters
IEE Proc.-Microw. Antennas Propag., Vol. 152, No. 6, December 2005 457
included in the optimisation. The width of SIW steps and
the length of SIW resonators in the channel lters closer to
the junction should be chosen earlier in the optimisation.
Then the obtained parameters are used as the initial values
for the sequent optimisation steps. This will be repeated
until all the required diplexer specications are satised.
Practically, we can obtain the parameters for the SIW
diplexer just by tuning space 4, space 5, lengths of the rst
resonator and widths of the rst steps in lter 1 and lter 2.
A C-band SIW diplexer is developed, and has been
measured without any tuning. The structure was fabricated
on a 0.5mm thick substrate with e
r
3.0(75%) using
standard PCB process, and the substrate has a loss tgd of
0.001 at 10GHz. An SIW-microstrip transition is designed
in each port with good performances in a wide frequency
range. The geometric parameters of the proposed diplexer
are given in Table 2, where WSIW is the width of SIW, L
1i
(i 15) and L
2i
(i 14) are the length of SIW cavities in
lters 1 and 2, respectively, SH
1i
(i 16) and SH
2i
(i 15)
are the height of SIW steps, D is the diameter of the metallic
vias, VSP is the space between metallic vias and W
50
is the
width of a 50O microstrip.
The measured results of the SIW diplexer are given in
Figs. 7 and 8, where the SMA effects of the transitions are
also included. The channel 1 has a centre frequency of
5.96GHz, with bandwidth from 5.87GHz to 6.05GHz,
and the channel lter 2 has a centre frequency of 5.42GHz,
with bandwidth from 5.29GHz to 5.55GHz. The maximal
insertion loss of channel 2 is 2.6dB, while it is 3.2dB for
channel 1. The return loss is less than 17.5dB for channel
2, and is less than 12.5dB for channel 1. The measured
channel isolation is presented in Fig. 8, which shows that
the channel isolation is less than 65dB for channel 2, and
less than 50dB for channel 1.
5 Conclusions
A planar SIW diplexer has been presented in this paper.
A C-band SIW-microstrip taper transition, a C-band SIW
inductive window lter and a C-band SIW diplexer are
designed, fabricated using standard PCB process and
measured, respectively. As the whole structure of the SIW
diplexer is made by various metallic vias on a planar
substrate, it can be easily fabricated and conveniently be
integrated into microwave and millimetre-wave integrated
circuits, which means the SIW components can be mass
produced with small size, low weight and low cost.
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Table 2: Dimensions of SIW diplexer
Filter 1 Filter 2 SIW and SIW-
microstrip taper
transition
space4, mm 23.18 space5, mm 21.47 D, mm 0.5
L
11
, mm 22.22 L
21
, mm 18.35 VSP, mm 1.0
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12
, mm 24.14 L
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12
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13
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14
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15
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25
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16
, mm 3.14
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5.96GHz, 3.2dB
m
a
g
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i
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u
d
e
,

d
B
0
10
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50
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frequency, GHz
S31
S32
S33
Fig. 7 Measured S-parameter response of the proposed SIW
diplexer
S 21
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
4.50 4.75 5.00 5.25 5.50 5.75 6.00 6.25 6.50
frequency, GHz
m
a
g
n
i
t
u
d
e
,

d
B
Fig. 8 Measured channel isolation of the proposed SIW diplexer
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