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Performance of high-temperature superconducting band-pass filters with high selectivity for

base transceiver applications of digital cellular communication systems

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2002 Supercond. Sci. Technol. 15 1147
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INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS PUBLISHING

SUPERCONDUCTOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Supercond. Sci. Technol. 15 (2002) 11471150

PII: S0953-2048(02)34767-5

Performance of high-temperature
superconducting band-pass filters with
high selectivity for base transceiver
applications of digital cellular
communication systems
J S Kwak1, J H Lee1, C O Kim1, J P Hong1, S K Han2 and K Char2
1
2

Department of Physics, Hanyang University, Seoul 133-791, Korea

RFtron Inc., Seoul 151-505, Korea

Received 12 March 2002

Published 10 June 2002
Online at stacks.iop.org/SUST/15/1147
Abstract
Highly selective high-temperature superconducting band-pass filters based
on spiral meander line structures have been developed for base transceiver
station applications of digital cellular communication systems. The filter
comprised 12-pole microstrip line resonators with a circuit size of
0.5 17 41 mm3. The filter was designed to have a bandwidth of 25 MHz
at a centre frequency of 834 MHz. Particularly, the physical size of each
resonator was chosen not only to reduce far-field radiation, but also to have
reasonable tunability in the filter. Device characteristics exhibited a low
insertion loss of 0.4 dB with a 0.2 dB ripple and a return loss better than
10 dB in the pass-band at 65 K. The out-of-band signals were attenuated
better than 60 dB at about 3.5 MHz from the lower band edge, and 3.8 MHz
from the higher band edge.

1. Introduction
Both the digital cellular communication system (DCS) and the
mobile personal communication service (PCS) increasingly
require high-performance filters in sensitivity and selectivity
in order to support mass growth in multi-media services,
and to cover larger numbers of subscribers. As is known,
conventional filters have various limitations for use in the next
generation communication systems, such as large insertion
loss, reduced signal-to-noise ratio and low selectivity [1].
Therefore, there have been many studies focusing on
the development of high-Tc superconducting (HTS) filters
with narrow bandwidths and sharp skirts under superior
performance [210]. Among the great advantages of the HTS
filter, a highly selectivity is of great importance in the base
transceiver systems or communication systems in order to
eliminate interfering signals in an available radio-frequency
(RF) frequency spectrum.
In this paper, we report on the simulated and experimental
results of the fabricated HTS YBa2Cu3O7(YBCO) band-pass
0953-2048/02/071147+04$30.00 2002 IOP Publishing Ltd

filters. The purpose of the work was to develop a highly

selective HTS filter, with a very low pass-band loss at a central
frequency of 834 MHz. The filter was based on twelve halfwavelength resonators in which the resonator consists of spiraltype meander line structures. The experimental properties of
the filter were compared with those of the filter simulated using
a full wave electromagnetic (EM) simulator, IE3D.

2. HTS filter design

The design of the HTS band-pass filter with high selectivity
was based on half-wavelength meander line resonators
producing multiple coupled microstrip line structures.
Figure 1 shows the typical layout and characteristics of a
half-wavelength resonator for use in a filter. The resonator
was initially designed to have a resonant frequency at a
centre frequency of 834 MHz. As shown in figure 1, the
whole resonator structure consists of a large coupling patch and
an inductively spiral meander line. Using the EM simulator,

Printed in the UK

1147

J S Kwak et al

(a)

S21

S11 (dB)

S21 (dB)

S11

Figure 1. Layout and dimensions of the HTS microstrip resonator

using a spiral meander line structure.

Coupling coefficient (K)

0.20

Frequency (MHz)
0.15

(b)

0.10

Figure 3. (a) Layout and dimensions of the 12-pole highly selective

band-pass filter. The size of filter was 17 41 mm2. (b) Simulated
frequency response of the 12-pole HTS band-pass filter using a
full-wave EM simulator.

0.05
0.00
0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

S/H
Figure 2. Simulated coupling coefficient K of a pair of resonators
versus the ratio of a substrate thickness and coupling gap spacing.

we maintained the former with as low an internal impedance

as possible for the reduction of peak currents at coupling
edges, and the latter was determined and optimized to make
the resonator compact and to minimize far-field radiation. In
addition, the whole characteristic impedance of the resonator
was set to be exactly 50  and it was matched to 50  input and
output feed lines for electrical contact to the sub miniaturized
adaptor (SMA). Therefore, the determined dimensions of the
resonator were 2.15 mm in lateral size and 10.9 mm in vertical
length, which was a compact size resonator.
In order to meet the requirements of filter speculation
in the DCS, at first the coupling coefficient K of a pair of
resonators was calculated as a function of spacing between two
resonators using the EM simulator. Two peaks specified by
two resonators were tuned to be of equal height, and the valley
was set to be at least 10 dB lower. The coupling coefficient K
of a pair of resonators was determined as
2|f2 f1 |
(1)
K=
f2 + f1
where f1 and f2 are two resonant frequencies [11].
Figure 2 plots the coupling coefficient K of a pair
of resonators with various coupling gap spacings as a
summary.
The simulated curve indicates particularly
comparable coupling strengths that we have calculated using
1148

normalized low-pass prototype values. This curve made

it possible to realize the filter response in our experiment.
Therefore, in all of the measurements, much attention was
paid to the K values with high accuracy since the use of
many standard K with different dimensions would result in
a more accurate curve and thus a more accurate fitting would
be possible. With the aid of these coupling coefficients, the
HTS filter was designed to have a bandwidth with 25 MHz at
a centre frequency of 834 MHz for the DCS on the receiver
side.
Figure 3(a) presents the filter layout that consisted of 12pole meander line resonators as discussed above. The physical
size of the filter in a ladder form was only 17 41 mm2,
which could provide at least two filters in a 2 inch wafer. For
the best filter simulation, the phenomenological model of an
HTS thin film was at first used as a simulation factor of full
wave EM simulation [12]. Then the optimization procedure
was applied to improve the performance of the filter with the
benefits of the fitting curve presented in figure 2. As shown in
figure 3(b), the EM simulation data of the filter have a less than
0.1 dB insertion loss and a 25 MHz bandwidth at a resonant
frequency of 834 MHz. In addition, the frequency response of
the filter exhibited asymmetrical quasi-elliptic characteristics.
The asymmetrical frequency response might be caused by
unwanted coupling effects between each resonator or any
complex behaviour of EM waves in a microstrip line structure.
In the simulation, the LaAlO3 substrate was approximated to
have a low dielectric loss (tan = 1 104) and a relative
dielectric constant of 23.5 at microwave frequency ranges.
Figure 4 shows a real photograph of the packaged 12-pole
HTS filter.

Performance of HTS band-pass filters with high selectivity

S11 (dB)

S21 (dB)

S21
S11

Frequency (MHz)
Figure 4. Photograph of the rf packaged 12-pole HTS filter.

(a)

3. Fabrication and measurement

Measured

S21 (dB)

The HTS filter was fabricated using a double-sided YBCO

thin film of a thickness of 600 nm. The dimensions of LaAlO3
substrate were 2 inches in diameter and 0.5 mm in thickness.
The film used in this experiment had zero resistance at
88.6 K. The filter was mounted in the aluminium test package.
All the packages were directly mounted on to the cold stage of
a closed-cycle cryogenic system for the filter measurement at
65 K. Transmission and reflection parameters of the filter were
measured using a HP 8510C vector network analyser with an
input power of +10 dB m. The calibrations were performed
at room temperature before measurements in the frequency
range between 800900 MHz.
Figure 5(a) shows the measured transmission and
reflection coefficients of the filter. Although it was a highly
compact size, the 12-pole filter presented a very promising
performance without any tuning treatment or tuner at 65 K.
The filter exhibited low insertion losses of about 0.4 dB and
return losses better than 10 dB in the pass-band with outof-band rejection losses of about 70 dB. The out-of-band
signals were attenuated better than 60 dB about 3.5 MHz
from the lower band edge, and 3.8 MHz from the higher band
edge without any artificial transmission zeros. In addition,
it had a small pass-band ripple of about 0.2 dB. The filter
also indicated slightly asymmetric frequency responses in two
ports, as expected by the simulation. However, the cause
of the asymmetry in reflection loss response cannot yet be
explained.
For comparison, experimental and simulated results of
the 12-pole filter are shown in figure 5(b). As shown in
this figure, the centre frequency in the filter performance
was slightly shifted down about 1 MHz. The discrepancy
in the centre frequency seemed critically to be due to nonuniformity in the substrate thickness and variation in the film
thickness [4]. In addition, the over-etching effect on the filter
pattern mainly allowed the decrease in the bandwidth when the
patterned filter was investigated. Therefore, since a tolerance
in the fabrication process could have a considerable impact
on the filter performance, resulting in a slightly different
coupling effect between coupled resonators, the tuning process
is currently under process. However, up to now, although
no tuning procedure was carried out, the whole frequency
response of the filter did verify the simulated results very well,
except for a frequency shift of 1 MHz.

EM simulated

Frequency (MHz)
(b)
Figure 5. (a) Frequency response of the 12-pole filter fabricated by
a 600 nm thick double-sided YBCO film on a LaAlO3 substrate.
The filter was measured using a HP8510C with an input power
of +10 dB m at 65 K. (b) Comparison of transmission coefficients of
the HTS filter measured experimentally and simulated by the EM
simulator.

4. Conclusion
Highly selective HTS band-pass filters formed by 12-pole
spiral meander line structures have been developed for the
application of DCS base transceiver systems. With a small
size of 0.5 17 41 mm3, the filter exhibited a very low
insertion loss of 0.4 dB and a return loss better than 10 dB at a
centre frequency of 834 MHz. The out-of-band signals were
attenuated better than 60 dB about 3.5 MHz from the lower
band edge, and 3.8 MHz from the higher band edge at 65 K.

Acknowledgments
The work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation
Grant (KRF-99-D00211) and in part by the Ministry
of Information and Communication for the Advanced
Technology Project (2002-S-069).

References
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J S Kwak et al

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