Compact LTCC bandpass filter with wide stopband using discriminating coupling

This paper presents a novel compact low-temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC) bandpass filter (BPF) with wide stopband and high selectivity. The proposed circuit consists of two coupled \lambda-{g}/4 transmission-line resonators. A special coupling region is selected to realize a novel discriminating coupling scheme for generating a transmission zero (TZ) at the third harmonic frequency. The mechanism is analyzed and the design guideline is described. The source-load coupling is introduced to generate two TZs near the passband and one in the stopband. Thus, wide stopband can be obtained without extra circuits. Due to the LTCC multilayer structures, the filter size is 0.058~\lambda-{g}\times 0.058~\lambda-{g}\times 0.011~\lambda_g, or 2.63 mm ×,2.61 mm ×,0.5 mm. The simulated and measured results of the demonstrated LTCC BPF are presented to validate the proposed design.