JOURNAL OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS, VOLUME 21, ISSUE 2, AUGUST 2013

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Design and Analysis of a 2.4 GHz, Fifth-
Order Chebyshev Microstrip LPF
Talib Mahmood Ali


AbstractIn this paper, a design of miniature fifth order Chebyshev lowpass filter is presented. The filter consists of Flame
Retardant 4 (FR-4) as a substrate having a thickness of 1.6 mm, loss tangent of 0.027 and relative permittivity of 4.5. The
proposed filter with basic stepped impedance structure, the width and length of low and high characteristic impedance
was calculated based on microstrip analysis. The design was simulated and optimized using CST Microwave Studio. The
best simulated attenuation S11 response was observed at 2.45 GHz with a value of -26.4 dB for 0.01 ripple while the
corresponding Insertion Loss S21 is -0.01dB. The proposed fifth-order filter also has the merits of small circuit area.
Validation of the LPF design was obtained via good agreement between the theoretical analysis and simulation results.
Keywords Microstrip, Chebyshev filter, microwave LPF.



1.Introduction
icrowave filters are essential circuits in
the wireless communication systems
such as wireless LAN and cellular
telephone [1] and they are vital components in
a huge variety of other electronic systems[2].
Microwave filters can be divided into two
main different types, lumped or distributed.
Lumped elements consists of discrete
elements, such as inductors and capacitors,
while distributed elements uses the lengths
and widths of transmission lines to create their
inductive or capacitive values. Lumped
elements are very small compared to the
wavelength, while distributed elements
usually are in the order of the wavelength. At
high frequencies (10s of GHz or higher) the
wavelength is so short that only distributed
elements are possible to practically realize,
while at low frequencies lumped elements are
used due to the fact that distributed elements
becomes too large[3].
There are several divisions in the approach to
filter design. A very intuitively satisfying
method known as image parameter design was
the main approach for many years. In fact, it is
still useful and is often included in filter
surveys. However, the second division, the
insertion loss design method, is simpler to learn


and somewhat more flexible[4].In the insertion
loss method a filter response isdefined by its
insertion loss, or power loss ratio, which equal
to the power available from the source divided
by the power delivered to load PLR.,The
insertion loss (IL) in dB is 10 log PLR

) 1 .( ..........
) ( 1
1
load to delivered Power
source from available Power
2
e I
= =
=
load
inc
LR
P
P
P

Observe that this quantity is the reciprocal of
|S12|
2
if both load and source are matched. We
know that ,I(e),
2
is an even function of
e; therefore it can be expressed as a
polynomial in e
2
. Thus we can write
) 2 ........(
) ( ) (
) (
) (
2 2
2
2
e e
e
e
N M
M
+
= I

where M and N are real polynomials in e
2
.
Substituting this form in (1) gives the
following:
) 3 .......(
) (
) (
1
2
2
e
e
N
M
P
LR
+ =

Thus, for a filter to be physically realizable its
power loss ratio must be of the form in (3).
Notice that specifying the power loss ratio
simultaneously constrains the reflection
coefficient, I(e).we now present two practical
filter responses. [5]
M

- Electrical EngineeringDepartment,University o f
Mustansiriyah,Baghdad ,Iraq
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Figure 1. Microstrip geometry and structure.

1.1 Butterworth Filters
This filter has the flattest possible pass-band
magnitude response. That means all the
derivatives of the amplitude with frequency
are zero at DC. The Butterworth response is a
good compromise between attenuation
characteristic and group delay. The group
delay of Butterworth filters is reasonably flat
but has a rise near the cut off frequency. The
step response of these filters exhibits some
ringing, which degrades its use for data
communications.
1.2 Bessel filter
Due to its linear phase response, this filter has
excellent pulse response (minimal overshoot
and ringing). For a given number of poles, its
magnitude response is not as flat. The Bessel
filter type is very suitable for data
communication systems.
1.3 Chebyshev Filter
The pole positions for the Chebyshev filter lie
on an ellipse, hence the Chebyshev filter is also
called an elliptical filter. The Chebyshev filter
has ripples in the passband and the value of
the ripples is a parameter that is selected as
part of the filter design. Chebyshev filter and
will thus have very poor transient response.
The group delay of the Chebyshev is poor and
these filters should not be used for data
communications or applications where the
group delay is important.Chebyshev Filter
Better rate of attenuation beyond the pass-
band than Butterworth[6]. Chebyshev filters
are more suitable and require less orders than
Butterworth filters do [7], [8].
The selection of the correct filter type is critical
to ensure that the filter used satisfies both the
transient response requirements and the
passband insertion loss and stopband
attenuation requirements for the filter. In
digital communication applications, the Bit
Error Rate (BER) after demodulating is the
critical parameter. To reject signals in an
adjacent channel intuition suggests the use of a
Chebyshev filter. However, computer
simulations carried out for a 3rd Generation
Mobile Radio system, have shown that the
lowest demodulated BER when there is a large
unwanted signal in an adjacent channel
isobtained with a Bessel type filter response
for the Channel filters[9].
2. Stepped-Impedance, Lowpass Filters
The stepped-impedance lowpass microstrip
filters, which use a cascaded structure of
alternating highand low impedance
transmission lines. These are much shorter
than the associated guidedwavelength, so as to
act as semi lumped elements. The high-
impedance lines act as series inductors and the
low-impedance lines act as shunt capacitors
[96].Microstrip consists of a copper track on
one side of a printed circuit board, the other
side of the board being covered with copper
used as a ground plane. The characteristic
impedance of such a track commonly 50
depends upon the thickness of the board and
its permittivity, and the width of the track; the
thickness of the copper has only a minor
second order effect on the characteristic
impedance [10].
The microstrip lines comprise a conducting
strip have (width w, thickness t) of
conductivity , on a substrate of thickness h,
relative permittivity r, on top of an infinite
grounded electrode. The strips couples to the
ground plane as shown in (figure 1). The
characteristic impedance depends mainly
upon w/h, [11]

) 4 .......(
12
1
1
2
1
2
1
W
H
r r
e
+

+
+
=
c c
c

( ) ( )
) 5 .....( 1 for
444 . 1 ln 667 . 0 393 . 1
120

1 for
4
8
ln
60
>
+ + +
s |
.
|

\
|
+ =
H
W
H
W
H
W
W
H
Z
H
W
H
W
r
r
o
c
t
c







JOURNAL OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS, VOLUME 21, ISSUE 2, AUGUST 2013

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Figure 2. Characteristics impedance of microstrip
line versus w/h and er[11].

Table 1. Normalized Chebyshev element values, 0.5 dB
ripple
0.5 dB ripple
Order g1 g2 g3 g4 g5
5 1.1468 1.3712 1.975 1.3712 1.1468

Table 2Normalized Chebyshev element values, 0.01 dB
ripple
0.01 dB ripple
Order g1 g2 g3 g4 g5
5 0.7563 1.3049 1.5773 1.3049 0.7563


Table 3.The Impedance and frequency scaling of 5th
order Chebyshev LPF Filter, 05&0.01 Ripple.
Ripple C1 L2 C3 L4 C5
0.5
dB
2.216
pF
3.994
nH
3.301
pF
3.99
nH
2.216
pF
0.01
dB
0.982
7 pF
4.238
nH
2.049
pF
4.238
nH
0.9827
pF

Table 4.The Impedance and frequency scaling of 5th order
Chebyshev LPF Filter, 05 and 0.01 ripple.
Z0 T m W/H H mm W mm ce
14 35.56 10.45 1.5 15.680 3.92427
50 35.56 1.85 1.5 2.77 3.33737
106 35.56 0.28 1.5 0.50 2.9788

2.2 Lowpass Prototype Filter and Elements
lowpass prototype filter is in general defined
as the lowpass filter whose element values are
normalized to make the source resistance or
conductance equal to one, denoted by g0 = 1,
and the cutoff angular frequency to be unity,
denoted by wc=1(rad/s) [11].
3. Design procedure of the LPF
In general, the design of microstrip lowpass
filters involves the fallowing steps:
Step 1: select an appropriate lowpass
prototype, the choice of the type of response,
including passband ripple and the number of
reactive elements [3], will depend on the
required specifications. The elements value of
5thorder Chebyshev LPF Filter , 05 and 0.01
ripple are shown in table 1 and table (2)
respectively.

Step 2Impedance and frequency scaling. The
network needs to be scaled from a source
resistance of 1 to R0 The element values of
the lowpass prototype filter, which are usually
normalized to make a source impedance g0 = 1
and a cutoff frequency wc= 1.0 rad/Sec, are
then transformed to the L-C elements for the
desired cutoff frequency and the desired
source impedance, which is normally 50 for
microstrip filters as shown in equations (6) and
(7),[12].



Frequency scaling is achieved by using the
transformation; wn =w/w0 The Impedance and
frequency scaling of 5
th
order Chebyshev LPF
Filter, 05 and 0.01 ripple are shown in table (
3).

Step 3 design of microstrip lowpass filters is
to find an appropriate microstrip realization
that approximates the lumped element filter, it
is recommended to use a substrate with high
permittivity [13]. The typical FR4 PCB with cr =
4.5 and H = 1.5mm is used. From Figure 2 the
following trace parameters are obtained: ce, W,
W/H, for high impedance and low impedance
14 and 106 respectively. These values are
ablated as shown in table(4).
C =
L
n
R
2f
c
6
C =
C
n
2f
c
R
7

JOURNAL OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS, VOLUME 21, ISSUE 2, AUGUST 2013

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Table 6.The length and width of microstrip tracks for
0.01 ripple, Chebyshev LPF Filter.
Section Length (mm) Width (mm)
1 50 2.77124
2 2.0821 15.6796875
3 6.9448 0.50
4 6.7 15.6796875
5 6.9448 0.50
6 2.0821 15.6796875
7 50 2.77124


Table 5.The length and width of microstrip tracks for
0.5 ripple, Chebyshev LPF Filter.
Section Length (mm) Width (mm)
1 50 2.77124
2 4.7 15.6796875
3 6.55 0.50
4 4.3413 15.6796875
5 6.66 0.50
6 4.7 15.6796875
7 50 2.77124



Figure 3. The top view of the layout for the Low Pass
Filter on the printed circuit board.


C3
L2
C1
50O
line
C5
50O
line
L4
Determine the microstrip. The equations (4)
&(5) are used to determine the length of
microstrip as shown below:

= 3.9242665
3.3356 10
9
2 2.45 10
9
=
101.7174548
1

= 2.9788129 3.3356
10
9
2 2.45 10
9
= 88.62199673
1

1
=
2


1

=
2 2.45 10
9
2.216 10
12
14
101.7174548
= 4.6951369

2
=
2


1

=
2 2.45 10
9
3.994 10
9
88.62199673 106
= 6.55

3
=
2


3

=
2 2.45 10
9
3.301 10
12
14
101.7174548
= 6.994

1
=
5

1 =

5
4.6951369

2
=
4

2
=
3
6.55
Repeat calculation for 0.01 dB ripple:

1
=
5

1 =

5
2.0821

2
=
4

2
=
3
6.9448






4. Filter Simulation and Results
The electromagnetic simulation software CST
Studio was used to simulate the LPF design.
Figure 4 detailed the dimensional data of the
proposed LPF. A step element (offset)was
inserted at the junction between the
transmission line sections to make the
simulated result more accurate. Figure 5
shows the simulated S11, S12,S21 and S22 results of
the proposed Chebyshev Filter LPF, 0.5 ripple,
while Figure 4 shows the simulated S11, S12,S21
and S22 results of the proposed Chebyshev
Filter LPF, 0.01 ripple. Table (7) illustrates the
simulated result at cutoff frequency.








JOURNAL OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS, VOLUME 21, ISSUE 2, AUGUST 2013

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Table 7.The optimized S-parameters Chebyshev LPF Filter.
Ripple S11 (dB) S12 (dB) S21 (dB) S22 (dB)
0.5 -9.63883 -0.500 -0.500 -9.63883
0.01 -26.437442 -0.00989 -0.00989 -26.43744


























5. Conclusion
A compact microstrip fifth-order Chebyshev
lowpass filter has been designed, analyzed
and, simulated. The optimal design of S-
parameters of microstrip filter using a
conventional analysis method is a time
consuming method therefore, the optimal
parameter was obtained by using the CST
Studio package to tune and optimize the tracks
length and tracks width of the microstrip. The
effectiveness of the design has been proven by
the results of simulation. The performance is
good causing the insertion loss and return loss
near with theory. The analysis and design
procedures are also presented in this paper.

Based on the results that have been obtained
from this project, it is proven that the lowpass
filter provides better results in term of
reducing the size, stopband attenuation and
operating frequency. The results carried out
after optimizations have shown excellent
performance of the propose. For future work it
is recommended to design the LPF filter on
different substrate with high permittivity with
folded line section to reduce the footprint of
filter.
REFERENCES
[1] K. C. Lek and K. M. Lum, Stepped Impedance
Key-shaped Resonator for Bandpass and
Bandstop Filters Design, Progress In
Electromagnetics Research Symposium
Proceedings, KL Malaysia, March 27-30, 2012.

[2] Ian Hunter, Theory and Design of Microwave
Filters, The Institution of Engineering and
Technology, London, United Kingdom, 2006.

[3] Navita Singh, Dr.Avinash Kumar and Pravesh
Singh, Low Psss Filter for L- Band Application
Using Stepped Impedance Microstrip Lines,
Journal of Engineering Research and Studies
JERS/Vol.II/ Issue II/April-June, 2011.

[4] George D. Vendelin, Anthony M. Pavio and
Ulrich, Microwave Circuit Design Using Linear
and Nonlinear Techniques, Second Edition, A
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Publication, 2005.
[5] David M. Pozar, Microwave Engineering, John
Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1998.


Figure 4. The schematic of LPF using CST Microwave
Design Studio.

Figure 5. The S-parameters Chebyshev, 0.01 ripple LPF.


Figure 6. The S-parameters Chebyshev, 0.5 ripple LPF
filter


JOURNAL OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS, VOLUME 21, ISSUE 2, AUGUST 2013

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[6] C. J. Kikkert, RF Electronics Chapter 7: RF
Filters. through AWR Corp, 2009

[7] S. DAmico, M. Conta, and A. Baschirotto, A 4.1
mW 79 dB-DR 4th-order source-follower-based
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[8] Shouhei Kousai, Mototsugu Hamada, Rui Ito,
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[10] IAN HICKMAN, Practical Radio-Frequency
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[12] Dr. E.H.Fooks, Dr. R.A. Zakarevicius,
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[13] S. V. AL-DIN MAKKI, A. AHMADI, S.
MAJIDIFAR, H. SARIRI, Z. RAHMANI, Sharp
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