Design and implementation of an LTCC filter with high stopband rejection

A miniaturized and high stopband rejection bandpass filter (BPF) with three finite transmission zeros is presented in this paper. The BPF with a central frequency of 3.4 GHz and 200 MHz bandwidth is implemented in a novel distributed stripline configuration using LTCC (low-temperature-cofired ceramic) technology. A distinct feature of this filter is excellent out-of-band attenuation performance. The lower skirt of the passband is very steep. There is 36.5 dB attenuation at 3.2 GHz, the input/output VSWR is less than 1.4. We employ Z-shape layer to produce the lower 2 transmission zeros. By properly controlling the cross-coupling between the second and the fourth resonator, transmission zero in higher skirt of the passband will be generated. Measurement results of mass production are shown to match well with the electromagnetic simulation, which validate the proposed structure. The overall size of the filter is 4.8mm×4.2mm×1.5 mm.