Microstrip Line Negative Group Delay Filters for Microwave Circuits

This paper presents a novel approach to the design and implementation of a distributed transmission line negative group delay filter (NGDF) with a predefined negative group delay (NGD) time. The newly proposed filter is based on a simple frequency transformation from a low-pass filter to a bandstop filter. The NGD time can be purely controlled by the resistors inserted into the resonators. The performance degradation of the NGD time and signal attenuation (SA) of the proposed NGDF according to the temperature dependent resistance variation is also analyzed. From this analysis, it is shown that the NGD time and SA variations are less sensitive to the resistance variation compared to those of the conventional NGD circuit. For an experimental validation of the proposed NGDF, a two-stage distributed microstrip line NGDF is designed, simulated, and measured at an operating center frequency of 1.962 GHz. These results show a group delay time of -7.3 ns with an SA of 22.65 dB at the center frequency and have good agreement with the simulations. The cascaded response of two NGDFs operating at different center frequencies is also presented in order to obtain broader NGD bandwidth. NGDFs with good reflection characteristics at the operating frequencies are also designed and experimentally verified.