Compact lowpass filter with wide stopband using stepped impedance hairpin units

A novel microstrip lowpass filter (LPF) with a wide stopband is presented. The basic resonator is composed of two stepped impedance hairpin units with one embedded in another, which can obtain two more transmission zeros and extend a wide stopband. Based on the proposed resonator, a demonstration LPF of compact size, sharp transition and wide stopband has been designed, fabricated and measured. The proposed filter exhibits a small size of 0.081λg × 0.113λg, where λg is the waveguide length at the cutoff frequency of 1.6 GHz. Results show good agreement with simulations and the 20 dB rejection stopband can be extended to more than 15 GHz.