Dual-band bandpass filter with independently tunable center frequencies and bandwidths

This paper presents a novel approach to the design of tunable dual-band bandpass filter (BPF) with independently tunable passband center frequencies and bandwidths. The newly proposed dual-band filter principally comprises two dual-mode single band filters using common input/output lines. Each single BPF is realized using a varactor-loaded transmission-line dual-mode resonator. The proposed filter also offers switchable characteristics to select either of the passbands (either the first or the second passband only). To suppress the harmonics over a broad bandwidth, defected ground structures are used at input/output feeding lines without degrading the passbands characteristics. From the experimental results, it was found that the proposed filter exhibited the first passband center frequency tunable range from 1.48 to 1.8 GHz with a 3-dB fractional bandwidth (FBW) variation from 5.76% to 8.55% and the second passband center frequency tunable range from 2.40 to 2.88 GHz with the 3-dB FBW variation from 8.28% to 12.42%. The measured harmonic results of the proposed filters showed a rejection level of 19 dB, which is up to more than ten times of the highest center frequency of the first passband without degradation of the passbands.