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Analysis and Design of a New Self-Packaged Wideband Balun

Bandpass Filter With the Functionality of Impedance
Transformation
Citation for published version:
Huang, F, Wang, J, Aliqab, K, Hong, J & Wu, W 2019, 'Analysis and Design of a New Self-Packaged
Wideband Balun Bandpass Filter With the Functionality of Impedance Transformation', IEEE Transactions
on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 67, no. 6, pp. 2322-2330.
https://doi.org/10.1109/TMTT.2019.2905563

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

10.1109/TMTT.2019.2905563

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IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES 1

Analysis and Design of a New Self-Packaged

Wideband Balun Bandpass Filter With the
Functionality of Impedance Transformation
Feng Huang , Jianpeng Wang , Khaled Aliqab , Student Member, IEEE, Jiasheng Hong , Fellow, IEEE,
and Wen Wu, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract— In this paper, a new self-packaged wideband balun It has been equipped with both functionalities of balanced–
with the high selective bandpass filtering response and impedance unbalanced signal conversion and frequency selection in the
transformation characteristic is presented. By virtue of circuit desired operation band.
transformations, corresponding two-port equivalent circuit with
asymmetrical port impedances is put forward. The analysis During the last couple of decades, many works dealing
results of this two-port network exhibit that the proposed new with balun BPFs have been published in the open literature.
design is able to achieve a quasi-elliptic equal-ripple response Some illustrative examples with different design methods are
with three transmission poles and four transmission zeros. as follows [1]–[18]. Among them, the well-known Marchand
In addition, the frequency response can be directly determined balun could be the most popular approach to design a balun
according to the desired design specifications of impedance
transformation ratio k, ripple fractional bandwidth (FBW), and BPF [1]–[3] due to its simple layout. Based on the symmetrical
in-band return loss RL. For validation purposes, a demonstrated differential four-port network, another method to design balun
wideband balun bandpass filter (BPF) working at 2.0 GHz with filters is available with one of the four ports to be open
50–100- impedance transformation has been implemented by circuited [4]–[6]. As an alternative approach, balun BPFs
utilizing the multilayer liquid-crystal polymer (LCP) bonded can also be excogitated based on the inherent out-of-phase
printed circuit board (PCB) lamination technology. Theoretical,
simulated, and measured results are recorded in good agreement, property of dual-mode ring or patch resonators as discussed
well verifying the design method. in [7]–[9]. Recently, a new concept is introduced [10]–[12]
to design balun filters by utilizing the desired differential
Index Terms— Impedance transformation, liquid-crystal poly-
mer (LCP), quasi-elliptic equal-ripple response, self-package, signal of an open-circuited half-wavelength transmission line.
wideband balun. In addition, some other implementations based on slotline
structures [13], [14], substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW)
constructions [15], [16], multicoupled line structures [17],
I. I NTRODUCTION
and dielectric resonators [18] have also enriched the design

W ITH the great advancement in various modern wire-

less communication systems, continuous efforts have
been focused on the multifunction embedded components
methods of balun BPFs.
As expected, the above-listed balun filters show good results
of both balun performance and filtering response. However,
due to their potential advantages on low cost, miniaturized it should be noted that all these works are restricted in the
size, and high performance. As a key module in the radio fixed terminated impedances of 50 . This means that extra
frequency (RF) front-end systems, the balun bandpass fil- transmission line sections acting as impedance transformers
ter (BPF) is a typical representation of such components. are always needed when these balun BPFs are employed, for
example, to feed dipole or Yagi antennas [5], [9], [11], [13].
Manuscript received October 11, 2018; revised January 9, 2019; accepted
February 10, 2019. This work was supported in part by the National Natural As a result, the overall dimensions are bound to increase,
Science Foundation of China under Grant 61771247, in part by the State Key which could further lead to higher losses.
Laboratory of Millimeter Waves under Grant K201921, and in part by the To tackle the problem of large size constraints, more and
Postgraduate Research and Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province
under Grant KYCX18_0421. (Corresponding author: Jianpeng Wang.) more researchers try to directly integrate the function of
F. Huang and J. Wang are with the Ministerial Key Laboratory of JGMT, impedance transformation into the balun design [19]–[24]. The
Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China, first impedance transforming (IT) balun is realized based on
and also with the State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves of China,
Nanjing 210096, China (e-mail: [email protected]). the coplanar waveguide (CPW) GaAs monolithic Marchand
K. Aliqab and J. Hong are with the Department of Electrical, Elec- balun in 2000 [19]. Then, with the similar design concept,
tronic and Computer Engineering, School of Engineering and Physical two planar IT baluns have been achieved on the basis of
Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, U.K. (e-mail:
[email protected]). Lange couplers and microstrip coupled lines [20]. In addi-
W. Wu is with the Ministerial Key Laboratory of JGMT, Nanjing University tion, by employing both lumped and distributed elements,
of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China. lumped-distributed baluns with different input and output
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. impedances are also discussed in [21]. Afterward, new derived
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMTT.2019.2905563 formulas have been presented [22], [23] to design 3-dB IT
0018-9480 © 2019 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.

2 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES

Fig. 2. Transmission line model of the proposed balun BPF transforming

the source impedance from Z 0 to load impedance Z L .

simulated, and measured results are provided, and a good

agreement is obtained.

II. T HEORETICAL A NALYSIS

Fig. 1. Schematics of two IT balun BPFs in a practical application.
(a) Traditional one with cascaded filter, balun, and matching networks.
(b) Proposed one with one single circuitry.
Fig. 2 shows the transmission line model of the proposed
wideband IT balun BPF. It is deigned based on the mod-
ified Marchand balun, which is realized by two coupled-
baluns with the improvement of isolation and port match- line sections (Z c1 , C1 , θ ) and one extended short-circuited
ing. More recently, fully lumped element baluns with com- transmission line element (Z s , θ ). This added stub can intro-
plex impedance transformation have been proposed in [24]. duce two transmission zeros nearby the passband, aiming to
Although good impedance transformation properties for the improve the frequency selectivity. As can be seen, a balanced
above reported works are obtained, the bandwidth is limited coupled transmission line section, which is composed of the
since all the analyses are restricted to the central frequency coupled-line sections (Z c2 , C2 , θ ), is adopted herein for the
without covering the whole passband. In addition, none of differential signal output with the filtering response and IT
these works can achieve the filtering responses. behavior. For analysis purposes, the added stub is expressed by
On the other hand, to facilitate the system integration the characteristic impedance Z s and electrical length θ , and
with minimizing electromagnetic (EM) interference, there the coupled lines are described in terms of the characteristic
is a demand for cost-effective self-packaged microwave impedance Z ci , coupling coefficient Ci , as well as electrical
devices [25]. Apparently, developing of self-packaged wide- length θ as follows:
band IT balun BPF is meaningful for both miniaturization and 
EM shielding. As shown in Fig. 1(a), for the conventional Z ci = Z ei Z oi (1)
design, three separated devices are required and cascaded
Z ei − Z oi
to feed the wideband differential antenna with the input Ci = , i = 1 and 2 (2)
impedance of Z L . Obviously, this feeding scheme suffers from Z ei + Z oi
enlarged overall size and high insertion loss. Thus, a trend of where Z ei and Z oi are the even-mode and odd-mode
integration design illustrated in Fig. 1(b) is desirable. However, impedances. Note that the broadside coupling structures in
to the best of our knowledge, no such wideband balun BPF stripline topology, which can support pure-TEM mode propa-
integrated with the function of impedance transformation in a gation, are adopted in the design.
single package has been reported yet.
In this paper, a new codesign of wideband IT balun BPF
in a self-packaged circuitry with high selectivity has been A. Two-Port Equivalent Circuit Model
proposed. The two-port equivalent circuit model with differ- In order to analyze the frequency response of the balun BPF,
ent terminal impedances is initially developed and analyzed. a two-port equivalent circuit model will be presented. Based on
It indicates that the proposed design manifests a quasi-elliptic the equivalent circuit of short-circuited coupled lines as shown
equal-ripple response with three transmission poles and four in Fig. 3(a) [26], the involved balanced coupled transmission
transmission zeros. In addition, all the design parameters can line section can be equivalent to the circuit model as indicated
be synthetically calculated to satisfy the required frequency in Fig. 3(b) with the 1:−1 transformer absorbed. In addition,
response with a prescribed impedance transformation ratio k, combining with the discussion about the Marchand balun
ripple fractional bandwidth (FBW), and in-band RL. After- in [27], we can attain the equivalent model of the proposed
ward, based on the multilayer liquid-crystal polymer (LCP) modified Marchand balun. In this paper, as shown in Fig. 4,
bonded printed circuit board (PCB) lamination technology, a three-port equivalent representation of the developed wide-
a prototype of high selective wideband balun BPF transform- band IT balun BPF is initially achieved, where Z a and Z m
ing from 50- source impedance to two 100- load termina- are the equivalent impedances of the cascaded sections, and
tions is implemented for demonstration. Finally, theoretical, Z b and Z n are the impedances of the short-circuited stubs.
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HUANG et al.: ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF NEW SELF-PACKAGED WIDEBAND BALUN BPF 3

Fig. 3. (a) Equivalent circuit of the short-circuited parallel coupled line.

(b) Equivalent circuit of the balanced coupled-line section.

Fig. 5. (a) Two-port circuit model derived from Fig. 4. (b) Kuroda identity
transformation from [28]. (c) Final two-port equivalent circuit model.

TABLE I
C ORRESPONDING PARAMETER D EFINITION FOR
ABCD M ATRIX E XPRESSION

Fig. 4. Three-port equivalent representation of the proposed wideband IT

balun BPF as illustrated in Fig. 2.

In addition, the value of these impedances can be derived as



Z c1 C12 1 + C2
Z a = Z c1 1 − C12 Zb =  Z n = Z c2 C12
1 − C12 1 − C2
determined by
(3)
 Za
Z1 = Za Z2 = (Z a + Z s ) Z 3 = Z a + Z s (5)
1 − C22 Zs
Z m = Z c2 C12 Z L = k Z 0 C12 (4)
C22 2Z m Z d 2Z n  2Z 
Z4 = Z 5 = 2 // 4 Z  L = 4L (6)
n2 n n n
where k = Z L /Z 0 is the impedance transformation ratio.
where
Note that point P in the balanced coupled transmission line
section can be deemed as the virtual ground when the dif- 2Z m
n2 = 1 + Zd = 2Z b //2Zn . (7)
ferential signal excited from ports 2 and 3. Considering the Zd
balanced ports 2 and 3, the desired two-port equivalent circuit Note that Z 5 and Z d are expressed in terms of two parallel
network can be obtained in Fig. 5(a) by combining port 2 impedances.
and port 3 in series connection [27]. To simplify the design,
Z 1 is readily set as Z 0 and it can be absorbed in port #1. B. Analysis With Three-Pole Quasi-Elliptic Response
Furthermore, based on the Kuroda identity transformation
By multiplying the cascaded ABCD matrices of all elements
shown in Fig. 5(b) [28], the equivalent circuit can further be
shown in Fig. 5(c), the overall ABCD matrix can be calcu-
transformed into a third-order two-port network with asymmet-
lated. With reference to the parameters denoted in Table I,
rical termination impedances, as shown in Fig. 5(c), in which
the expression of the whole ABCDparameters can be formu-
Z 2 is the equivalent impedance of the open-ended stubs,
lated as
Z 3 and Z 5 are the equivalent impedances of the short-ended
stubs, and Z 4 is the impedance of the cascaded section. These a3 cos3 θ − a1 cos θ
A= (8a)
resultant parameters in the final equivalent circuit model are (Z 2 + Z 3 ) cos2 θ − Z 3
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4 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES

b4 cos4 θ + b2 cos2 θ − Z 3 Z 4
B = j (8b)
[(Z 2 + Z 3 ) cos2 θ − Z 3 ] sin θ
c4 cos4 θ + c2 cos2 θ − Z 3 /Z 4
C = j (8c)
[(Z 2 + Z 3 ) cos2 θ − Z 3 ] sin θ
d3 cos3 θ − d1 cos θ
D= . (8d)
(Z 2 + Z 3 ) cos2 θ − Z 3
Based on the network theory [29], the S-parameters of this
two-port circuit model with asymmetrical port impedances Z 0
and Z L are expressed as

AZ  L + B − C Z 0 Z  L − D Z 0
S11 = (9a)
AZ  L + B + C Z 0 Z  L + D Z 0

2 Z 0 Z  L
Fig. 6. Ideal S-parameters for the proposed three-pole quasi-elliptic balun
BPF with the equal-ripple response.
S21 = . (9b)
AZ  L + B + C Z 0 Z  L + D Z 0
Therefore, the squared magnitude of the S-parameters for the transmission zeros outside the passband. In addition, by mak-
proposed three-port IT balun BPF can be expressed as ing the denominator equal to 0, the first four transmission zeros
can be gained in the closed-form manner such that
|F|2
|S11b |2 = |S11 |2 = (10a) f TZ1 = 0 (15a)
1 + |F|2 

|S21 |2
2 f0  Zs
1 f TZ2 = arccos   (15b)
|S21b |2 = |S31b |2 = = (10b) π
2 2(1 + |F|2 ) Z c1 1 − C12 + Z s
⎡ ⎤
where F stands for the characteristic function and has the 
2 f0 ⎢ 
form of F = S11 /S21 . According to (8), (9), and the parameters  Zs ⎥
f TZ3 = ⎣π − arccos   ⎦ (15c)
given in Table I, the squared magnitude of F can be derived as π Z c1 1 − C1 + Z s
2

 2 f TZ4 = 2 f 0
    (15d)
 AZ L + B − C Z 0 Z L − D Z 0 
 
2
|F| =     where f0 is the operating center frequency. Without doubt,
 2 Z 0 Z  L 
these transmission zeros will help to increase the roll-off
cos2 θ (t6 cos6 θ + t4 cos4 θ + t2 cos2 θ + t0 ) + h 20 rejection. In addition, it clearly shows that transmission zeros
= f TZ2 and f TZ3 introduced by the short-circuited stub (Z s , θ )
[(Z 2 + Z 3 ) cos2 θ − Z 3 ]2 sin 2 θ are symmetrical with respect to f 0 . Moreover, transmission
(11) zeros f TZ2 and f TZ3 have the trend to move toward the central
frequency when Z s gets decreased.
where

t6 = h 24 − g32 (12a) C. Analysis With In-Band Equal-Ripple Response

Based on the above analysis, we can deduce the following
t4 = g32 − 2g1 g3 + 2h 2 h 4 (12b) expressions of Z c1 and Z c2 according to h 0 = 0 and Z 1 = Z 0 :
t2 = h 22 + 2h 0 h 4 + 2g1 g3 − g12 (12c) Z0
Z c1 =  (16a)
t0 = g12 + 2h 0 h 2 (12d) 1 − C12
m 2 Z 3 − Z 3 Z 42 √
h0 = (13a) 2kC2 Z 0
2m Z 4 Z c2 =  . (16b)
bi − m2c 2C1 1 − C12
i
hi = , i = 2 and 4 (13b)
2m After substituting (16) into (11), it is found that the rational
m 2 ai − Z 02 di function |F|2 can be simplified as
gi = , i = 1 and 3 (13c)
2m Z 0 t6 cos6 θ + t4 cos4 θ + t2 cos2 θ + t0
√ |F|2 =
2k [(Z 2 + Z 3 ) cos2 θ − Z 3 ]2 tan2 θ
m = 2 C1 Z 0 . (14) = f (C1 , C2 , Z s , k, θ ). (17)
n
Taking into account the derived function (11), by assuming In this paper, the frequency response of the proposed balun
h 0 = 0, it is obvious that the proposed balun can be designed BPF depends on C1 , C2 , Z s , and k. Fig. 6 shows the ideal
to have a three-pole quasi-elliptic bandpass response with four magnitude of S-parameters for a quasi-elliptic equal-ripple
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HUANG et al.: ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF NEW SELF-PACKAGED WIDEBAND BALUN BPF 5

Fig. 7. Solutions for coupling coefficients C1 and C2 and impedance Z s with Fig. 8. Cases of frequency responses for the proposed wideband IT
varied ripple FBW and impedance transformation ratio k under the prescribed balun BPF.
in-band RL of 20 dB.
TABLE II
C ALCULATED PARAMETERS FOR D IFFERENT C ASES
balun BPF with three transmission poles and four transmission
zeros. In Fig. 6, three reflection zeros locate at θ = θ p , π/2,
and π −θ p , respectively. The equal-ripple FBW can be defined
in terms of the lower cutoff frequency θc as follows:
π − θc − θc
FBW = . (18)
π/2
In addition, θm is between the first two transmission poles θ p
and π/2 with the maximum value of |S11b |.
In order to achieve this quasi-elliptic equal-ripple response
with desired ripple FBW, impedance transformation ratio k,
and return loss RL, the following conditions should be com-
plied with. First, at the three transmission poles, the value of
|S11b | is equal to 0. Second, within the bandwidth from θc
to π − θc , |S11b | reaches to its maximum value at θm and
π − θm . Third, at θc and π − θc , |S11b | also has the maximum
RL level. Considering the above conditions and based on (10),
the following mathematical equations have been established:
|F2 θ=θ p = |F2 θ=π−θ p = 0 (19a)
∂|F2 ∂|F2
θ=θm = θ=π−θm = 0 (19b)
∂θ ∂θ
|F2 θ=θm = |F2 θ=π−θm = ε2 (19c)
Fig. 9. Design flowchart for the proposed wideband IT balun BPF.
|F θ=θc = |F θ=π−θc = ε
2 2 2
(19d)
where ε is the ripple constant related to a given return loss
the frequency responses centering at 2.0 GHz based on the
RL in decibel by
solution cases given in Table II. With the extension of the
1 desired FBW, both C1 and C2 are required to rise up to a high
ε= √ . (20)
10 R L/10 −1 value. Therefore, the LCP multilayer technology, which can
For the specified bandwidth FBW, impedance transformation provide a great flexibility in achieving high coupling strengths,
ratio k, and return loss RL, the required design parameters of is a good choice herein for the implementation of the proposed
C1 , C2 , Z s , and transmission pole θ p can be determined by wideband IT balun BPF.
solving the above equations. Fig. 7 illustrates a set of solutions
of C1 , C2 , and Z s versus different k and FBW under the D. Design Procedure
prescribed in-band ripple level RL = 20 dB. Impedance Z s In summary, to clarify the design of the proposed wideband
plays a critical role in varying the operating FBW. In addition, IT balun BPF, the design procedure has been provided in a
as k gets increased, the value of coupling coefficient C1 flowchart, as shown in Fig. 9. In the following, the detailed
becomes smaller, while C2 tends to be larger. Fig. 8 shows design steps are described for clarification.
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6 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES

Fig. 10. (a) 3-D view of the proposed wideband IT balun BPF with the
multilayer LCP bonded PCB technology. (b) Side view of layer distribution
(P: PCB, C: core film, and B: bonding film).

Step 1: Specify the desired operating central frequency

f 0 , bandwidth FBW, impedance transformation ratio k, and
in-band RL. Then, calculate θc and ε according to the pre-
scribed FBW and RL in (18) and (20).
Step 2: Find solutions of C1 , C2 , Z s , and transmission pole
θ p to obtain the equal-ripple response based on (17) and (19)
with the computed value of θc and ε.
Step 3: Calculate characteristic impedances Z c1 and Z c2 by
substituting C1 , C2 , and k into (16). Meanwhile, determine
transmission zeros f TZ2 and f TZ3 from (15).
Step 4: Obtain physical dimensions for the coupled-line
sections and short-ended stubs with above derived parameters Fig. 11. Layout of four metal layers with physical dimensions included
of Z c1 , C1 , Z c2 , C2 , and Z s . (unit: millimeters). (a) Top layer ground plane with CPW input–output ports.
(b) Second layer. (c) Third layer. (d) Bottom layer ground plane. (e) Fabricated
Step 5: Perform EM simulation and execute some slight IT balun filter.
optimizations if necessary.

III. E XPERIMENTAL D EMONSTRATION be obtained when these two substrates are used for a stack
To validate the design theory discussed above, a prototype of multilayer construction as discussed herein. Moreover, this
of wideband IT balun BPF is introduced with the following mixed substrate lamination technology significantly reduces
design specifications. the total layers of the design, which can facilitate the fabrica-
1) Central Frequency: f 0 = 2.0 GHz. tion process. Layers 1 and 4 are the ground planes providing
2) Impedance Transformation Ratio: k = 2. an inherent EM shielding, while layers 2 and 3 are enclosed
3) Ripple Bandwidth: FBW = 60%. within these two ground planes in a stripline configuration.
4) Passband Equal-Ripple Level: RL = 20 dB. In addition, a conductive silver paste is applied around the
Based on the given design procedure previously described, surrounding walls to characterize the proposed wideband IT
the parameters are determined as C1 = 0.591, C2 = 0.566, balun BPF as self-packaged, which is featured with a full
Z c1 = 62 , Z c2 = 58 , Z s = 98 , θ p = 0.37π, EM shielding boundary condition. Furthermore, three designed
f TZ2 = 0.79 GHz, and f TZ3 = 3.21 GHz. Fig. 10 shows CPW ports on layer 1 make the self-packaged IT balun BPF
the implemented balun BPF circuit consisting of four metal connect to the external environment.
layers by using the LCP bonded PCB lamination technology. Fig. 11 shows the final physical dimensions of each metal
Since the employed LCP and PCB (Rogers RO3003) substrates layer. Note that all the via holes are featured with the diameter
have the same dielectric constant of 3.0 and the loss tangent of 0.9 mm as labeled in Fig. 11(d). The overall size of
of 0.0025, as indicated in Fig. 10(b), great compatibility can the fabricated circuit displayed in Fig. 11(e), including the
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.

HUANG et al.: ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF NEW SELF-PACKAGED WIDEBAND BALUN BPF 7

TABLE III
P ERFORMANCE C OMPARISONS W ITH O THER R EPORTED W ORKS

In the measurement, the TRL calibration procedure has been

employed to calibrate out the effects of the SMA connectors.
Fig. 12 shows the results from the theoretical calculation,
EM simulation, and measurement. As can be seen from
Fig. 12(a), the wideband balun BPF operates at the central
frequency of 2.0 GHz with a 3-dB FBW of 80%. The
measured return loss is better than 16 dB across a frequency
range from 1.31 to 2.66 GHz, while the insertion loss is
smaller than 3.9 dB, respectively. Moreover, transmission
zeros fTZ2 and f TZ3 located at 0.82 and 3.28 GHz are
introduced to improve the frequency selectivity. The main
loss around 4 GHz in the measurement results is caused
by the harmonic resonance of the involved short-ended half-
wavelength transmission lines, which is fabricated in layer 3,
as shown in Fig. 11(c). For the group delay performance,
as can be seen, a good agreement between the simulated and
measured results is achieved. The measured group delays for
both two output ports are less than 0.8 ns from the frequency
range of 1.36–2.64 GHz. From Fig. 12(b), we can observe
that the amplitude difference is less than 0.38 dB, and the
phase difference is better than 3.5° over the entire operating
passband.
Furthermore, Table III shows a detailed comparison of the
proposed wideband IT balun BPF with other reported works
in the state of the art. It indicates that the proposed balun
has advantages of wideband property, impedance transforma-
tion, filtering response, high selectivity, self-packaging, and
simplicity of design. In addition, compared with other coun-
terparts, the proposal shows very nice in-band performances
Fig. 12. Theoretical, simulated, and measured results of the proposed IT
balun BPF. (a) S-parameters and group delay performance. (b) Amplitude
in terms of its amplitude and phase difference properties.
and phase difference in the passband.
IV. C ONCLUSION
self-packaging, is about 0.2λg × 0.5λg , where λg is the guided In this paper, a new self-packaged wideband IT balun filter
wavelength at 2.0 GHz. The simulation is carried out using with the quasi-elliptic response is presented. It is the first time
the Sonnet software, and the measurement is accomplished by that the proposed design is able to integrate the functions of
using the Agilent N5225A four-port vector network analyzer. balanced–unbalanced signal conversion, frequency selection,
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.

8 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES

as well as impedance transformation in a wide passband region [18] J.-X. Chen, J. Li, Y. Zhan, W. Qin, J. Shi, and Z.-H. Bao, “Design
at the same time. Based on the developed equivalent circuit of balanced and balun filters using dual-mode cross-shaped dielec-
tric resonators,” IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Techn., vol. 65, no. 4,
model, the three-port balun can be analyzed by a two-port pp. 1226–1234, Apr. 2017.
network, and all the design parameters can be determined [19] K. S. Ang, I. D. Robertson, K. Elgaid, and I. G. Thayne, “40 to 90
according to the prescribed impedance transformation ratio k, GHz impedance-transforming CPW marchand balun,” in IEEE MTT-S
Int. Microw. Symp. Dig., Jun. 2000, pp. 1141–1144.
ripple FBW, and in-band RL. Consequently, following the [20] K. S. Ang and I. D. Robertson, “Analysis and design of impedance-
given design procedure, a practical wideband IT balun BPF transforming planar marchand baluns,” IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory
has been implemented by utilizing the multilayer LCP bonded Techn., vol. 49, no. 2, pp. 402–406, Feb. 2001.
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bandpass filter with high selectivity,” IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. co-authored over 90 papers in international journals and conference proceed-
Lett., vol. 24, no. 6, pp. 379–381, Jun. 2014. ings. His current research interests include microwave circuits, antennas, and
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 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.

HUANG et al.: ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF NEW SELF-PACKAGED WIDEBAND BALUN BPF 9

Khaled Aliqab (S’19) was born in Sakaka, Saudi Wen Wu (SM’10) received the Ph.D. degree in elec-
Arabia, in 1990. He received the B.Eng. degree tromagnetic field and microwave technology from
(Hons.) in electrical and electronic engineering and Southeast University, Nanjing, China, in 1997.
the M.Sc. degree (Hons.) in mobile communica- He is currently a Professor with the School of
tions from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, U.K., Electronic Engineering and Optoelectronic Technol-
in 2014 and 2015, respectively, where he is currently ogy, Nanjing University of Science and Technology,
pursuing the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering. Nanjing, where he is currently an Associate Direc-
His current research interests include advanced tor with the Ministerial Key Laboratory of JGMT.
miniature multilayer self-packaged balanced radio He has authored or co-authored over 240 journals
frequency (RF)/microwave filters using liquid- and conference papers. He holds 14 patents. His
crystal polymer (LCP) technologies for wireless current research interests include microwave and
communication radar applications. millimeter-wave theories and technologies, microwave and millimeter-wave
detection, and multimode compound detection.
Jiasheng Hong (M’94–SM’05–F’12) received the Dr. Wu was a six-time recipient of the Ministerial and Provincial-Level
D.Phil. degree in engineering science from the Science and Technology Award.
University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K., in 1994.
His doctoral dissertation concerned
electromagnetic (EM) theory and applications.
In 1994, he joined the University of Birmingham,
Birmingham, U.K., where he was involved in
microwave applications of high-temperature super-
conductors, electromagnetic (EM) modeling,
and circuit optimization. In 2001, he joined the
Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer
Engineering, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, U.K., where he is currently
a Professor leading a team on research into advanced radio frequency (RF)/
microwave device technologies. He has authored or co-authored over
200 journals and conference papers and Microstrip Filters for RF/Microwave
Applications (Wiley, 1st ed., 2001, 2nd ed., 2011) and RF and Microwave
Coupled-Line Circuits (Artech House, 2nd ed., 2007). His current research
interests include RF/microwave devices, such as antennas and filters, for
wireless communications and radar systems, as well as novel material and
device technologies including multilayer circuit technologies using package
materials such as liquid-crystal polymer (LCP), RF MEMS, and ferroelectric
and high-temperature superconducting devices.