PCB distributed filters

In this paper, a new family of ceramic resonators and filters is introduced. The proposed resonators are enabled by the integration of distributed resonators into standard Printed Circuit Board (PCB) substrates. This integration caters for not only a tremendous reduction in the resonator profile, but it also enables utilization of the unused PCB real estate. As an example of the feasibility of the proposed idea, a 3-pole filter based on 3-by-3 distributed resonant elements was designed and fabricated. The filter was made to operate at a frequency of 1.12 GHz with a bandwidth of 20 MHz. The substrate used for this filer has the dielectric permittivity of 12.85 and a loss tangent of 0.0019. The measured results show a good agreement with simulations.