Coplanar waveguides loaded with symmetric and asymmetric multisection stepped impedance resonators : modeling and potential applications

This article is focused on the analysis and modeling of coplanar waveguide (CPW) transmission lines loaded with multisection stepped impedance resonators (MS-SIRs), transversely etched on the back substrate side. The considered structure consists of a CPW loaded with a 5-section SIR (5S-SIR) with wide (capacitive) central and external sections cascaded with narrow (inductive) sections. The general case of a 5S-SIR with arbitrary lengths and widths of the different sections is considered. The structure is described by a pair of inductively coupled grounded series resonators coupled to the line through the capacitance of the central 5S-SIR section. If the structure is symmetric, the transmission coefficient exhibits a single transmission zero. Hence, these structures can be used as notch filters exhibiting wide bandwidths, provided the inductance of the 5S-SIR can be made small, and the capacitance can be enhanced by virtue of the broadside coupling. However, if symmetry is broken, two notches separated a distance that depends on the level of asymmetry and inductive coupling appear. Therefore, these structures are also useful for the implementation of differential sensors and comparators. The proposed model is validated through parameter extraction and experiment, and a proof-of-concept of a comparator is reported