2D2-17
4-7, 2012
A 24-GHz Single-to-Balanced Multicoupled Line Bandpass Filter in
CMOS Technology
Chiou-Wen You and Yo-Shen Lin
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Central University, Chungli 320, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Abstract — In this work, on-chip single-to-balanced
bandpass filter centered at 24 GHz is proposed. The functions of
bandpass filter and balun are integrated using a simple
multicoupled line structure along with capacitive loadings. The
use of inductor is avoided such that very compact chip size can
be achieved. It can be easily designed with the desired bandpass
response and reference impedances through the conventional
filter synthesis techniques. Specifically, a 3rd-order single-to-
balanced bandpass filter design with a center frequency of 24
GHz and a fractional bandwidth of about 15% is presented
using the 0.18-ȝm CMOS technology. The chip size is 0.533
mm×0.443 mm and the corresponding electrical size is only
0.085Ȝg×0.07Ȝg at the center frequency. In addition, good
selectivity and balanced performance are obtained.
Index Terms — Balun, bandpass filter, CMOS, coupled-line,
multicoupled line, single-to-balanced.
I. INTRODUCTION
Conventional microwave passive component designs are
mostly based on transmission lines of half- or quarter-
wavelength (ӳ/4) long, such that their circuit sizes are large,
especially for low frequency applications. Various works
have been devoted to the size reduction of microwave passive
components. However, since these passive components are
implemented with conductors and dielectrics, the minimal
achievable circuit size is usually limited by the fabrication
process, e.g. minimal line/gap width. For the further size
reduction of microwave passive components, one may count
on the development of more advanced process technology,
but this always leads to an increase in cost. On the other hand,
the development of novel multi-functional microwave circuit
components provides a practical way for the further size
reduction beyond the process limit. The single-to-balanced
bandpass filter or balun filter [1]-[11] that integrates the
functions of bandpass filter and balun represents a good
example. Further integration of the RF switch is also
demonstrated in [12]. In addition to the reduction in circuit
size and power loss, due to the reduction of component count
as well, the packaging cost for implementing the RF frontend
can also be reduced with some improvements on yield.
Most of the recent works on single-to-balanced bandpass
filter or balun filter designs utilize the low-temperature co-
fired ceramic (LTCC) process to achieve effective circuit size
reduction through the 3D layout [1], [3]-[4], [6]-[7], [9].
However, due to the larger fabrication error of the LTCC, it
is not quite suitable for the mass production of these circuits
at millimeter-wave frequencies. On the other hand,
262
Proceedings of APMC 2012, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Dec.
semiconductor IC process is capable of producing very fine
line/gap width with tight tolerance. In [8], a 77-GHz single-
to-balanced bandpass filter is fabricated in CMOS. The GaAs
pHEMT process [10] and the thin-film integrated passive
device technology [11] can also be used to realize single-to-
balanced bandpass filters with good performance. In addition,
the semiconductor IC process is capable of integrating
multiple functional blocks in a single chip to achieve circuit
size and cost minimization. If one may implement those
novel multi-functional microwave components on chip, then
the advantages of design-based integration and process-based
integration can be combined and the maximal benefit for RF
frontend implementation can be achievable.
In this work, a 24-GHz single-to-balanced bandpass filter
that integrated the functions of bandpass filter and balun is
implemented using the commercial 0.18-Ӵm CMOS process
so as to take the advantages of both design- and process-
based integration technologies. The proposed on-chip single-
to-balanced bandpass filter is based on a multicoupled line
along with loaded capacitors in [4]. The use of an inductor is
avoided because the on-chip inductor exhibits larger circuit
size and lower quality factor compared to on-chip capacitors.
By loading the multicoupled line with the high-density on-
chip metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor, the coupled-line
length can be made as short as ӳg/18. In this way, very
compact circuit size as well as very wide upper stopband can
be achieved.
II. CIRCUIT DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
Shown in Fig. 1 is the circuit structure of the on-chip
single-to-balanced bandpass filter in this work, which
effectively integrates the functions of balun, bandpass filter,
and the impedance matching network. It is based on the
capacitively loaded multicoupled line structure in [4]. Here,
in order to achieve good selectivity, a five-line coupled-line
structure is used to achieve a 3rd-order bandpass response.
The orientation of the capacitively loaded short-stub is
properly arranged such that the outputs at Port 2 and Port 3
will exhibit 180o phase difference. According to the design
method outlined in [4], the corresponding equivalent circuit
model and equivalent filter prototype can be obtained as
shown in Fig. 2. Based on them, the proposed single-to-
balanced bandpass filter can then be designed according to
the conventional filter synthesis technique.
2D2-17 Proceedings of APMC 2012, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Dec. 4-7, 2012

Integrated into a single component order to achieve a compact circuit size, the electrical length
of the multicoupled line is selected as 19o at 24 GHz. The
required circuit parameters can then be solved based on the
equivalent circuit models in Fig. 2 and the conventional filter
Single-Ended Matching Balanced
BPF Balun Signal synthesis techniques as in the case of [5]. The geometrical
Signal Circuit
parameters are then obtained with the aid of the quasi-static
solver Ansoft Q3D and the full-wave simulator Ansoft HFSS.
(a)
Shown in Fig. 4 is the chip photograph of the proposed
single-to-balanced bandpass filter. The chip size is 0.533 mm
×0.443 mm, and the circuit size without pads is 0.426mm
×0.211 mm.

(b)
Fig. 1. (a) Functional representation and (b) circuit structure of
proposed single-to-balanced bandpass filter of 3rd-order.
Fig. 3. Illustration of the meshed ground plane for the
multicoupled line in CMOS.
ZSingle
ZBal/2 y35 ZBal/2
(Port 3)
-y13 (Port 1) -y12 -y24 (Port 2)

C5 C3 C1 C2 C4

y55-y35 y44+y24
y33+y13-y35 y11/2+y13 y11/2+y12 y22+y12+y24
(a)

Port1
ZSingle Fig. 4. Chip photograph of proposed single-to-balanced bandpass
Port3
J 35 J12 J 24
Port2 filter of 3rd-order. (Chip size: 0.533 mm ×0.443 mm.)
ZBal J13 ZBal

y55 C5 y33 C3 y11 C1 C1 y11
2 2 2 2
(b)
Fig. 2. (a) Equivalent circuit model and (b) equivalent filter
prototype of proposed single-to-balanced bandpass filter of 3rd-
order.
The single-to-balanced bandpass filter is implemented in
the TSMC 0.18-Ӵm 1P6M CMOS technology. The
multicoupled line is realized using the thin-film microstrip
structure based on the metal layers M1 and M6. Due to the
thin dielectric thickness between M1 and M6, a meshed
ground plane at M1 is used to reduce the per-unit-length
capacitance between the signal trace at M6 and the ground
plane at M1. In this way, a wider signal trace is required for a
given line impedance and a lower conductor loss can be
obtained. Shown in Fig. 3 is the 3D view of part of the circuit
layout to illustrate the meshed ground plane used at M1. The
single-to-balanced bandpass filter is designed with a center
frequency of 24 GHz, a fractional bandwidth of 25% for a
3rd-order 0.01-dB ripple Chebyshev response. The reference
impedances at Port 1, 2, and 3 are all equal to 50 ohm. In
C2 y22 C4 y44 Shown in Fig. 5 are the measured and simulated results of
proposed single-to-balanced bandpass filter. The simulation
is done by the full-wave simulator Ansoft HFSS. Good
agreement between measured and simulated results is
observed. According to Fig. 5(a), the measured in-band input
and output return losses are all better than 15 dB from 22.4 to
26.4 GHz. The measured in-band insertion loss is better than
6 dB in the same frequency range, with a minimum insertion
loss of 5.2 dB at 25.5 GHz. The higher insertion loss is
mainly due to the conductor loss associated with the
multicoupled line. The measured bandwidth also becomes
smaller compared to the designed value due to the presence
of power loss. As shown in Fig. 5(c), the in-band amplitude
imbalance is better than 0.28 dB, and the phase imbalance is
within 5o. Notably, the measured upper stopband rejection is
better than 40 dB from 38.7 up to the highest measured
frequency of 60 GHz for both Port 1 to 2 and Port 1 to 3.
This is due to the additional transmission zero at around 40
GHz, which is caused by the non-adjacent line coupling
associated with the multicoupled line structure [10].

263
2D2-17
Magnitude (dB)
(a)
(b)
Amplitude imbalance (dB)
Phase difference (deg)
( Nov. 2010.
(c)
Fig. 5. Measured and full-wave simulated results of proposed
single-to-balanced bandpass filter of 3rd-order. (a) Two-port
frequency response with an ideal balun loaded at the balanced port.
(b) Three-port S-parameters. (c) Amplitude and phase imbalance.
III. CONCLUSION
In this work, a 24-GHz CMOS single-to-balanced
bandpass filter is demonstrated. It features very good
performances in terms of circuit size, selectivity, stopband
rejection, and balanced characteristics. A meshed ground
plane is adopted to reduce the conductor loss of the thin-film
multicoupled line. Further reduction of conductor loss can be
achieved by connecting more metal layers in parallel to form
the signal trace. The proposed single-to-balanced bandpass
filter will be useful in the development of single-chip RF
transceiver in CMOS.
264
Proceedings of APMC 2012, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Dec. 4-7, 2012
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work is support in part by the National Science
Council of Taiwan, R.O.C. under Grant NSC 100-2628-E-
008-010-MY3, the National Chip Implementation Center,
Taiwan, R.O.C., and the National Center for High-
Performance Computing, Taiwan, R.O.C..
REFERENCES
[1] L. K. Yeung and K. L. Wu, “An LTCC balanced-to-unbalanced
extracted-pole bandpass filter with complex load,” IEEE Trans.
Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 54, no. 4, pp.1512–1518, Apr.
2006.
[2] C. H. Wu, C. H. Wang, S. Y. Chen, and C. H. Chen,
“Balanced-to-unbalanced bandpass filters and the antenna
application,” IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 56, no.
11, pp. 2474–2482, Nov. 2008.
[3] K. T. Chen and S. J. Chung, “A novel compact balanced-to-
unbalanced low-temperature co-fired ceramic bandpass filter
with three coupled lines configuration,” IEEE Trans.
Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 56, no. 7, pp. 1714–1720, July
2008.
[4] C. L. Tsai and Y. S. Lin, “Analysis and design of new single-
to-balanced multicoupled line bandpass filters using low-
temperature co-fired ceramic technology,” IEEE Trans.
Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 56, no. 12, pp. 2902–2912, Dec.
2008.
[5] H. M. Lee and C. M. Tsai, “Exact synthesis of broadband
three-line baluns,” IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 57,
no. 1, pp. 140–148, Jan. 2009.
[6] M. Tamura, T. Ishizaki, and M. Höft, “Design and analysis of
vertical split ring resonator and its application to unbalanced–
balanced filter,” IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 58,
no. 1, pp. 157–164, Jan. 2010.
[7] C. L. Tsai and Y. S. Lin, “Analysis and design of single-to-
balanced combline bandpass filters with two independently
controllable transmission zeros in LTCC technology,” IEEE
Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 58, no. 11, pp. 2878–
2887, Nov. 2010.
[8] C.-Y. Hsu, C.-Y. Chen, and H.-R. Chuang, “A 77-GHz CMOS
on-chip bandpass filter with balanced and unbalanced outputs,”
IEEE Electron Device Lett., vol. 31, no. 11, pp. 1205-1207,
[9] M. Tamura, T. Yang, and T. Itoh, “Very compact and low-
profile LTCC unbalanced-to-balanced filters with hybrid
resonators,” IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 59, no.
8, pp. 1925–1936, Aug. 2011.
[10] Y.-S. Lin, C.-W. You, and C.-L. Tsai, “On-chip single-to-
balanced multicoupled line bandpass filters with good
selectivity,” IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 59, no.
12, pp. 3322-3330, Dec. 2011.
[11] C.-H. Chen, C.-H. Huang, and T.-S. Horng, “Integrated
transformer-coupled balun bandpass filters with an optimal
common-mode rejection ratio,” IEEE Trans. Components,
Packaging and Manufacturing Tech., vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 53-62,
Jan. 2012.
[12] Y.-S. Lin, P.-C. Wang, C.-W. You, and P.-Y. Chang, “New
designs of bandpass diplexer and switchplexer based on
parallel-coupled bandpass filters,” IEEE Trans. Microwave
Theory Tech., vol. 58, no. 12, pp. 3417-3426, Dec. 2010.