Compact broadband bandpass filter with wide stopband based on halberd-shaped spoof surface plasmon polariton

In this paper, a compact broadband bandpass filter with wide out-of-band rejection characteristics based on halberd-shaped spoof surface plasmon polariton (SSPP) is proposed. The filtering structure is achieved by etching a periodic halberd-shaped groove at the bottom of the substrate and a microstrip-to-slot line transition with a crescent-shaped patch at the top. Compared with the traditional dumbbell-shaped SSPP, the halberd-shaped SSPP has good slow-wave property, and the designed bandpass filter based on halberd-shaped SSPP can achieve a more compact size. The upper cutoff frequency and lower cutoff frequency of the passband can be adjusted by regulating the SSPP structure and the transition structure from microstrip-to-slot line, respectively. The simulation results show that the center frequency of broadband bandpass filter is 2.85 GHz, with the relative bandwidth of 130%, and the return loss in the passband is better than –10 dB, and the extreme strong out-of-band rejection of –40 dB from 5.6 GHz to 20 GHz. The size of the broadband bandpass filter is compact, only 1.08λg×0.39λg, where λg is the wavelength at the center frequency. In order to verify the effectiveness of the wideband bandpass filter, the traditional printed circuit board technology is used to fabricate the wideband bandpass filter. The measurement results are in good agreement with the simulation results, verifying the feasibility of the design. The proposed broadband bandpass filter shows promising prospects for developing SSPP functional devices and circuits at microwave frequencies.