A 3-D miniaturized high selectivity bandpass filter in LTCC technology

Transmission zeros are used to improve the roll-off factors of filters but as a consequence, the out-of-band rejection decreases. In this work, an LTCC filter design is presented which employs a series inductor (implemented as a via hole) to improve the out-of-band rejection by introducing a third transmission zero. The filter, designed for GPS band (1.57 GHz), has one of the smallest reported foot prints ((0.063*0.048*0.005)?g) and demonstrates the highest roll off factor (16.7 dB/100 MHz) for this band. With only four LTCC layers, the design is cost effective and thus highly suitable for miniaturized, ultra-thin system-on-package applications