Ultra-wideband surface plasmonic bandpass filter with extremely wide upper-band rejection

An ultra-wideband bandpass filter (BPF) with a wide out-of-band rejection based on a surface plasmonic waveguide (SPW) slotline with ring grooves is designed and analyzed. A paired microstrip-to-slotline transition is designed for quasi-TEM to TM mode conversion by using a microstrip line with a circular pad and the slotline with the same circular slot. The mode conversion between the TM and the surface plasmon polariton (SPP) mode is realized by using a gradient slotline with ring grooves and an impedance matching technique. The upper cut-off frequencies of the passband can be adjusted by using these proposed SPP units, while the lower frequencies of the passband are created by using the microstrip-to-slotline transitions to give an ultra-wideband BPF. The dispersion curves of SPP units, electric field distribution, and the transmission spectra of the proposed ultra-wideband bandpass filter are all calculated and analyzed by the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The simulated results show that the presented filter has good performance including a wide 3-dB bandwidth of 149% from 0.57 GHz to 3.93 GHz, an extremely wide 40-dB upper-band rejection from 4.2 GHz to 18.5 GHz, and low loss and high selectivity in the passband. To prove the design validity, a prototype of the BPF has been manufactured and measured, showing a reasonable agreement with simulation results. The unique features of the proposed BPF may make it applicable for integrated circuit and plasmonic devices in microwave or THz frequency ranges.