A new compact and effective lumped‐element diplexer structure targeted for low‐temperature co‐fired ceramic (LTCC) implementation that can exhibit high levels of isolation between low‐pass and high‐pass filters is proposed. Design equation formulations that take into account the isolation between the two filters are presented. As an example, a multilayer ceramic (MLC) chip diplexer in a dual‐mode portable telephone for 900‐MHz digital‐cellular and 1.9‐GHz personal communication systems is designed and fabricated. The simulated results are compared with the measured data and good agreement is reported. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 39: 237–239, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.11179