Recent Advances in Variable Digital Filters

Variable digital filters are widely used in a number of applications of signal processing because of their capability of self-tuning frequency characteristics such as the cutoff frequency and the bandwidth. This chapter introduces recent advances on variable digital filters, focusing on the problems of design and realization, and application to adaptive filtering. In the topic on design and realization, we address two major approaches: one is the frequency transformation and the other is the multi-dimensional polynomial approximation of filter coefficients. In the topic on adaptive filtering, we introduce the details of adaptive band-pass/band-stop filtering that include the well-known adaptive notch filtering

Novel miniature microwave quasi-elliptical function bandpass filters with wideband harmonic suppression

Filters are integral components in all wireless communication systems, and their function is to permit predefined band of frequencies into the system and reject all other signals. The ever-growing demand in the use of the radio frequency (RF) spectrum for new applications has resulted in the need for high performance microwave filters with strict requirements on both inband and out-of-band characteristics. High selectivity, high rejection, low loss and extremely wide spurious-free performance are required for both transmitter and receiver channels. In addition, these devices need to be highly compact, easy to integrate within transceivers and should be amenable to low cost manufacturing. High selectivity is essential to enable the guard band between adjacent channels to be reduced thus improving the efficiency of the RF spectrum and hence increasing the capacity of the system. A low insertion-loss, high return-loss and small group-delay in the passband are necessary to minimize signal degradation. A wide stopband is necessary to suppress spurious passbands outside the filter’s bandwidth that may allow spurious emissions from modulation process (harmonic, parasitic, intermodulation and frequency conversion products) and interfere with other systems. The EMC Directive 89/336/EEC mandates that all electronic equipment must comply with the applicable EN specification for EMI. This thesis presents the research work that has resulted in the development of innovative and compact microstrip bandpass filters that fulfil the above stringent requirements for wireless communication systems. In fact, the proposed highly compact planar microstrip filters provide an alternative solution for existing and next generation of wireless communications systems. In particular, the proposed filters exhibit a low-loss and quasi-elliptic function response that is normally only possible with filter designs using waveguides and high temperature superconductors. The selectivity of the filters has been improved by inserting a pair of transmission zeros between the passband edges, and implementing notched rejection bands in the filter’s frequency response to widen its stopband performance. The filter structures have been analysed theoretically and modelled by using Keysight Technologies’ Advanced Design System (ADS™) and Momentum® software. The dissertation is essentially composed of four main sections. In the first section, several compact and quasi-elliptic function bandpass filter structures are proposed and theoretically analysed. Selectivity and stopband performance of these filters is enhanced by loading the input and output feed-lines with inductive stubs that introduce transmission zeros at specified frequencies in the filter’s frequency response. This technique is shown to provide a sharp 3-dB roll-off and steep selectivity skirt with high out-of-band rejection over a wide frequency span. In addition, the 3-dB fractional bandwidth of the filters is shown to be controllable by manipulating the filter’s geometric parameters. Traditional microwave bandpass filters are designed using quarter-wavelength distributed transmission-line resonators that are either end-coupled or side-coupled. The sharpness of the filter response is determined by the number of resonators employed which degrades the filter’s passband loss performance. This results in a filter with a significantly larger footprint which precludes miniaturization. To circumvent these drawbacks the second section describes the development of a novel and compact wideband bandpass filter with the desired characteristics. The quasi-elliptic function filter comprises open-loop resonators that are coupled to each other using a stub loaded resonator. The proposed filter is shown to achieve a wideband 3-dB fractional bandwidth of 23% with much better loss performance, sharp skirt selectivity and very wide rejection bandwidth. The third section describes the investigation of novel ultra-wideband (UWB) microstrip bandpass filter designs. Parametric study enabled the optimization of the filter’s performance which was verified through practical measurements. The proposed filters meet the stringent characteristics required by modern communications systems, i.e. the filters are highly compact and miniature even when fabricated on a low dielectric constant substrate, possess a sharp quasi-elliptic function bandpass response with low passband insertion-loss, and ultra-wide stopband performance. With the rapid development of multi-band operation in modern and next generation wireless communication systems, there is a great demand for single frequency discriminating devices that can operate over multiple frequency bands to facilitate miniaturization. These multi-band bandpass filters need to be physically small, have low insertion-loss, high return-loss, and excellent selectivity. In the fourth section two miniature microstrip dual-band and triple-band bandpass filter designs are explored. A detailed parametric study was conducted to fully understand how the geometric parameters of the filters affected their performance. The optimized filters were fabricated and measured to validate their performance

Microwave Photonic Signal Processing with Dynamic Reconfigurability

An optical beamforming network that uses an uncooled Fabry-Perot laser is demonstrated. This is achieved by using a fast-scanning, high-resolution optical spectrum analyzer to track the frequency and power shift of the uncooled laser, and then reconfiguring a programmable Fourier-domain optical processor to provide compensation. In this way, the need for temperature control of the laser is eliminated, and the number of optical sources is reduced by using the output spectral lines of the laser. The system realizes six wideband microwave photonic phase shifters, and the resulting magnitude and phase responses vary within a 2σ deviation of 6.1dB and 14.8°, respectively, even when the laser current is changed during measurement. A microwave photonic filter is presented based on a feedback structure, which uses a Fourier-domain optical processor as the control element and the fast-scanning optical spectrum analyzer as the feedback component. This system provides low-pass RF response. Experimental results demonstrate a 6-tap microwave photonic filter with a free spectral range of 2.5GHz. The power fluctuation of the first-order passband in RF response is within ±1dB over 20 minutes. A novel tunable all-optical microwave photonic mixer is presented based on serial phase modulation and an on-chip notch filter. The notch filter breaks the out-of-phase symmetry between the upper and lower sidebands generated from phase modulation, resulting in bandpass response of frequency selection. This system is achieved through an all-optical approach, which does not require electrical components, thus increasing the operation bandwidth of the system. The tunability of frequency selection is achieved through adjusting the wavelength of the optical source. Experimental results verify the technique with a 3rd-order SFDR of 91.7dBm/Hz2/3

The Beauty of Symmetry: Common-mode rejection filters for high-speed interconnects and balanced microwave circuits

Common-mode rejection filters operating at microwave frequencies have been the subject of intensive research activity in the last decade. These filters are of interest for the suppression of common-mode noise in high-speed digital circuits, where differential signals are widely employed due to the high immunity to noise, electromagnetic interference (EMI) and crosstalk of differential-mode interconnects. These filters can also be used to improve common-mode rejection in microwave filters and circuits dealing with differential signals. Ideally, common-mode stopband filters should be transparent for the differential mode from DC up to very high frequencies (all-pass), should preserve the signal integrity for such mode, and should exhibit the widest and deepest possible rejection band for the common mode in the region of interest. Moreover, these characteristics should be achieved by means of structures with the smallest possible size. In this article, several techniques for the implementation of common-mode suppression filters in planar technology are reviewed. In all the cases, the strategy to simultaneously achieve common-mode suppression and all-pass behavior for the differential mode is based on selective mode-suppression. This selective mode suppression (either the common or the differential mode) in balanced lines is typically (although not exclusively) achieved by symmetrically loading the lines with symmetric resonant elements, opaque for the common-mode and transparent for the differential mode (common-mode suppression), or vice versa (differential-mode suppression).MINECO, Spain-TEC2013-40600-R, TEC2013-41913-PGeneralitat de Catalunya-2014SGR-15

Synthesis, design, and fabrication techniques for reconfigurable microwave and millimeter-wave filters

As wireless communication becomes increasingly ubiquitous, the need for radio receivers which can dynamically adjust to their operating environment grows more urgent. In order to realize reconfigurable receivers, tunable RF front-end components are needed. This dissertation focuses on the theory, design, and implementation of reconfigurable microwave and millimeter-wave filters for use in such receivers. First, a theoretical framework is developed for absorptive bandstop filters, a new class of bandstop filters which overcomes some of the limitations of traditional tunable bandstop filters caused by the use of lossy tunable resonators. This theory is used in conjunction with silicon-micromachining fabrication technology to realize the first ever tunable bandstop filter at W-Band frequencies, as well as a state-of-the-art Ka-band tunable bandstop filter. The problem of bandwidth variation in tunable filters is then addressed. Widely-tunable filters often suffer from variations in bandwidth, excluding them from many applications which require constant bandwidth. A new method for reducing the bandwidth variation of filters using low-loss evanescent-mode cavity resonators is presented, and this technique is used to realize up to 90% reduction of bandwidth variation in octave-tunable bandstop filters. Lastly, a new differential coupling structure for evanescent-mode cavity resonators is developed, enabling the design of fully-balanced and balanced-to-unbalanced (balun) filters. An octave-tunable 3-pole bandpass balun filter using this coupling structure is presented. The balun filter has excellent amplitude and phase balance, resulting in common-mode rejection of greater than 40 dB across its octave tuning range

Enhanced Bandwidth of Band Pass Filter Using a Defected Microstrip Structure for Wideband Applications

In this paper, the bandwidth enhancement of bandpass filter (BPF) is proposed by utilizing defected microstrip structure (DMS). The initial micro strip BPF which is designed to have the bandwidth 1GHz with the center frequency of 3.5GHz is deployed on FR4 Epoxy dielectric substrate with overall size and thickness of 14mm x 24mm and 1.6mm, respectively. The proposed filter consists of two parallel coupled lines centred by ring-shaped, to enhance the bandwidth response, an attempt is carried out by applying DMS on the ligne center with a ring-shaped of initial filter. Here, the proposed DMS is constructed of the arrowhead dumbbell. Some parametrical studies to the DMS such as changing to obtain the optimum geometry of DMS with the desired bandwidth response. From the characterization result, it shows that the utilization of DMS on to the microstrip ligne of filter has widened 3dB bandwidth response up to 1.8GHz ranges from 2.55GHz to 4.35GHz yielding an enhanced wideband response for various wideband wireless applications

Synthesis, design, and fabrication techniques for reconfigurable microwave and millimeter-wave filters

As wireless communication becomes increasingly ubiquitous, the need for radio receivers which can dynamically adjust to their operating environment grows more urgent. In order to realize reconfigurable receivers, tunable RF front-end components are needed. This dissertation focuses on the theory, design, and implementation of reconfigurable microwave and millimeter-wave filters for use in such receivers. First, a theoretical framework is developed for absorptive bandstop filters, a new class of bandstop filters which overcomes some of the limitations of traditional tunable bandstop filters caused by the use of lossy tunable resonators. This theory is used in conjunction with silicon-micromachining fabrication technology to realize the first ever tunable bandstop filter at W-Band frequencies, as well as a state-of-the-art Ka-band tunable bandstop filter. The problem of bandwidth variation in tunable filters is then addressed. Widely-tunable filters often suffer from variations in bandwidth, excluding them from many applications which require constant bandwidth. A new method for reducing the bandwidth variation of filters using low-loss evanescent-mode cavity resonators is presented, and this technique is used to realize up to 90% reduction of bandwidth variation in octave-tunable bandstop filters. Lastly, a new differential coupling structure for evanescent-mode cavity resonators is developed, enabling the design of fully-balanced and balanced-to-unbalanced (balun) filters. An octave-tunable 3-pole bandpass balun filter using this coupling structure is presented. The balun filter has excellent amplitude and phase balance, resulting in common-mode rejection of greater than 40 dB across its octave tuning range

UWB Technology

Ultra Wide Band (UWB) technology has attracted increasing interest and there is a growing demand for UWB for several applications and scenarios. The unlicensed use of the UWB spectrum has been regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) since the early 2000s. The main concern in designing UWB circuits is to consider the assigned bandwidth and the low power permitted for transmission. This makes UWB circuit design a challenging mission in today's community. Various circuit designs and system implementations are published in this book to give the reader a glimpse of the state-of-the-art examples in this field. The book starts at the circuit level design of major UWB elements such as filters, antennas, and amplifiers; and ends with the complete system implementation using such modules