Low-loss narrowband filtering switch based on coaxial resonators

© 2013 IEEE. In this paper, a narrowband filtering switch with low loss and high selectivity is presented based on coaxial resonators for the first time. PIN diodes mounted on the printed circuit boards are embedded into a coaxial filter to enable ON and OFF states. In the ON-state, the PIN diodes are turned OFF, which do not introduce the loss and affect the linearity. Two transmission zeros are generated by a novel feeding structure, which improves the skirt selectivity. In the OFF-state, the PIN diodes are turned on. Then, lumped capacitors are loaded to the coaxial resonators so that the resonant frequencies of the resonators are changed. The passband at the operating frequency cannot be formed, resulting in high isolation. For demonstration, the coaxial-resonator-based filtering switch is designed and fabricated. Good agreement between simulated and measured results verifies the proposed ideas. Comparison with other reported filtering switches is given. The proposed filtering switch shows the advantages of high Q-factor, relatively compact size, and wide stopband responses, which is attractive in wireless systems

Reconfigurable and multi-functional antennas

This thesis describes a research into multi-frequency and filtering antennas. Several novel antennas are presented, each of which addresses a specific issue for future communication systems, in terms of multi-frequency operation, and filtering capability. These antennas seem to be good candidates for implementation in future multiband radios, cognitive radio (CR), and software defined radio (SDR). The filtering antenna provides an additional filtering action which greatly improves the noise performance and reduces the need for filtering circuitry in the RF front end. Two types of frequency reconfigurable antennas are presented. One is tunable left-handed loop over ground plane and the second is slot-fed reconfigurable patch. The operating frequency of the left handed loop is reconfigured by loading varactor diodes whilst the frequency agility in the patch is achieved by inserting switches in the coupling slot. The length of the slot is altered by activating the switches. Compact microstrip antennas with filtering capabilities are presented in this thesis. Two filtering antennas are presented. Whilst the first one consists of three edge-coupled patches, the second filtering antenna consists of rectangular patch coupled to two hairpin resonators. The proposed antennas combine radiating and filtering functions by providing good out of band gain suppression

The design and fabrication of miniature microwave bandpass filters using multilayer liquid crystal polymer technology

This thesis presents the design and fabrication techniques for miniature microwave bandpass filters using multilayer liquid crystal polymer (LCP) technology. As a multilayer technology for microwave devices, LCP is of low cost and light weight. It also has excellent electrical properties across a wide frequency range. These characteristics make it promising for the development of next generation microwave devices for applications across commercial, defence and civil sectors. However, very limited work has been found in the open literature to apply this technology to the design of miniature bandpass filters, especially at low microwave frequencies. In addition, the reported work shows lack of fabrication techniques, which limits the size reduction of multilayer LCP devices. To address these problems, this thesis develops advanced fabrication techniques for sophisticated LCP structures, such as multilayer capacitors, via connections and cavities. These techniques are then used to support the design of novel miniature bandpass filters for wideband and narrowband applications. For the design of miniature wideband bandpass filters, a cascaded approach, which combines highpass and lowpass filters, is presented first to provide a flexible design solution. This is followed by another novel ultra-wideband bandpass filter which produces extra transmission zeroes with minimum number of elements. It does not only have high performance but also a compact structure for high yield fabrication. For narrowband applications, two types of advanced coupled-resonator filters are developed. One type produces a very good selectivity at the upper passband edge, and its spurious-free stopband is extremely wide and of high interference attenuation. The other type, based on novel mixed-couplings approaches developed in this thesis, provides a solution to produce almost the same response as the coupling matrix prototype. This type is used to generate arbitrarily-located transmission zeroes. All designs presented in this thesis are simulated using CAD design tools and then validated by measurements of fabricated samples. Good agreements between simulations and measurements are shown in the thesis

Substrate Integrated Coaxial Filters with Fixed and Tunable Responses

Wireless and mobile communications are already playing an important role in our lives, and this will can only grow more and more due to the predominant importance and use of modern smartphones, tablets and any kind of connected devices. With this is mind, the spectrum for wireless and mobile communications is becoming incredibly overcrowded, leading to increasing requirements for RF front-end filters. This progress has encouraged an impressive need for developing low-cost, high performance, mass-producible, small footprint, and highly integrated front-end solutions for microwave and millimeter-wave systems and applications including emerging 5G and future wireless platforms. In this context, high quality factor resonators are usually typical basic building blocks of many high performance passive and active circuits, and its design has become even more challenging in the last decade. As a result, Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) technology has attracted scientific community and industry attention as a very good candidate for developing such desired high-Q planar microwave devices. Recently, SIW is demonstrating to be a successful approach for implementing microwave and mm-wave filters with high Q-factor, easy integration with other planar circuits, and for mass-production manufacturing processes in many technologies (i.e. Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramics (LTCC) technologies among them). Its enormous similarity with waveguides is probably one of the main reasons why the development of SIW-based components and circuits is rapidly growing among the research community. Other potential features that, combined with the former advantages, could be of huge interest in a wide range of wireless and mobile applications are a lively set of research subjects, such as compactness, advanced filtering responses, and recently frequency-agility capabilities. These key features have been recently introduced in the design of microwave filters for the next-generation wireless systems. Taking into account the above-mentioned background, the work carried out during the course of this PhD Thesis has been directed towards a further study of SIW technology to propose, analyze and develop an innovative and original resonator topology. The proposed topology is based on the extension of the classical coaxial waveguide resonator to SIW technology, and must take advantage of the characteristics of SIW devices to allow the design of improved and innovative microwave resonator filters for advanced wireless systems. This PhD Thesis includes the latest improvements made on this topic, from the working principles of the basic coaxial SIW block, until different applications for the design of compact quasi-elliptic and reconfigurable microwave filters. The results are promising and demonstrate the validity of the proposed topology for the design of high-Q microwave filters, as well as its potential application to implement complex designs. The general knowledge gained from these cases of study can be considered a good base for further developing this technology, which can help to improve its EM performance, and also contribute to a more general use in the market.Las comunicaciones inalámbricas y móviles juegan un papel importante en nuestras vidas, y esto sólo puede ir a más debido a su enorme importancia y al uso de los modernos teléfonos inteligentes (del inglés, smartphones), tabletas y toda clase de dispositivos inalámbricos. Con todo esto en mente, el espectro electromagnético para comunicaciones inalámbricas y móviles se está saturando cada día más, lo que conlleva un constante aumento de los requisitos para los filtros de radio-frecuencia usados en las cabeceras de dichos sistemas. Este progreso ha llevado a un creciente interés en desarrollar componentes de microondas de bajo coste, alto rendimiento, pequeño tamaño, que permitan implementar soluciones altamente integradas para sistemas de alta frecuencia (i.e. microondas y ondas milimétrica) y sus aplicaciones, incluyendo entre ellas la emergente conexión 5G y las futuras plataformas inalámbricas. En este contexto, los resonadores de elevado factor de calidad constituyen generalmente los bloques básicos para el diseño de muchos circuitos pasivos (entre ellos filtros) y activos de alto rendimiento. Su diseño se ha convertido por tanto en un reto aún mayor en la última década. Como resultado de ello, la tecnología de guía de ondas integradas en substrato (Substrate Integrated Waveguide, SIW) ha atraído la atención de la comunidad científica e industrial, al revelarse como una buena aproximación para el desarrollo de dispositivos planares de microondas con excelentes prestaciones eléctricas, y en particular para la implementación de filtros de microondas y onda milimétrica de bajas pérdidas y elevada integración con circuitos en tecnología planar. Además, su flexibilidad se caracteriza también por su adecuación a diferentes procesos de fabricación y producción en masa, en tecnologías tales como los circuitos impresos (Printed Circuit Board, PCB) o la tecnología de materiales cerámicos multi-capa co-sinterizados a baja temperatura (Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramics, LTCC) entre otras. Su enorme similitud con las ya largamente estudiadas guías de onda es, probablemente, una de las principales razones por las cuales el desarrollo de dicho circuitos está creciendo rápidamente entre la comunidad de investigadores. Cabe mencionar como, además de las anteriores ventajas, otras características de la tecnología SIW que podrían ser de gran interés en una amplia gama de aplicaciones inalámbricas y móviles son la miniaturización, la posibilidad de implementar respuestas avanzadas de filtrado y, recientemente, las capacidades de sintonía en frecuencia de los componentes de microondas. De este modo, el trabajo desarrollado a lo largo de esta Tesis Doctoral se ha orientado hacia el planteamiento, análisis y desarrollo de una topología de resonador innovadora y original. Dicha topología se basa en una extensión de las cavidades coaxiales en guía de onda metálica a una implementación integrada en substrato inspirada en la tecnología SIW. Esta Tesis Doctoral recapitula los últimos avances que se han producido sobre este tema, empezando desde la descripción de los principios fundamentales de funcionamiento de las estructuras, hasta la demostración de varias aplicaciones concretas útiles para el diseño de filtros de microondas muy compactos, con respuestas filtrantes avanzadas y reconfigurables. Los resultados que se van a mostrar a continuación son prometedores, y demuestran la validez de la topología propuesta. El conocimiento general obtenido de los diferentes prototipos fabricados y caracterizados experimentalmente puede considerarse una buena base para seguir desarrollando esta tecnología, lo que puede ayudar a mejorar su rendimiento electromagnético, así como a contribuir a un uso más extendido de estos dispositivos en el mercado.Les comunicacions sense fils i mòbils juguen un paper important en les nostres vides, i això només pot anar a més a causa de la gran importància i l'ús dels moderns telèfons intel·ligents (de l'anglès, smartphones), tablets i tota classe de dispositius sense fil. Tenint en compte tot açò, l'espectre electromagnètic per a comunicacions sense fils i mòbils s'està saturant cada dia més, el que comporta un constant augment dels requisits per als filtres de radiofreqüència usats en les capçaleres d'aquests sistemes. Aquest progrés ha portat a un creixent interès en desenvolupar components de microones de baix cost, alt rendiment, volum reduït, que permeten implementar solucions altament integrades per a sistemes d'alta freqüència (ie. microones i ones mil·limètriques) i les seves aplicacions, incloent l'emergent connexió 5G i les futures plataformes sense fils. En aquest context, els ressonadors d'elevat factor de qualitat constitueixen generalment els blocs bàsics per al disseny de molts circuits passius (entre ells filtres) i actius d'alt rendiment. El seu disseny s'ha convertit per tant en un repte encara més gran en l'última dècada. Com a resultat d'això, la tecnologia de guia d'ones integrades en substrat (Substrate Integrated Waveguide, SIW) ha atret l'atenció de la comunitat científica i industrial, al revelar-se com una bona aproximació per al desenvolupament de dispositius planars de microones amb excel·lents prestacions elèctriques , i en particular per a la implementació de filtres de microones i ones mil·limètriques de baixes pèrdues i elevada integració amb circuits en tecnologia planar. A més, la seua flexibilitat es caracteritza també per la seua adequació a diferents processos de fabricació i producció en massa, en tecnologies com ara els circuits impresos (Printed Circuit Board, PCB) o la tecnologia de materials ceràmics multicapa co-sinteritzats a baixa temperatura (Low Temperature Co-Fired Ceramics, LTCC) entre d'altres. La seua enorme similitud amb les ja llargament estudiades guies d'ona és, probablement, una de les principals raons per les quals el desenvolupament d'aquests circuits està creixent ràpidament entre la comunitat d'investigadors. Cal destacar com, a més de les anteriors avantatges, altres característiques de la tecnologia SIW que podrien ser de gran interès en una àmplia gamma d'aplicacions sense fils i mòbils són la miniaturització, la possibilitat d'implementar respostes avançades de filtrat i, recentment, les capacitats de sintonia en freqüència dels components de microones. Aquestes característiques clau s'han introduït recentment en el disseny de filtres microones per als sistemes sense fils de pròxima generació, convertint-se en objecte prioritari d'estudi per part de la comunitat científica. D'aquesta manera, el treball desenvolupat al llarg d'aquesta tesi doctoral s'ha orientat cap al plantejament, anàlisi i desenvolupament d'una topologia de ressonador innovadora i original. Aquesta topologia es basa en una extensió de les cavitats coaxials en guia d'ona metàl·lica a una implementació integrada a substrat inspirada en la tecnologia SIW. Aquesta tesi doctoral recapitula els últims avanços que s'han produït sobre aquest tema, començant des de la descripció dels principis fonamentals de funcionament de les estructures, fins a la demostració de diverses aplicacions concretes útils per al disseny de filtres i microones molt compactes, amb respostes de filtrat avançades i reconfigurables. Els resultats que es mostraran a continuació són prometedors, i demostren la validesa de la topologia proposada. El coneixement general obtingut dels diferents prototips fabricats i caracteritzats experimentalment es pot considerar com una bona base per seguir desenvolupant aquesta tecnologia, el que pot ajudar a millorar el seu rendiment electromagnètic, així com a contribuir a un ús més estès d'aquests dispositius en el merSirci, S. (2017). Substrate Integrated Coaxial Filters with Fixed and Tunable Responses [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/78838TESI

Small-Size Coaxial Resonant Applicator for Microwave Heating Assisted Additive Manufacturing

This article introduces the design and analysis of a small-size coaxial resonant applicator for high-speed microwave heating-assisted additive manufacturing of multiple materials, such as continuous carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites, thermoplastic, and metal parts. The elaborated coaxial resonant applicator reduces the size and has a resonant frequency between 2.4 and 2.5 GHz. A TEM wave is stimulated in the applicator where the electrical field is polarized perpendicular to the filaments and, therefore, allows a maximum penetration depth. The electrical conductive filament is designed as a part of the inner conductor to enhance coupling efficiency. To prevent microwave leakage induced by the conductive material, a compact quarter wavelength filter was developed. The equivalent circuit of the filter was used to analyze the influence of structural parameters on the resonance frequency. The filter has been tested and good agreement between measured and simulated results is obtained. The heating behavior with varying input power has been investigated for polyamide, polylactic acid, and continuous carbon fiber reinforced polyamide filaments

Continuous Frequency and Bandwidth Tunable Combline Cavity Bandpass Filters with Internally Mounted Motors

Novel design methods for implementing continuous centre-frequency and bandwidth tunability are reported. Coupling bandwidths are tuned through the mechanical rotation of a metallic plate suspended between resonators. Centre-frequency tuning is achieved via the vertical actuation of a moving part mounted within each resonator. In addition, each resonator and transformer is designed so that motors can be housed within them — adding tunability without compromising the overall filter volume. A second-order filter, based on Combline cavity structures, capable of bandwidth tunability of 49MHz to 67MHz for all centre-frequencies in the range of 1:751GHz to 1:998GHz is presented. Passband insertion loss is kept below 1:2 dB for all tuning states with return loss above 10 dB. A five-pole filter is also fabricated with centre-frequency tunability of 14% from 1:764GHz to 2:015GHz and 15 dB bandwidth tunability of 107% from 41MHz to 85MHz. Midband insertion loss is kept below 1:4 dB in all tuning states. The five-pole filter is compared to other tunable filters in the UHF range and is shown to reduce midband insertion loss by 36% from the next best filter (2:2 dB to 1:4 dB)

Miniaturized High-Q Tunable RF Filters

This dissertation focuses on the investigation and development of novel efficient tuning techniques and the design of miniaturized high-Q tunable RF filters for high-performance reconfigurable systems and applications. First, a detailed survey of the available tuning concepts and state-of-art tunable filters is provided. Then, a novel so-called inset resonator configuration is presented for the applications of fixed and tunable coaxial filters. The design procedure of frequency tunable filters with constant absolute bandwidth (CABW) is described, and various tunable inset filters are implemented, offering many desirable merits, including the wide tuning range and stable high-Q with minimum variation. For wide octave frequency tuning ranges with CABW, a second novel concept is presented using so-called re-entrant caps tuners. Beside simplicity and compactness, this technique also features enhanced spurious performance and wider tuning capabilities than the conventional means. Also, in this dissertation, various miniaturized reconfigurable dual-band/dual-mode bandpass filters and diplexers are presented using compact dual-mode high-Q TM-mode dielectric resonators. Furthermore, a novel microfluidic-based ultra-wide frequency tuning technique for TM010-mode dielectric resonators and filters is introduced in this dissertation. In addition to the very wide tuning window, this mechanism has key advantages of low-cost, simplicity, and intrinsic switch-off. Lastly, the dissertation includes a novel bandwidth reconfiguration concept with multi-octave tuning using a single element for coaxial bandpass filters. This mechanism brings many features including the fast tuning, constant high-Q, intrinsic switch-off, and wide BW-reconfiguration

Design and Analysis of Frequency Reconfigurable Micro strip Antennas

The goal of this thesis is to design and analyse the frequency reconfigurable microstrip patch antenna which are mainly the combination of filters and antennas called filtering antennas (filtennas). The increasing demand for high data rate and new wireless communication has led to the development of multifunctional devices including antennas and radio frequency (RF) front ends. The novel solution is to design antennas which has multiband, multimode, low profile, low cost and easy to integrate with portable devices. In this thesis three different frequency reconfigurable microstrip patch antenna has been proposed for cognitive radio system. The design and simulation of the proposed antennas are d one in CST (computer simulation technology) microwave simulation software. The first design is single port frequency agile antenna for overlay cognitive radio. When all the PIN diodes are in ON state, it is UWB and used to sense the entire spectrum and by selectively changing the PIN diode states five different reconfigurable cases occurs which is used for communication. Thereflection coefficient curve of UWB antenna shows bandwidth from 3.1 GHz to 9.8 GHz and reconfigurable antenna resonate at 6.7 GHz, 5.33 Hz, 5.73 GHz, 7.04 GHz, 6.33 GHz and 9.45 GHz. The second antenna proposed is dual port microstrip patch for cognitive radio system. This design is used for overlay cognitive radio in which one antenna is for sensing and other for communication. Sensing and communication can be done simultaneously and tuning in reconfigurable antenna can be done continuously. UWB antenna bandwidth is from 3.4 GHz to 13.2 GHz and the reconfigurable antenna is dual and triple band resonating frequency according to the biasing of varactor. The radiation pattern obtained in both cases are almost omnidirectional which is good for mobile application and sensing antenna. The third design is proposed for underlay cognitive radio system in which UWB antenna is used which radiate at very low power. The UWB antenna resonates from 2.8 GHz to 13.4 GHz. The filter is then added to this antenna as notch reconfigurable and this can be used to communicate over long distance without interference with primary used. The notches depends on states of PIN diodes, the frequency which are rejected are 5 GHz, 5.7 GHz, 6.45 GHz, 7.5 GHz, 9 GHz. The fourth proposed design is planar inverted F antenna (PIFA) for mobile devices. Currently cellular phones are using more than one services, so many antennas are needed. In the proposed design two varactor diodes has been used for tuning of operating frequency so that one antenna can replace many antennas for different wireless services like WIFI, WIMAX, GPS,WLAN , WiBro etc. .The simulated refection coefficient of this antenna shows dual band and triple band from 2 GHz to 5.5 GHz at different varactor diode biasing states

Design and development of broadband gap waveguide-based 0-dB couplers for Ka-band applications

The design and fabrication of a wideband millimetre-wave 0-dB coupler is proposed in this paper using gap waveguide technology for low-loss and high-power applications in 30-GHz frequency band. To overcome the fabrication challenges in millimetre-wave frequencies, the gap waveguide technique is utilised. Two gap waveguide-based coaxial- and waveguide-fed 0-dB couplers are designed with broadband performance, high return loss, acceptable coupling flatness and high isolation. For verifying the performance of the proposed structures, a prototype of the waveguide-fed 0-dB coupler is manufactured and measured. The measurement results show that the return and insertion losses and the isolation of the fabricated 0-dB coupler is better than 18 dB, 0.5 and 18 dB, respectively, in the specified frequency range from 26.2 to 34 GHz. Moreover, the breakdown power level of the proposed millimetre-wave structures is in kW orders to satisfy the high-power requirements

Design and Analysis of Microstrip Filtennas

The Goal of this thesis is to design and analyses the filtenna, also called by name filtering antenna. Designed by integration of the filter and antenna. In modern day wireless devices multiple antennas are required to make sure that it can be used for multiple communication services, this not only make the system bulky but the power loss is also more. In filtenna using active components can replace them making a system with low profile, more light weight, and energy efficient characteristics. In this thesis includes the first part which is an introduction to computational electromagnetics and using this analysis of microstrip antenna and second is the proposed design of two microstrip filtennas. Under computation electromagnetics, the Maxwell equation and antenna parameter are analyzed using finite difference method. The design and simulation of this filtenna have been done in ANSYS-HFSS-15 simulation tool. The first filtenna designed structure is the integration of the band-rejection filter with monopole antenna for UWB and X-Band applications. Where after applying the open stub it only passes the X-Band i.e. 8-12 GHz. The second proposed filtenna is for overlay cognitive radio application. This is design using the bandpass filter which is integrated with the antenna. In bandpass filter, the frequency tuning is done by varactor diode. This filtenna resonates at frequency 2.6 to 3 GHz and gain of 2.7dB. The fabrication of second filtenna using bandpass characteristics is done and analyzed the results