Filter technologies for wireless base stations

Phenomenal growth in the telecommunication industry in recent years has brought significant advances in filter technology as new communication systems emerged, demanding more stringent filter characteristics. In particular, the growth of the wireless communication industry has spurred tremendous activity in the area of microwave filter miniaturization and has been responsible for many advances made in this field. The filters that are currently being used in wireless base stations can be divided into two main categories: coaxial cavity resonator filters and dielectric resonator (DR) filters. While coaxial cavity filters have limited quality factor (Q) values, they offer the lowest cost design and are still being widely employed, particularly in wide bandwidth applications. With increased demands for high performance wireless systems, dielectric resonator filters are emerging as the baseline design for wireless base stations. Over the next five years, dielectric resonator filters are expected to have a significant share of the overall wireless base station filter market. High-temperature superconductor (HTS) filters are also expected to have a share of this market, particularly for systems, which have very stringent requirements for out-of-band interference. In this article, we begin by reviewing the main filter requirements, highlighting the technologies that are being currently employed. Emerging filter technologies that have the potential to replace the existing technologies are then described.     

Dielectric resonators and filters

High-performance DRs and filters are widely used in wireless and satellite communication systems due to their superior characteristics, such as high unloaded Q, excellent temperature stability, and smaller size compared to their air-filled counterpart. Temperature-stable high-Q dielectric materials with a wide range of dielectric constants from 20 to 100 are available. The properties of a DR such as resonant frequency and unloaded Q can be accurately determined by full-wave EM simulations. TEoi single-mode filters offer the advantages of design simplicity and flexibility in layout options over HEn dual-mode filters, while dual-mode filters have significiint advantages in the mass and volume of the products. Mixing the TEoi and HE\ modes, dielectric loaded resonator filters achieve the advantages of dual-mode HEn DR filters and the excellent spurious performances of the TEqi mode ring resonator filters.     

Dielectric resonators raise your high-Q

High-quality resonating elements are the key to the function of most microwave circuits and systems. They are fundamental to the operation of filters and oscillators, and the performance of these circuits is primarily limited by the resonator quality factor. At microwave frequencies, the quality factor (Q) of metal transmission line resonant circuits is proportional to volume. As a result, waveguide structures are often employed to increase Q at the expense of size, weight, and cost. Dielectric resonators overcome these limitations due to the fact that their losses are dominated by dielectric loss (loss tangent), and only in small part to metallic losses (housing). Dielectric losses are improving constantly, whereas metal losses, with the exception of superconductors, have remained substantially the same. These resonators can be made to perform the same functions as waveguide filters, but are, in contrast, very small, stable and lightweight. The popularization of low-loss dielectric resonators roughly coincides with the miniaturization of many of the other associated elements of most microwave circuits. When taken together, these technologies permit the realization of small, reliable, lightweight and stable microwave systems     

Electronically Tunable Filters

In this article, a brief introduction to the development of tunable filters was given. A classical design technique based on a combline filter approach was shown, where minimum degradation in passband performance could be obtained across a broad-tuning range. The fundamental disadvantages associated with the conventional resonator tuning approaches were also discussed, recognizing the importance of developing new techniques for realizing tunable microwave filters. It was shown that there is a possibility in realizing an electronically reconfigurable microwave filter based on parallel- coupled switched-delay lines, which possesses the important property of maintaining constant absolute bandwidth over almost an octave of tuning bandwidth. Furthermore, the filter has the ability to incorporate active switching elements in the filter circuit, without sacrificing its loss and linearity performance. With the exceptional linearity performance and power handling capability, the filter is readily adapted to poor environments. Although the use of p-i-n diodes as switching elements would result in large dc consumption, the approach could also be readily adapted for use with any switches, such as pHEMT or RF MEMS switches, to achieve extremely low power consumption. The integration of switchable couplings to enable both bandwidth and center frequency to be reconfigurable would be an enhancement.     

Tuneable Two-Pole One-Dielectric-Resonator Filter with Elliptic Characteristics

A frequency tuneable microwave filter based on a dual mode dielectric resonator has been developed. Tuning of the filter was realised by using metal plate located over the dielectric resonator and moved along the resonator axis by a piezoelectric bimorph. The main parameters of the filter were: central frequency in the middle of the range of tuning—2.35 GHz, bandwidth for 1dB level—～ 0.5%, range of tuning—～ 10%. The insertion losses in the whole tuning range were below ～ 1 dB.     

Microring-Resonator-Based Widely Tunable Lasers

We describe widely tunable lasers incorporating microring resonators. By using a double-ring-resonator-coupled filter, a wide wavelength tuning range is achieved with a low tuning current. A double-ring-resonator-coupled tunable laser has series-connected microring resonators in the laser cavity. A tuning range of 50 nm is achieved with injection current of less than 5.2 mA. This low injection current reduces the frequency drift caused by thermal transients to less than 5 GHz. We also describe an integrated filtered feedback tunable laser consisting of a Fabry–Perot (FP) laser and integrated filtered feedback sections. In this device, the filter section is removed from the laser cavity. The device exhibits a 24-nm tuning range with a side-mode suppression ratio of 50 dB. The frequency drift is less than 1 GHz because the longitudinal mode of the laser is mainly determined by the FP laser section. We have also developed a filter-free widely tunable wavelength converter by monolithically integrating a tunable laser and a wavelength converter based on a semiconductor optical amplifier. Wavelength conversion for a 10-Gb/s nonreturn-to-zero signal is also demonstrated, tunable over a 40-nm range.      

串联谐振法测量1/4波长介质同轴谐振器的特性参数

本文介绍一种测量1/4波长介质同轴谐振器主要特性参数的方法.介质同轴谐振器等效为并联谐振回路,直接串入线路无法测量其参数,本文提出串联谐振法,即在谐振器的开路端串联一只高Q值的电容器,形成串联谐振回路,用网络分析仪测量其传输曲线,从曲线上直接读出该回路的谐振频率和Q值,然后用本文推导出的公式便可计算得出谐振器的谐振频率和无载Q值.本文还用介电常数为74的陶瓷材料制成了1/4波长介质同轴谐振器进行了一系列的实验,实验结果表明,该方法简单,非常实用.     

A dual-mode tunable bandpass filter for GSM,UMTS, WiFi,and WiMAX standards applications

This paper presents a dual-mode tunable bandpass filter (BPF) for global system for mobile communication, universal mobile telecommunications system, wireless fidelity, and worldwide interoperability for microwave access standard applications. The proposed filter consists of a stepped-impedance resonator, single resonator, and coupled line, which are loaded with varactors. The center frequency and bandwidth of the proposed filter can be tuned with tuning varactors. Furthermore, the measurement results show that the BPF can be tuned over the frequency range of 1.8 to 2.5 GHz. Moreover, the bandwidth can be changed at each certain frequency. Furthermore, using PIN diodes, a bandstop filter is added to the tunable BPF to reduce the out-of-band frequencies around the desired frequencies. The values of LC equivalent circuits are calculated, and the results are compared with those obtained from the layout of the proposed structure. Finally, the measurement results justify the simulation results.     

RF Bulk Acoustic Wave Resonators and Filters

Small sized, highly selective solidly mounted bulk acoustic wave (BAW) band pass filters are of great interest for mobile and wireless systems operating in the frequency range of 0.8 GHz up to more than 10 GHz. They can be fabricated on silicon or glass wafers using standard semiconductor integration techniques. These filters are based on electro-acoustic high Q resonators, which exploit the thickness extensional mode of a thin piezoelectric AlN or ZnO film. This film has to be grown with its polar axis, oriented perpendicular to the substrate. Both the deposition process and using a textured electrode support excellent c-axis oriented growth and thus high electromechanical coupling coefficient k _t and filter bandwidth. Modelling of the filter and resonator response is performed by means of a combination of a 1D electro-acoustic model together with an electromagnetic model. The paper shows examples of filters operating in the range between 2 and 8 GHz.     

A review of thin-film resonator technology

Thin-film resonator technology has been under development for over 40 years as a means to reach higher frequencies than obtainable with conventional quartz-crystal technology. Using advances in microelectronic processing, thin films of piezoelectric materials are used to fabricate resonators and filters over a range of 500 MHz to 20 GHz. This article is a review of the thin-film resonator (TFR) technology that describes the core structures and issues and gives examples of filters and resonators that have been manufactured or demonstrated.     

VCO/RADIATOR MODULE TUNED BY FERROELECTRIC VARACTOR

ABSTRACT

Design of tunable Gunn diode—based active antenna module including a new type of planar dielectric resonator (PDR) tuned by a ferroelectric (FE) varactor is presented. The module is designed in such a way that the PDR acts both as a stabilizing resonator and as a radiator. MW properties of FE elements used for VCO tuning are considered. The module operates at frequency around of 17 GHz and demonstrates the radiated power of 8.8 ± 0.1 dBm over the 130 MHz tuning range and a phase-noise level of ?95 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset. 65° width of the radiation pattern in both the E and H planes corresponding to a gain of 5.1 dBi was measured. The maximal VCO power limited by the dielectric nonlinearity of a FE film in the microwave electric field and by the FE film overheating is estimated for FE film-based varactors of the planar and parallel structures.     

Design and Development of Ferroelectric Tunable Coplanar Waveguide Components for Ku- and K-Band Applications

In the past several years, we have demonstrated electrically tunable microstrip components such as resonators, filters, diplexers, and couplers based on conductor/ferroelectrics/dielectric two-layered structure. Recently, we are focusing our efforts on tunable coplanar waveguide (CPW) components in collaboration with NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, OH. The advantages of CPW components include higher dielectric tunability compared to microstrip structure, ease of shunt connections, and ease of testing. To date, we have modeled several CPW structures with ferroelectric thin-film to study the effect of inserting the ferroelectric thin-film on electric tunability, attenuation and dispersion. Also, we have designed and fabricated devices such as resonators, and filters. The ferroelectric tunable CPW filters were tunable by more than 3% at bias voltage levels of - 100V. The BSTO based CPW filters offer higher sensitivity parameter as well as lower loss parameter compared to BSTO tunable 2-pole microstrip filters.     

A Monolithic Wideband Wavelength-Tunable Laser Diode Integrated With a Ring/MZI Loop Filter

We propose a widely tunable and low insertion loss loop filter incorporating two ring resonators and an asymmetric Mach–Zehnder interferometer. A semiconductor optical amplifier, phase control section, and loop filter are monolithically integrated on one chip in the InP–InGaAsP material system. The tuning range of 39 nm with side-mode suppression ratio of over 30 dB was demonstrated. The maximum of the total heater power over the tuning range was 84 mW.      

Reconfigurable narrowband microwave band‐pass filter

A method is proposed for the design of band‐pass filters with tunable centre frequency and bandwidth without the need for adjusting the inter‐resonator couplings. This is achieved by cascading a quasi low‐pass filter and a quasi high‐pass filter, while minimizing interaction between the filters without the need for an isolator between the filters. Simulated results are presented. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tunable Filters Based on Ferroelectrics

A novel microstrip tunable filter design approach is suggested. Coupling factor of a ferroelectric capacitor connected with the microstrip resonators of the filter is considered to make possible the design of the filter keeping constant the pass band width while tuning. Results of the filter characteristic simulation and measurement are presented.     

A reconfigurable bandpass-bandstop filter based on varactor-loaded closed-ring resonators [Technical Committee]

In this article, a novel reconfigurable bandpass-bandstop filter based on the varactor-loaded closed-ring resonators is presented, where the bandpass and bandstop characteristics can be easily controlled by tuning the varactor bias voltage. This reconfigurability results from the perturbation effect on the degenerated even and odd modes of the closed-ring resonator. When the perturbation varactor is at the series resonance, its reactance vanishes, so a bandstop characteristic is formed. When the perturbation varactor is changed to be capacitive, the bandpass characteristic is generated. Additional varactors, incorporated at input and output ports, are tuned along with the perturbation varactors to maintain good return losses.     

Internal spatial modes in glass microring resonators

We have used near-field scanning optical microscopy to measure the internal optical modes inside glass waveguides and microring resonators. The period of the observed standing modes provides a direct measure of the local effective index. The measured effective index and modal shape determines the values of all components of the wave vector. The observed standing modes inside the ring resonator are unexpected, but are caused by the standing modes in the coupling waveguide. Last, we describe a technique that can obtain detailed information about the locations of the dielectric interfaces     

Thick electrodes for high frequency high Q tunable ferroelectric thin film varactors

Abstract

Thin film barium strontium titanate (BST) shows great promise for voltage tunable dielectric devices for use at RF and microwave frequencies. An MOCVD process has been developed for production of BST, resulting in films with very low losses (as low as 0.002–0.004) and tunabilities over 50% at low operation voltages. With these values of BST loss, overall device quality factors at RF (100 MHz+) frequencies are primarily limited by losses in the thin metal electrodes, such as Pt, normally used for ferroelectric thin films. The bottom electrode in parallel plate capacitor structures is particularly challenging, since it must provide a good growth surface for BST and be stable at high (>600 °C) growth temperatures in an oxidizing atmosphere yet have high conductivity and compatibility with Si or SiO₂/Si substrates. These challenges have previously prevented use of Pt thicknesses over 0.1–0.2 urn. Our solution to this problem, involves combinations of adhesion layers at the Pt/SiO₂ interface and embedded stabilization layers to make functioning Pt bottom electrodes as thick as 2 μm. Devices with dielectric Q factors over 150 at 100 MHz (tan δ ～ 0.006 as measured and modeled by S-parameters) and overall device Q factors over 50 at 30 MHz are described. We have also inserted these devices into tunable filters, achieving tunabilities of 50% and low insertion losses (0.3 dB) at RF frequencies.     

Potential impact of ferroelectric technology for PCS and cellular communications

Abstract

As the cellular and PCS spectrum become increasingly crowded due to the presence of a greater number of subscribers, it will become even more important for handset and base station manufacturers to come up with ways to ensure reliable system performance. In the handsets, the use of tunable filters, along with lower phase noise tunable oscillators, among other things, can help achieve the desired increase in reliability and system performance. It is in these areas where frequency agile components may be best applied. Ferroelectric thin/thick film technology is making significant improvements in reducing dielectric loss and tuning voltage requirements. Thus their application to the development of commercially useful and practical frequency agile components is gaining. This paper will consider some of the potential areas in filtering and tunable oscillator design where ferroelectric materials may be used to an advantage in future generation handsets.