Electronically switchable and tunable coplanar waveguide-slotline band-pass filters

A coplanar waveguide (CPW)-slotline bandpass filter is described. The circuit allows planar integration of active and passive semiconductor devices both in series and in shunt. A microstrip-to-slotline transition designed to test the filter is also described. Two of the transitions exhibit an insertion loss of less than 1.0 dB over the 2.0-4.0-GHz range. A three-section CPW-slotline bandpass filter demonstrates an insertion loss of less than 0.2 dB over the passband centered at 2.9 GHz. A three-section CPW-slotline switchable bandpass filter integrated with three p-i-n diodes is discussed. It has a 0.7-dB insertion loss in the passband when the p-i-n diodes are off and a 25.0-dB isolation across the entire band when the p-i-n diodes are on. A three-section CPW-slotline varactor-tunable filter integrated with three varactor diodes is presented, showing a 2.0-dB insertion loss and over 20% electronic tuning range. Simple transmission line circuit models are used to optimize the design.<
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