Present and Future Trends in Filters and Multiplexers

In the last 10 or 15 years, exciting new developments have occurred in the field of filters and multiplexers. The two words that best explain this phenomenon are “topology” and “technology.” Thus, this paper will cover new connections, new materials, and new processes. This paper summarizes what is new, describes the new devices, and avoids simply surveying the entire field. It is not possible to cover everything, and regrettably, some new and possibly exciting areas are omitted (such as filters fabricated using liquid crystal polymers, active element inclusion, extreme power devices used in accelerators), and others, ..., because something has to be left for the next paper! The paper does cover bandstop filters, intrinsically switched film bulk acoustic resonator, and barium-strontium-titanate filters, brand new derivations of lossy filter synthesis and dual-band filter synthesis, multimode networks, new work on optimal multiplexer (multiport network) configurations, and substrate integrated waveguide filters. In each of these areas significant new work has been recently performed and is presented in a summary format suitable for those thinking that the area of filters and multiplexers has become mature (stagnant) with nothing interesting to learn. Nothing could be further from the truth!