TUNABLE AND SWITCHABLE BANDPASS FILTERS USING SLOT-LINE RESONATORS

In this paper, novel uniplanar tunable and switchable bandpass filters are designed by using the centrally-loaded slot-line resonator. From the voltage-wave distribution along the resonator, the appropriate location for the loading element is determined to be the center of the slot-line resonator, where the voltages of the fundamental signal and second harmonic are maximum and zero, respectively. As a result, the fundamental frequency can be tuned while the second harmonic remains almost unchanged. For the first time, the properties of the centrally-loaded slot-line resonator are analyzed by using the even- and odd-mode method, and their respective resonant frequencies are derived. The demonstrated tunable bandpass filter can give a 30.9% frequency tuning range with acceptable insertion loss when a varactor is used as the loading element. By replacing the loading varactors with PIN diodes, a switchable bandpass filter is realized in which the attenuation in the fundamental passband can be controlled. In experiments, the switchable bandpass filter exhibits a 2.13 dB insertion loss in the fundamental passband when the PIN diodes are off and more than 49 dB isolation across the passband when the PIN diodes are on.