Improvement of insertion loss of band pass tunable filter using SAW resonators and GaAs diode variable capacitors

Tunable filters with a wide band tunable range are required for mobile phones with multi-bands and cognitive radio systems to simplify their circuits. Previously, the authors prototyped a band pass tunable filter, which continuously changes frequency from 1734 to 1844 MHz (6.1%) using surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonators and Si diode variable capacitors (varicap). However, the insertion loss was large compared with calculated one because the Q factor of the Si diode varicap was as low as 1 at 1.8 GHz. In this study, the authors improved the insertion loss of the tunable filter using GaAs varicaps. Compared with the Si varicap, the GaAs varicap has a higher Q factor of about 41 at 1.8 GHz. The authors fabricated a tunable filter composed of two SAW resonators and the GaAs varicaps instead of the Si varicaps on a printed circuit board (PCB). As a result, the insertion loss was drastically improved by 12 dB at the maximum, and the frequency characteristic approached the calculated one. The tunable range was also improved from 6.1% to 6.8%.