Integrated filtering-antenna with controllable frequency bandwidth

An integrated design of a band-pass filter and a patch antenna is proposed in this paper by using an aperture coupled structure. Traditionally, the microwave filter and antenna are designed separately using 50 Ohm interface and then connected by transmission lines, which lead to a large size and more loss. Here, the antenna and microwave filter are directly integrated without a 50 Ohm interface between them. Compared with the traditional cascade designing, the co-design of filter and antenna has a more compact size, simpler configuration, improved frequency selectivity and higher system efficiency. The frequency bandwidth also can be controlled by adjusting the dimension of the coupling aperture in the ground. The measured results agree very well with the simulations, showing the filtering-antenna has good performance in impedance matching, radiation pattern and antenna gain.