Analog signal-interference narrow-band bandpass filters with hybrid transmission-line/SAW-resonator transversal filtering sections

A technique to design analog signal-interference narrow-band bandpass filters by merging transmission lines and surface-acoustic-wave (SAW) resonators is reported in this work. By inserting one-/two-port SAW resonators into the transversal filtering sections (TFSs) of the signal-interference filter, narrowband filtering actions with remarkable electrical properties can be synthesized. The latter particularly refers to the untypically-high effective unloaded quality factor (Q_u) associated with the generated bandpass filtering response given its fully-planar realization. This leads to perceptible benefits in terms of in-band transmission loss and occupied physical area when compared to a classic pure signal-interference filter design. Moreover, for a given type of SAW resonator, adjustable bandwidth and transmission zeros (TZs) can be produced to attain a large variety of high-selectivity filtering functions. For practical validation, a three-stage microstrip narrow-band bandpass filter with measured S-parameters of a 433.9-MHz one-port SAW resonator is shown. The spurious-mode effect of the measured SAW resonator, as a limiting factor in the overall filter performance, is also discussed.