Magnetically tunable rectangular waveguide E-plane integrated circuit filters

Abstract

A rigorous field theory method is described for the computer-aided design (CAD) of magnetically tunable E-plane metal-insert filters, where the waveguide sections are symmetrically loaded with ferrite slabs, and for large-gap finlines filters on a ferrite substrate. The design method is based on field expansion in suitably normalized eigenmodes which yields directly the modal scattering matrix of all discontinuities. The theory includes both higher-order mode interaction and the finite thickness of the metal inserts. Optimized data are given for magnetically tunable Ku-band metal insert and finline filter examples. The metal-insert type achieves a tuning range of its operating midband from about 14.1 to 15.7 GHz. The theory is verified by measurements. >