Tunable Coaxial Cavity Resonator-Based Filters Using Actuated Liquid Metal Posts

Abstract

This letter presents a new tuning method for coaxial cavity resonator-based bandpass filters (BPFs). The proposed tuning mechanism lays its foundations on pneumatically-actuated Galinstan that functionalizes the inner conductor of a capacitively-loaded coaxial cavity resonator. By altering the volume of Galinstan (i.e., height of inner conductor), ultrawide (>octave) and low loss RF tuning can be obtained without the need for small capacitive gaps that typically limit the RF performance of coaxial BPFs. To validate the concept, a coaxial cavity resonator with frequency tuning between 2.9 and 9.9 GHz (3.4:1 tuning range), and unloaded quality factor between 120 and 625 was manufactured and measured. Furthermore, the RF performance of a two-pole BPF with: 1) tunable frequency between 3.4 and 7.5 GHz (2.2:1); 2) an intrinsically switched-off state; 3) insertion loss <1 dB; and 4) return loss <10.5 dB was experimentally validated.