Miniaturized bandwidth reconfigurable microwave bandpass filter

Purpose Modern wireless communications need novel microwave components that can be effectively used for high data rate and low-power applications. The operating environment decides the severity of the noise coupled to the transceiver system from the ambient environment. In a deep fading environment, narrowband systems fail where the wideband systems come for rescue. Thus, the microwave components are ought to switch between the narrowband and wideband states. This paper aims to study the design of a bandpass filter to meet the requirements by appropriately switching between the dual narrowband frequencies and single ultra-wideband frequency band. Design/methodology/approach The design and implementation of a compact microwave filter with reconfigurable bandwidth characteristics are presented in this paper. The proposed filter is constructed using a hexagonal ring with shorted perturbation along one corner. The filter is capacitively coupled to the external excitation source. External stubs are connected to the corners of the hexagonal resonator to obtain dual passband characteristics centred at 2.1 and 4.5 GHz. The external stubs are configured to achieve bandwidth reconfigurable characteristics. PIN diodes are used with a suitable biasing network to obtain reconfiguration. In the reconfigured state, the proposed two-port filter offers a continuous bandwidth from 2.1 to 5.9 GHz. The roll-off rate along the band edges is improved by increasing the order of the filter. Findings The proposed filter operates in two states. In state 1, the filter operates with dual frequencies centred around 2 and 4.5 GHz with insertion loss less than <1 dB and return loss greater than 13 dB with a peak return loss of 21 and 31 dB at 2.1 and 2.15 GHz, respectively. In state 2, the filter operates from 2.1 to 5.9 GHz with insertion loss less than 1 dB and return loss greater than 12 dB. The filter exhibits four-pole characteristics with a peak return loss greater than 22 dB. Thus, the fractional bandwidth of the proposed filter is 17% and 16% in state 1, whereas the fractional bandwidth is 95% in state 2. Originality/value The proposed filter is the first of its kind to simultaneously offer miniaturization and bandwidth reconfiguration. The proposed second-order filter has two-pole characteristics in the narrowband state, whereas four-pole characteristics are realized in the wideband state. The growing interest in 4G and 5G wireless communications makes the proposed filter a suitable candidate for operation in the rich scattering environment.