A Reconfigurable Balanced Dual-Band Bandpass Filter With Constant Absolute Bandwidth and High Selectivity

Abstract

A reconfigurable balanced dual-band bandpass filter (BPF) with constant differential-mode (DM) absolute bandwidth (ABW) and high selectivity is designed in this article. The proposed BPF is composed of a set of asymmetric short stub-loaded resonators (A-SSLRs) and balanced microstrip-to-slotline transition structures (MSTSs). Four varactor diodes are employed to achieve the reconfigurable characteristics with small insertion losses. By changing the coupling distances and selecting the positions of the loaded varactor diodes on A-SSLRs, the DM coupling coefficients $K_{i}$ and quality factors $Q_{i}$ of the proposed BPF can be easily controlled to keep a constant DM ABW. In the overall tuning range, a superior common-mode (CM) suppression is achieved intrinsically, and the DM responses are independent of the CM ones. Furthermore, five DM transmission zeros (TZs) are generated by the mixed-coupling and source–load coupling, which can improve the selectivity obviously. Compared with the published reconfigurable balanced BPFs, the proposed one has the advantages of constant DM ABW, smaller insertion losses, and more independent control on the two DM passbands. In order to validate the design strategies, a prototype circuit is designed, fabricated, and measured. The simulated and measured results are presented with a good agreement to verify the theory and design.