Novel MMIC architectures for tunable microwave wideband active filters

"Summary form only given, as follows." This paper reports on two novel architectures for designing tunable microwave active bandpass filters in MMIC technology. The 1st MMIC concerns a frequency-tunable active bandpass filter based on the principle of “actively-coupled passive resonators”. Starting from a specific synthesis method developed for fixed-frequency high-order filters, the frequency tuning ability is now performed by the use of varactor-diodes. This new feature is illustrated by the design of a tunable 3-pole active bandpass filter centered at 12 GHz on GaAs. The 2nd MMIC implements a frequency-selective wideband active bandpass filter with the ability to select the required band. This feature is achieved by the use of a channelized configuration. To demonstrate this ability, a GaAs chip has been designed using 3 active filtering channels, embedded in a distributed topology to perform a 3-pole bandpass response in the [9–15] GHz range.