Proposal of a new landing area for SAW RF filters in wireless applications ensuring precisely predictable filter characteristics

Due to the high complexity and the high performance of the packaged SAW RF filters, it is extremely difficult to guarantee comparable performance of them on different printed circuit boards (PCBs) and in the final application environment. This paper presents a new approach of designing physical different PCBs such that SAW RF components on them exhibit identical performance. The new approach is based on the concept of using optimized test environments, i.e., test environments with minimal reflections, minimal cross-talk, and minimal losses, in order to obtain the pure filter characteristics. The applicability and advantages of the new approach are exemplified.