A Silicon Micromachined Four-Pole Linear Phase Filter

A 27-GHz four-pole linear phase filter constructed of micromachined cavities in silicon is presented. The structure of the filter consists of four side-by-side horizontally oriented cavities, which are coupled in turn by evanescent waveguide sections with three direct-couplings and one cross-coupling between the first and fourth cavity resonators. The cavities are reduced-height waveguide resonators and are fed by microstrip lines through slot apertures. A time-domain tuning technique is employed to improve the efficiency of the design synthesis. The measured results are presented and compared to those predicted by a finite-element-method model. The simulated filter response has a bandwidth of 2.2% centered at 27.480 GHz with an insertion loss of 1.4 dB at that frequency. The measured performance indicates a 1.9% bandwidth centered at 27.604 GHz with a deembedded insertion loss of 1.6 dB at that frequency and a measured unloaded Q of 1465.