Fully distributed tunable bandpass filter based on Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 thin-film slow-wave structure

This paper presents simulation and measurement results of fully distributed tunable coplanar bandpass filters (BPFs) with center frequencies around 6 GHz that make use of ferroelectric Barium Strontium Titanate (BaxSr1−xTiO3 or BST-x) thin film as tunable material. The two experimental bandpass filters tested are based on a novel frequency-agile structure composed of cascaded half wavelength slow-wave resonators (2 poles) and three coupled interdigital capacitors (IDCs) optimized for bias voltage application. Devices with gap dimensions of 10 and 3 μm are designed and fabricated with a two-step process on polycrystalline Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 thin films deposited on alumina substrate. A frequency tunability of 9% is obtained for the 10 μm gap structure at ±30 V with 7 dB insertion loss (the BST dielectric tunability being 26% with 0.04 loss tangent for this gap size). When the structure gap is reduced to 3 μm the center frequency shifts with a constant 9 dB insertion loss from 6.95 GHz at 0 V to 9.05 GHz at ±30 V, thus yielding a filter tunability of 30% (the BST dielectric tunability being 60% with 0.04 loss tangent for this gap size), a performance comparable to some extent to localized or lumped element BPFs operating at microwave frequency (>2 GHz).