MICROWAVE FILTER

DESIGN
Melissa Ness
Supervisor: Dr. Marek
Bialkowski
Filters are an essential part of telecommunications and radar systems and are key
items in the performance and cost of such systems, especially in the increasingly
congested spectrum. There has been a particularly marked growth in the cellular
communications industry in recent years. This has contributed to both very
demanding performance specifications for filters and the commercial pressures
for low cost, high volume and quick delivery. Through an investigation into and a
subsequent implementation of filter theory, the techniques to produce optimal
filter performance for a class of filters are developed in this thesis.
The core of this thesis has been the
development of an “exact” circuit
synthesis, so that filter design is not
restricted to more conventional
responses. This has required an
investigation of the basic filter theory
through to the development of a
generalised synthesis program*.
Ultimately, the complex mathematical
equations programmed, which describe
the filter function are realised by a
physical filter network. A physical
filter has been designed to
specifications, using the program
developed. This filter has been tuned
and the responses obtained are shown
in Figures 2,3 and 4.
The practical results verify the
integrity of the whole process for PHOTO TAKEN OF THE PHYSICAL
efficient and elegant design of filters, to
FILTER DESIGNED USING THE METHODS
meet stringent specifications.
* The program uses the concept of a coupling
IMPLEMENTED IN THE THESIS
matrix representation for generalised
Chebyshev filtering functions