2006 Recent Developments in HTS Filters

Recent Development in
Superconducting Filters
(Invited Talk)
Jia-Sheng Hong
Heriot-Watt University
Edinburgh, UK
Dr. J.-S. Hong

Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering
Heriot-Watt University, UK 1
Email: J.Hong@hw.ac.uk
Outline
Introduction
HTS materials and substrates
Recent developed HTS Filters
Summary
Dr. J.-S. Hong

Introduction
• The driving force behind the development of

superconducting filters remains for mobile,
satellite communications and some other
niche applications.
• The extremely low resistance of

superconducting materials has enabled the
realization of miniature thin film filters with
exceptional performances.
Dr. J.-S. Hong

Introduction- HTS Filter Publications
Total 260+ in recent 10 years
Search from IEEE Xplore
50
45
40
N
35
u
m 30
b 25
e 20
r
15
10
5
0
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Year
Dr. J.-S. Hong

What is the Superconductor and HTS?
6Superconductors are materials which, when cooled below a certain

temperature, exhibit a zero intrinsic resistance to direct current (d.c.) flow.
6The temperature at which the intrinsic resistance undergoes an abrupt change
is referred to as the critical temperature or transition temperature (Tc).
6The superconductors with transition temperature greater than 77 K, the boiling
point of liquid nitrogen, are referred to as the high-temperature superconductors
(HTS).
6For alternating current (a.c.) flow, the surface resistance of the
superconductor does not go to zero below Tc, but increases with increasing
frequency.
Dr. J.-S. Hong

HTS Materials
6There are many hundreds of high-temperature superconductors with varying
transition temperature Tc.
6YBCO (yttium barium copper oxide) and TBCCO (thallium barium calcium
copper oxide) are the two most popular and commercially available HTS
materials.
Typical HTS materials

Materials TC (K)
YBa2Cu3O7-x (YBCO) ≈92
Tl2Ba2Ca1Cu2Ox (TBCCO) ≈105
Dr. J.-S. Hong

Surface Resistance of HTS
at RF/Microwave Frequencies
100
Micro ohms 10
Surface Resistance (mΩ)
0.1
YBCO @77K
Cu @77K
0.01
Cu @300K
0.001
1 10 100
Frequency (GHz)
Dr. J.-S. Hong

HTS Thin Film Technology
Devices can be patterned using

HTS thin films can be grown on a suitable wet or dry etching techniques, e.g.
substrate using sputtering, laser ablation, or
other thin film deposition techniques. HTS microstrip
Dielectric
substrate
Dr. J.-S. Hong
Substrates for HTS Thin Films
6To obtain good quality film, the dimensions of crystalline lattice at the surface
of the substrate should match that of lattice of HTS.
6For RF applications the substrate should also have a low dielectric loss at RF.
6There are three widely used substrates for growing HTS thin films for RF
applications: Magnesium Oxide (MgO), Lanthanum Aluminate (LaAlO3), and Sapphire.
Substrates for HTS films

substrate ε r (typical) tan δ (typical)
LaAlO3 24.2 @ 77K 7.6 ×10 −6 @ 77K and 10 GHz

MgO 9.6 @ 77K 5.5 × 10 −6 @ 77K and 10 GHz
Sapphire 11.6 || c-axis @ 77K 1.5 ×10 −8 @ 77K and 10 GHz
9.4 ⊥ c-axis @ 77K
Dr. J.-S. Hong

HTS filters for licensed frequency spectrum of
mobile communications
¾Implement CQT (cascaded-quadruplet-trisection) or CQ designs for

low insertion loss, high selectivity and/or linear group delay.
¾Implement HTS filters on sapphire wafers for low-cost
Dr. J.-S. Hong

10-pole CQT 10-MHz HTS Filter
Design
PORT 1 10 PORT 2
T LIN TL IN T LIN
I D=M 13 ID=m47 I D=m 810
Z 0=z13 Ohm Z0 =z47 O hm Z 0=z810 Ohm
EL=-90 Deg EL=-90 Deg EL=90 Deg
F 0=F M Hz F0 =F MH z F 0=F M Hz
TLI N TLIN T LIN TLI N T LIN TLIN T LIN T LI N TL IN TLI N T LIN

ID= z1 ID= m12 I D=m 23 ID= m34 I D=m45 ID=m 56 I D=m 67 I D=m78 I D=m89 ID= m91 0 I D=z
Z0= 50 O hm Z0= z12 Oh m Z 0=z23 Ohm Z0=z34 Ohm Z 0=z45 Ohm Z0=z56 Ohm Z 0=z67 O hm Z 0=z78 Ohm Z0 =z89 O hm Z0= z91 0 O hm Z 0=50 Ohm
EL =90 Deg EL =90 Deg EL=9 0 Deg EL= 90 Deg EL=90 Deg EL= 90 D eg EL=90 Deg EL= 90 De g EL=90 Deg EL =90 Deg EL=90 Deg
PORT F0= F MHz F0= F MHz F 0=F M Hz F0=F MHz F 0=F MHz F0=F M Hz F 0=F M Hz F 0=F MHz F0 =F MH z F0= F MHz F 0=F MHz
P=1
Z= 50 O hm
PORT
P=2
Z =50 Ohm
PLC PLC PLC PLC PLC PLC PL C PLC PLC PLC

I D=r1 ID= r2 ID =r3 ID=r4 ID=r5 ID= r6 ID= r7 I D=r8 ID= r9 ID= r10
L= lo1 nH L=lo 2 nH L=l o3 nH L= lo4 nH L=l o5 n H L=lo6 nH L=lo7 nH L= lo8 nH L=lo 9 nH L=lo 10 nH
C= co 1 pF C=co2 pF C=co3 pF C= co4 pF C=co5 pF C=co6 pF C=co7 pF C= co8 pF C=co9 pF C=co10 pF
Dr. J.-S. Hong

Design
10 pole 10 MHz ideal

0
M
a S11
g -20
n S21
i
t -40
u
d
e
-60
(dB)
-80
-100
1945 1950 1955 1960 1965
Dr. J.-S. Hong

Fabrication & packaging
•The designed filter was fabricated on a 0.43mm-thick sapphire wafer with double-
sided YBCO films.
•The YBCO thin films have a thickness of 300 nm and a characteristic temperature of
87K.
•Both sides of the wafer are gold-plated with 200 nm thick gold (Au). The gold RF
contacts are epoxy bonded to K-connectors with sliding contacts.
•The fabricated HTS filter used a wafer size of 47x17 mm.
Dr. J.-S. Hong

Measured performance
dB 1
S21 dB 1 dB
S11 S21
0
0 0
-10 1 S21 -10 -5
1.975000 GHz
-20 -0.4885 dB -20 -10
-30 -30 -15
-40 -40 -20
-50 -50 -25
-60 -60 -30
-70 -70 -35
1 S21
-80 -80 1.974000 GHz -40
-0.7590 dB
-90 -90 -45
-100 -100 -50

Start: 1.880000 GHz Stop: 2.200000 GHz Start: 1.960000 GHz Stop: 1.985000 GHz
Excellent narrow-band response with a good rejection over the

entire UMTS transmission band (2110 - 2170 MHz).
Dr. J.-S. Hong

18-pole HTS Filter with Group Delay Equalisation
Introduction
• The selectivity can be significantly increased with the

use of high-order filters, and there is a trend to
develop high-order HTS filters to take advantages of
miniature high Q HTS resonators .
• Unfortunately, higher order selective-only filters tend

to result in a poorer phase performance even over
the band center.
Dr. J.-S. Hong

Introduction
0 1400
30-pole 30-pole
-20 Chebyshev 1200 Chebyshev
18-pole 18-pole
Transmission (dB)
-40
Group delay (ns)

quasi-elliptic quasi-elliptic
1000
18-pole 18-pole
-60
quasi-elliptic quasi-elliptic
with linear phase 800 with linear phase
-80
-100 600
-120
400
-140
200
1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1960 1962 1964 1966 1968 1970 1972 1974
Frequency (MHz) Frequency (MHz)
All the three filters have a pass band of 15 MHz from 1960 MHz to 1975
MHz with the same ripple level, and are supposed to meet a selectivity of
70-dB rejection bandwidth of about 16 MHz
Dr. J.-S. Hong

Design
Coupling structure (cascaded quadruplet)
PORT Qe1 M25 M69 M10,13 M14,17 Qe2 PORT

1 1 2 5 6 9 10 13 14 17 18 2
3 4 7 8 11 12 15 16
For our design, only one quadruple section, which consists of the
resonators 10 to 13, will be used for the group delay equalization, while the
other three quadruplet sections are arranged for the high selectivity.
Dr. J.-S. Hong

Design
Circuit modelling
Magnitude Response Group Delay

0 1400
1200
1000
GD[1,2] ~ (ns)
-50
800 18_pole_15_MHz
600
DB(|S[1,1]|)
18_pole_15_MHz 400
-100
DB(|S[2,1]|)
18_pole_15_MHz 200
-150 -200
1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1960 1965 1970 1975
Frequency (MHz) Frequency (MHz)
The 18-pole filter was designed to have a 15 MHz pass

band at a canter frequency of 1967.5 MHz.
Dr. J.-S. Hong

Implementation of Microstrip Quadruplet A
The desired coupling matrix for the first quadruplet,
i.e. coupled resonators 2, 3, 4 and 5, is given by
⎡ 0 M 23 0 M 25 ⎤ ⎡ 0 0.4089 0 0.1822⎤
⎢M 0 M 34 0 ⎥⎥ ⎢ − 0.5706 0 ⎥⎥
⎢ 23 − 2 ⎢0.4089 0
= 10 ⋅ (1)
⎢ 0 M 34 0 M 45 ⎥ ⎢ 0 − 0.5706 0 0.3460⎥
⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥
⎣ M 25 0 M 45 0 ⎦ ⎣0.1822 0 0.3460 0 ⎦
-20
S21 (dB) -40
-60
-80 Theory
Simulation
-100
0.990 0.995 1.000 1.005 1.010
Normalized frequency
Dr. J.-S. Hong

Implementation of Microstrip Quadruplet B
The desired coupling matrix for the first quadruplet,

i.e. coupled resonators 10, 11, 12 and 13, is given by
⎡ 0 M10,11 0 M10,13 ⎤ ⎡ 0 0.3419 0 0.1785⎤

⎢M 0 ⎥⎥ ⎢
⎢ 10,11 0 M11,12 − 2 ⎢0.3419 0 0.2047 0 ⎥⎥
= 10 ⋅ (2)
⎢ 0 M11,12 0 M12,13 ⎥ ⎢ 0 0.2047 0 0.3423⎥
⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥
⎢⎣ M10,13 0 M12,13 0 ⎥⎦ ⎣0.1785 0 0.3423 0 ⎦
S21 (dB) -20
-40
-60
-80 Theory
Simulation
-100
0.990 0.995 1.000 1.005 1.010
Normalized frequency
Dr. J.-S. Hong

Final layout of 18-pole HTS microstrip filter
The overall chip size is 74 mm x 17 mm on sapphire substrate
Dr. J.-S. Hong

Fabricated 18-pole HTS microstrip filter
The filter was then fabricated on a 0.43mm-thick sapphire (Al2O3)

wafer with double-sided YBCO films. The YBCO thin films have
a thickness of 300 nm and a characteristic temperature of 87K.
Both sides of the wafer are gold-plated with 200 nm thick gold
(Au) for the RF contacts.
Dr. J.-S. Hong

Measured responses
dB S11 S21 dB ns Group Delay

0 0 1400
-10 -5 1200
-20 -10 1000
-30 -15 800
-40 -20 600
-50 -25 400
-60 -30 200
-70 -35 0
-80 -40 -200
-90 -45 -400
-100 -50 -600

Start: 1.960000 GHz Stop: 1.980000 GHz Start: 1.963000 GHz Stop: 1.978000 GHz
The measured bandwidth is close to 15 MHz. The insertion loss of

1.4 dB at the band center was measured, including the losses of the
contacts. The resonator Q is estimated to be larger than 50,000.
Dr. J.-S. Hong

Dr. J.-S. Hong
4-pole HTS Elliptic Filter
2005
The filters were fabricated by using e-beam lithography and wet etching process. YBCO film is
double side polished type. YBCO film thickness is 700 nm in both sides and one side is
protected with a gold layer. The substrate is LaAlO3 with the thickness of 0.5 mm.
Dr. J.-S. Hong

Superconducting filters for radio astronomy
Birmingham University, 2006
Measured at 22K
Dr. J.-S. Hong

An Eight Pole Self-Equalised Quasi-Elliptic
Superconductor Planar Filter For Satellite
Applications
2005
Dr. J.-S. Hong

An Eight Pole Self-Equalised Quasi-Elliptic
Superconductor Planar Filter For Satellite
Applications
2005
Dr. J.-S. Hong

Qu ~ 4000 at 77K
1.5 dB insertion loss at 77K
Dr. J.-S. Hong

Tuning Fork Filter Design for Hand Scribe Tuning
Genichi Tsuzuki, Matthew P. Hernandez and Balam A. Willemsen
Superconductor Technologies, Santa Barbara, CA
IEEE MTT-S 2005
Tuning HTS filters:

•Mechanical tuning (e.g. tuning screws)
•Laser trimming
•Thin dielectric layer deposition
•Hand scribe tuning ->
Dr. J.-S. Hong

Scribing here
So as not to
damage HTS
resonator
Dr. J.-S. Hong

Dr. J.-S. Hong

Highly-Selective Electronically-Tunable Cryogenic Filters Using Monolithic,
Discretely-Switchable MEMS Capacitor Arrays
The use of Micro Electromechanical Systems (MEMS) with

High Temperature Superconductors (HTS) has enabled a new
class of highly-selective tunable filters. HTS microstrip filters
are generally planar, and are thus very well suited to
subsequent monolithic processing such as MEMS technology.
Dr. J.-S. Hong

Highly-Selective Electronically-Tunable Cryogenic Filters Using Monolithic,
Discretely-Switchable MEMS Capacitor Arrays
MEMS switches
A low loss electronically tunable filter was

demonstrated using HTS/Au MEMS
switched capacitor arrays. The two-pole
filter was tuned by simultaneously varying
the capacitance of each resonator by equal
amounts. The total tuning range was about
25% with an average Q of 7,000 at 77 K.
Dr. J.-S. Hong

Improvement of Power Handling Capability
A research team at NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone) Corporation has

focussed on improving power handling of HTS filters and found that
• IP3 is enhanced by increasing HTS thin film thickness t. For YBCO
filters, IP3 at 70 K increased from 53 to 65 dBm as t increased from 620
nm to 800 nm.
• Different materials and deposition methods can affect the power
handling.
• A possible trade-off between the passband insertion loss, i.e.|S21|, and
power handling capability in HTS bandpass filters.
Dr. J.-S. Hong

2005
High impedance
line would result in
a smaller Qu, but
can reduce
maximum current
density so as to
increase the
power handling.
Dr. J.-S. Hong

NTT, 2005
Dr. J.-S. Hong

NTT, 2005
Measured IP3
The IP3 of the 100-ohm CPW HTS filter
is 62 dBm at 60K, while the IP3 of the 50-
ohm CPW HTS filter is 54 dBm.
This means that the former can handle
over 6 times as much power as that of
the latter.
Dr. J.-S. Hong

Summary
• Some recent developments of HTS filters have been
reviewed, including miniature high performances HTS
filters for wireless and satellite communications as well
as radio astronomy applications.
• There is also a new trend to develop electronically
tunable HTS filters using RF MEMS and ferroelectronic
devices.
• Power handling capability can be improved through
designs, fabrications processes and materials.
• Superconducting filter R&D will certainly continue at
least for niche applications.
Dr. J.-S. Hong


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Recent Development in

Dr. J.-S. Hong

Dr. J.-S. Hong

• The driving force behind the development of

• The extremely low resistance of

Dr. J.-S. Hong

Dr. J.-S. Hong

6Superconductors are materials which, when cooled below a certain

Dr. J.-S. Hong

Typical HTS materials

Dr. J.-S. Hong

Surface Resistance (mΩ)

Dr. J.-S. Hong

Devices can be patterned using

Substrates for HTS films

LaAlO3 24.2 @ 77K 7.6 ×10 −6 @ 77K and 10 GHz

Dr. J.-S. Hong

¾Implement CQT (cascaded-quadruplet-trisection) or CQ designs for

Dr. J.-S. Hong

TLI N TLIN T LIN TLI N T LIN TLIN T LIN T LI N TL IN TLI N T LIN

PLC PLC PLC PLC PLC PLC PL C PLC PLC PLC

Dr. J.-S. Hong

10 pole 10 MHz ideal

Dr. J.-S. Hong

Dr. J.-S. Hong

-100 -100 -50

Excellent narrow-band response with a good rejection over the

Dr. J.-S. Hong

• The selectivity can be significantly increased with the

• Unfortunately, higher order selective-only filters tend

Dr. J.-S. Hong

Group delay (ns)

Frequency (MHz) Frequency (MHz)

Dr. J.-S. Hong

Coupling structure (cascaded quadruplet)

PORT Qe1 M25 M69 M10,13 M14,17 Qe2 PORT

Dr. J.-S. Hong

Magnitude Response Group Delay

The 18-pole filter was designed to have a 15 MHz pass

Dr. J.-S. Hong

S21 (dB) -40

Dr. J.-S. Hong

The desired coupling matrix for the first quadruplet,

⎡ 0 M10,11 0 M10,13 ⎤ ⎡ 0 0.3419 0 0.1785⎤

S21 (dB) -20

Dr. J.-S. Hong

Final layout of 18-pole HTS microstrip filter

The overall chip size is 74 mm x 17 mm on sapphire substrate

Dr. J.-S. Hong

Fabricated 18-pole HTS microstrip filter

The filter was then fabricated on a 0.43mm-thick sapphire (Al2O3)

Dr. J.-S. Hong

dB S11 S21 dB ns Group Delay

-20 -10 1000

-30 -15 800

-40 -20 600

-50 -25 400

-60 -30 200

-80 -40 -200

-90 -45 -400

-100 -50 -600

The measured bandwidth is close to 15 MHz. The insertion loss of