Increasing Peak Power Handling in Microstrip Bandpass Filters by Using Rounded-End Resonators

Abstract

This work describes a new strategy for improving the peak power handling capability (PPHC) of microstrip bandpass filters (BPFs) without any degradation in the electrical performance. For this purpose, a new resonator topology with rounded open-circuit terminations is proposed. Using this strategy, sharp edges are avoided and a reduction of the maximum peak voltage (V peak ) is obtained, leading to higher peak power thresholds. An in-depth analysis of the variation of V peak and PPHC as a function of the circle radius is also carried out. As a validation, two microstrip BPFs centered at 1.6 GHz with different end-circle sizes are designed, manufactured and measured, showing a PPHC enhancement of 2.10 dB and 1.15 dB, respectively, as compared to a standard microstrip BPF.

Peak Power Handling Capability in Groove Gap Waveguide Filters Based on Horizontally Polarized Resonators and Enhancement Solutions

“…1(b), where, as it can be seen, the cavity is also located on the top plate. However, the four central pins of the bottom metal plate are replaced by a unique metal block, in which the corners have also been rounded with a radius r in order to avoid the sharp edges, where high electric fields can appear (see [12], [24]). By making this change, the TE 101 -like mode can still be excited, and the maximum electric field can be reduced and shifted to the center of the cavity, as shown in Fig.…”

“…The two filters have been measured at 22 • C in a pressured controlled chamber from 2 to 1013 mbar in order to obtain their respective Paschen curves. Different detection methods have been used to identify the corona discharge, as detailed in [10]- [12], where similar measurement campaigns were carried out for microstrip BPFs.…”

Microwave Corona Breakdown Suppression of Microstrip Coupled-Line Filter Using Lacquer Coating

“…Like another power handling problem, multipactor, one of the most important aspects of corona research is how to suppress corona effect. Due to the similarity between multipactor and corona, they sometimes can be suppressed by using similar techniques such as electrical structure design/optimization [11,12], dielectric filling [13,14] as well as surface treatments [15]. For example, measurement results in [11] show that by introducing rounded-end resonators, hairpin microstrip bandpass filter's corona threshold can be improved by 2.1 dB.…”

In-Depth Study of the Corona Discharge Breakdown Thresholds in Groove Gap Waveguides and Enhancement Strategies for Inductive Bandpass Filters

“…Regarding the importance of studying the peak power limits that microwave devices can withstand, some works have focused their efforts on studying the gas breakdown in RWs [35], [36], [37]. Some other contributions have analyzed this same physical effect in planar devices [6], [38] and several design solutions have been proposed to enhance the PPHC [39], [40], [41]. With respect to previous research related to the corona discharge breakdown thresholds in GW technology, a preliminary study based on simulations for guided structures can be found in [42], where measured results are not presented.…”