Switchable Waveguide Iris Filter Using Planar Dipoles
King Yuk Chan1,2, Rodica Ramer2 and Y. Jay Guo1
1
CSIRO ICT Centre, Marsfield, NSW, 2122, Australia
2
University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia
Abstract — A new concept of switching on and off high Q-
factor bandpass filters is presented. Cheap, planar, low Q-factor
circuits are proposed to disable 3D filters. Reconfigurable dipoles
are used to disable resonance and turn the filter off, rather than
adjusting the resonance frequency or coupling. Here wire bonded
dipoles on quartz substrates inside the waveguide structure are
used for switching the bandpass filters. 3-pole bandpass filters
are proposed for concept demonstration. The dipoles are inserted
in each cavity of the iris waveguide filter. Central frequency is
24GHz and bandwidth 500MHz. Simulation results show good
performance. The fabricated filter shows good correlation
between the measured and simulated performance. The bandpass
response is completely off, when the dipoles are “switched on”/
connected with bondwires, confirming the introduced concept.
The insertion loss is expected to be significantly reduced by
choosing a superior fabrication method of the waveguide.
Index Terms — RF, microwave, waveguide, filter,
reconfigurable, switchable.
I. INTRODUCTION
Current and future communication systems require multi-
band and multi-standard operations, where reduced size and
weight, reconfigurable RF frontend offer cost effective
solutions. As filters represent some of the most important
components in the communication channel, they face more
and more increasing challenges. Reconfigurable bandpass
filters with high Q-factor and high switching speed become
the key for future cost effective telecommunication systems
[1].
Reconfigurable filters are mostly realized in planar
technology. Most of them employ PIN diodes, FET, RF
MEMS or ferroelectric components. These filters provide
compact size and fast tuning speed with many different modes
in terms of bandwidth and center frequency. However due to
the planar nature of the resonators, the Q-factor is limited to
values below 400.
Tuning elements have been used in 3D types of filters to
deliver much higher Q-factors. Tunable dielectric resonator,
coaxial and waveguide filters using RF MEMS have been
reported [1, 2]. They provide very high tuning range, and
relatively high Q-factor compared to planar filters. Other high
Q-factor 3D filters employ technologies such as evanescent-
mode with MEMS tuning elements [3].
One way to switch off a 3D filter is to detune the resonators
of the filter. This could be achieved by mechanically adjusting
the tuning screws or switching off the RF signal. Mechanical
adjustment of the screws could be a problem as it requires
motors or other bulky mechanisms; it also suffers from tuning
while adjusting the tuning screws. Switching off the RF signal
is not always possible especially in the case of multiplexer.
In this paper, we propose a new concept for switching on
and off high Q-factor bandpass filters using reconfigurable
dipoles. The idea is to employ cheap and low Q-factor planar
circuit to disable the operation of the high Q-factor 3D filters.
Unlike all other designs, where the reconfigurable elements
are used to adjust the resonant frequencies or the coupling,
here, the reconfigurable elements are used to disable the
resonance, which effectively turn off the filter. The advantage
of this concept is that the lossy nature of the planar
reconfigurable dipoles takes effect only when this filter is
switched off. In the below section, this concept will be
introduced.
Metal dipole
Quartz wafer Thickness: 1 um
Thickness: 250 um Width: 400 um
İr : 3.78 Length: 3.37 mm
bondwires
Fig. 1. Proposed dipole inside a WR28 waveguide for switching
the bandpass filter.
II. PROPOSED SWITCHING CONCEPT
Fig. 1 shows the 3D view of the proposed dipole. Ideally,
the dipole would have been electrically switched on using RF
MEMS switches [4 - 12], PIN diodes or FETs. However, for
concept demonstration purpose, the dipole is switched on
using bondwires. As a dipole element only resonates at
specific frequencies, it does not have major impact on the
TE10 mode. The dipole substrate contributes to the adjustment
of the overall dielectric constant inside the waveguide. In fact
the impact is minimal anyway, as the majority of the
waveguide is filled with air. Fig. 2 demonstrates the S-
parameters of the waveguide with the dipole switched on and
off. It can be noticed that when the dipole is switched off, the
simulated insertion loss and return loss are almost ideal.
978-1-4673-2141-9/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE
 5 2.08 %, 20 dB return loss bandwidth. In the design, a
switchable dipole is inserted in each cavity of the iris
-5 waveguide filter. While the dipoles are switched on, the
resonance of each cavity is effectively disabled due to the
S- Parameters (dB)

-15 resonance of the dipoles. Therefore, the filter is switched off

as a whole. Fig. 5 shows, the simulated S-parameters with the
-25
ON S11 dipole switched off. As could be seen in the figure, the in-
-35
ON S21 band loss is minimal with simulated loss less than 0.05 dB;
OFF S11
OFF S21 this shows that the lossy planar dipoles circuits have minimal
-45 impact on the overall filter performance when the dipoles are
switched off. However, as the dipoles are switched on, the
-55 filter performance changes dramatically as shown in Fig. 6,
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 with the entire 500 MHz band switched off. Simulation shows
Frequency (GHz) that the isolation is better than 30 dB and the return loss is
Fig. 2. Simulation of the dipole with and without bondwires. The better than 0.25 dB across the 500 MHz band.
S-parameters labeled ON (ON S11 and ON S21) are when bondwires
are connected. The S-parameters labeled OFF (OFF S11 and OFF 10
S21) are without bondwires.
0
When the dipole is switched on, a stop band occurs. It is

S- Parameters (dB)
-10
noted that the isolation and the loss performance of the stop
band is not very good due to the fact that this response is -20
generated with the lossy planar dipole. Fig. 3 illustrates how
-30
the electric field is affected under the activated dipole. The
dipole resonance dominates and therefore, the usual TE10 -40 S11
mode could not be propagated. However, when the dipole is
-50 S21
switch off, normal TE10 mode propagates without major
degradation and therefore proves that the switched off dipole -60
has no serious impact on the overall waveguide performance. 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 5. Simulation results showing the filter performance with the

dipoles off.

10

0
S- Parameters (dB)

-10

(a) (b) -20

Fig. 3. Electric field simulation at 24 GHz (a) the dipole is
connected with bondwires and (b) without bondwires. -30

-40 S11

-50 S21

-60
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 6. Simulation results showing the filter performance with the

dipoles on.

Fig. 4. 3D model of the simulated 3-pole iris filter with the
dipoles.
Fig. 4 shows the proposed 3-pole filter for demonstration.
The filter is designed to operate at 24 GHz with 500 MHz, or
III. FABRICATED FILTER AND MEASUREMENTS
The filter and the switchable dipoles are fabricated as
follows. The filter is made out of three piece of brass jointed
together with screws and the dipoles are gold structures

978-1-4673-2141-9/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE

fabricated on quartz substrate. Fig. 8(a) shows the 10
disassembled filter with the top piece disassembled from the
filter and (b) illustrates the filter with the switchable dipoles 0
inside the filter structure.

S- Parameters (dB)
-10
The filter is measured with the HP 8510C network analyzer
with WR28 connectors and the measured results are shown in -20
Fig. 9 and 10. As can be noticed in Fig. 9, the loss of the filter -30
is high. However, it is not due to the inserted dipoles as the
filter insertion loss is similar without the dipoles. The high -40 S11
loss could be due to the way the filter is fabricated. As the -50 S21
filter has cuts at 3 corners of the rectangle waveguide, where
the highest current is located, extra loss could be introduced. -60
The center frequency is also shifted to 23.75 GHz due to 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
manufacturing errors. Frequency (GHz)
However, the measured results showed close correlation Fig. 9. Measurement results showing the filter performance with
with our simulations. The bandpass response of the original disconnected dipoles.
pass band is completely switched off, as illustrated in Fig. 10
when the dipoles are “switched on”/ connected with 10
bondwires confirming the concept. The isolation of the
original pass band is better than 30 dB and the return loss is 0
also less than 3 dB across the band.

S- Parameters (dB)
-10

-20

-30

-40 S11

-50 S21

-60
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 10. Measurement results showing the filter performance with

bondwired dipoles.

(a) IV. CONCLUSION

In this paper, we propose a new concept for switching on
and off of high Q-factor bandpass filters using reconfigurable
dipoles. The idea is to employ cheap and low Q-factor planar
circuit to disable the high Q-factor 3D filters. Here,
reconfigurable elements are used to disable the resonance
which effectively turns the filter off. The advantage of this
concept is that the lossy nature of the planar reconfigurable
dipoles does not affect the performance as it takes into effect
only when this filter is off. The fabricated three pole bandpass
filter shows good correlation between the measured and
simulated performance. The bandpass response is completely
off, when the dipoles are “switched on”/ connected with
(b)
bondwires, confirming the proposed concept. The insertion
Fig. 8 Pictures of (a) the disassembled filter and (b)
loss is expected to be significantly reduced by choosing a
disassembled filter with switchable dipoles inserted.
superior fabrication method for the waveguide.

978-1-4673-2141-9/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE

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978-1-4673-2141-9/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE