Trw Limited

Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation

Ming-Jong Shiau

John C Tippet

Dah-Weih Duan

Elizabeth Twyford Kunkee

Chunbo Zhang

Dino Ferizovic

Daniel R Scherrer

Greta S Tsai

Mark Kintis

Chun-Hong Harry Chen

Alex Chau

Youn H Choung

Martin E Roden

William C Wong

Phu H Tran

George W Schreyer

Martn E Roden

Michael Vieru

An exemplary semiconductor technology implemented microwave filter includes a dielectric substrate with metal traces on one surface that function as frequency selective circuits and reference ground. A top enclosure encloses the substrate have respective interior recesses with deposited continuous metal coatings. A plurality of metal bonding bumps or bonding wall extends outwardly from the projecting walls of the bottom and top enclosures. The bonding bumps on the top enclosure engage reference ground metal traces on respective surface of the substrate. As a result of applied pressure, the bonding bumps and respective reference ground metal traces together with the through-substrate vias form a metal-to-metal singly-connected ground reference structure for the entire circuitry.

RF circuit and enclosure having a micromachined interior using semiconductor fabrication

An exemplary semiconductor technology implemented microwave filter includes a dielectric substrate with metal traces on one surface that function as frequency selective circuits and reference ground. Other metal traces on the other surface of the substrate also provide reference ground. Bottom and top enclosures that enclose the substrate have respective interior recesses with deposited continuous metal coatings. A plurality of metal bonding bumps or bonding wall extends outwardly from the projecting walls of the bottom and top enclosures. The bonding bumps on the bottom and top enclosures engage reference ground metal traces on respective surfaces of the substrate. As a result of applied pressure, the bonding bumps and respective reference ground metal traces together with the through-substrate vias form a metal-to-metal singly-connected ground reference structure for the entire circuitry.

Filter with an enclosure having a micromachined interior using semiconductor fabrication

An LC filter structure and method for its fabrication, in which multiple shunt capacitors, multiple shunt inductors and multiple coupling inductors are printed on a metal layer formed on a thin dielectric substrate. The capacitors have first electrodes that are formed as spatially separated regions of the metal layer, and a common second electrode formed by a ground plane on the substrate. The shunt inductors are formed as spiral traces connected to the separated regions and to the ground plane, through conductive vias. The coupling inductors are similarly formed as spiral traces in the gaps between the separated regions, the ends of each coupling inductor being connected to respective adjacent regions of the metal layer.

Compact printed filters with self-connected LC resonators

A microwave grating 10 for a dispersive delay line, the grating comprising: (a) a terminal 12 for receiving a wideband RF signal including multiple RF signals of different frequencies; (b) a primary transmission line 14 capable of carrying the wideband RF signal, the primary transmission line 14 being electrically connected to said terminal 12; and (c) a plurality of non-resonant open-stub transmission lines 16 each having a length 18, the open-stub transmission lines 16 being capacitively loaded on the primary transmission line 14 at spaced locations 20 along the primary transmission line 14. Each open-stub transmission line 16 effects perturbations in the signal carrying capability of the primary transmission line 14 where the open-stub transmission line is located. As such, RF signals of different frequencies propagating through the primary transmission line 14 are reflected back to the terminal 12 of the grating 10 at different points along the primary transmission line 14 where the open-stub transmission lines 16 are located. Preferably, the spacing 22 between a pair of adjacent open-stub transmission lines 16 is substantially equal to a multiple half-wavelength of a selected frequency, whereby an RF signal of said frequency propagating through the primary transmission line 14 is reflected back at a point along the transmission line 14 where the spacing 22 between a pair of open-stub transmission lines 16 is equal to a multiple half-wavelength of the signal.

Microwave grating for dispersive delay lines having non-resonant stubs

A multioctave multiplexer (10) with multiple independent filter channels with a circuit topology that employs a planar circuit segment (18) and conventional combline resonator circuits (38), (40) and (42). The planar circuit segment (18) forms a common input (28) etched on a substrate and concurrently feeds RF signals to the independent channels (12), (14) and (16). The first planar circuit segment (18) comprises two unit elements (51) and (52) and a .pi.-section capacitor network (54), (56) and (58). The second combline circuit segment (38) comprises shunt resonators (38a), (38b), and (38c) and inter-resonator inductors (44a), (44b) and (44c) . The first and second circuit segments generate a number of transmission zeros on a complex plane that is 2 at DC, 2N-4 at one-quarter wavelength and 2 at the complex frequency of S=+/-1 in the complex plane. The planar common junction multiplexer provides the advantages of low manufacturing cost and the ease of assembly of the prior art without sacrificing any loss in performance and equivalent performance of the more costly high precision conventional combline resonator multiplexers.

Combline multiplexer with planar common junction input

In accordance with the present invention, a traveling wave coupler generates tracking signals from a circularly polarized microwave signal and includes a waveguide manifold for exciting circular TM.sub.01 and TM.sub.11 modes of said circularly polarized microwave signal. The waveguide manifold includes an input port, a propagation length, and an output port. A coupling arm waveguide includes an auxiliary input port and an auxiliary output port and is aligned and connected to the waveguide manifold along a portion of the propagation length. A coupler located between the waveguide manifold and the coupling arm transforms microwave energy of a TM.sub.01 mode of the circularly polarized microwave signal into a rectangular TE.sub.10 mode in the coupling arm waveguide. The coupling arm waveguide and the coupler generate a difference signal, used to generate the tracking signals, at the auxiliary output port related to the coupled TE.sub.10 mode.

Simplified wide-band autotrack traveling wave coupler

A small, high performance MMIC compatible filter having a suspended dielectric substrate transmission medium to achieve superior Q. The substrate is suspended within an opening formed in a surrounding housing and has a plurality of conductive paths disposed thereon. An elliptical function response provides optimum filter size and insertion loss for a given required out-of-band rejection by making use of finite transmission zeroes on each side of the passband.

Miniature, high performance MMIC compatible filter

A common input junction, multioctave, printed microwave multiplexer. In a first preferred embodiment the multiplexer is in the form of a microstrip. In an alternative preferred embodiment the multiplexer is provided in the form of a suspended substrate multiplexer. Each of the preferred embodiments include independently formed first, second and third channels each having an input and an output, with the input of each channel being coupled together and to a common input junction. The channels are adapted to simultaneously receive radio frequency (RF) signals in the range of, for example, about 3 to 18 GHz. The first independent channel provides an RF output signal having a frequency range of preferably about 3 to 5.5. GHz. The second independent channel provides an RF output signal having a frequency range of about 5.5 to 10 GHz, and the third independent channel provides an RF output signal having a frequency range of about 10 to 18 GHz. The multiplexer is significantly smaller in size and weight than conventional combline and suspended substrate multiplexers, provides significantly fewer component parts, and requires no calibration adjustments.

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Cerritos, CA, United States of America

Ming-Jong Shiau