Interconnect element circuitry for rf electronics

Abstract

In one embodiment, interconnect element (IE) circuitry electrically interconnects electronic components (e.g., a transceiver and a filter or a filter and an antenna). The IE circuitry has an inductive signal path and a grounded, inductive return path, where at least one actively controlled impedance-compensation element, electrically interconnecting the signal and ground paths, is controllable to selectively provide different impedance levels, such that overall impedance of the IE circuitry is controllable to achieve low pass-band insertion loss and high stop-band attenuation between the electronic components without requiring expensive RF connectors to connect the IE circuitry to the electronic components and an RF filter to provide stop-band attenuation. In a T-filter configuration, the IE circuitry has only one impedance-compensation element; in a Pi-filter configuration, the IE circuitry has two impedance-compensation elements. Each impedance-compensation element has at least one controllable device such as a varactor diode, a switched-capacitor array, or a tunable capacitor.