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StatusCompleted
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Status date2025-01-29
Scope of the SEFIL project is to develop small and performant RF filters integrated in substrate-based technologies with the aim of replacing bulky coaxial/waveguide solutions in modern systems at L- and Kaband. Some breadboard models and four engineering model are proposed and experimentally verified to fully validate the proposed concepts.
In front-end microwave equipment where medium to high Q-factor filters are requested, waveguide/combline filters with waveguide or coaxial interfaces are generally selected. These are bulky filters requiring, in most of the cases, connectorized interfaces. The size of the RF module like frequency converter and low noise amplifier is often limited by the physical size of the filters that are needed to remove all of the unwanted signals. The implementation technology of such filters significantly affects thesize, mass and cost of the communication subsystem.
Conventional microstrip filters offer a slightly reduced footprint, but often they do not meet the stringent RF performance specifications. Filtering solutions based on Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic (LTCC) technology or multilayer Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) offer a good degree of compactness, but at the expense of electrical performance, mainly lower Q-factor. Moreover, the filter integration is mainly achieved by soldering to a PCB surface, which introduces complex RF interfaces that need to be accounted for inthe design and testing. The possibility of integrating the filters in the boards where the other modules are currently placed, provides important improvements in payload architectures where also the connections and interfaces between the same modules are minimized.
The proposed concepts provide significant benefits like volume, mass and cost reduction compared to the
state of art.
The project is finalized. The Final Review meeting of the project is scheduled for 12 th December 2024