PFI-TT: Novel Designs and Manufacturing Process for High Performance Reflectionless Radio Frequency Filters at 40 GHz and Above

创新伙伴关系-技术转化（PFI-TT）项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力源于对无线电频率信号的过滤和清理需求日益增加。无线设备和系统使用的无线电频率数量和数据带宽需求在几个商业领域（例如，5G/6G、自动驾驶汽车、物联网、卫星通信、国防、测试和测量设备等）迅速扩大。为了确保所有这些高吞吐量数据通道保持无干扰，设备必须包括更好的滤波，以尽量减少它们广播的噪声。这种过滤必须以不会对大小或成本产生不利影响的方式完成。所提出的无反射带通滤波器就是为了满足这些要求。该滤波器正在开发用于高频（例如，用于5G无线通信的28 GHz），并提供毫米尺寸的占地面积，满足行业对高可靠性和低成本的期望。该项目旨在以现有专利和工业专业知识为基础，开发多阶段、高度复杂的滤波器拓扑，然后完善制造工艺，以确保设备满足商业客户的性能和价格预期。负责测试和认证当前和未来无线设备的行业部门的兴趣和反馈表明了商业成功的潜力。拟议的项目旨在结合两种最先进的技术，即用于信号调理的无反射射频带通滤波器和基于低温共烧陶瓷（LTCC）的电路板级组件。该团队试图量化地证明，可以以更小、更低的成本设计和制造更高频率的设备，同时保持密封的行业标准封装类型。随着无线通信和传感设备迅速扩展到已经拥挤的20 GHz以上的频率范围，这些新颖的拓扑结构和设备变得越来越必要。该技术需要新的、更复杂的多层布局，以及新的LTCC制造方法，以产生可重复和可靠的结果。虽然理论上可行，但这些更高复杂性的拓扑需要广泛的计算机建模，以确保更高数量的级别达到行业提供的目标规范和性能增益。然后，LTCC制造过程必须针对新的布局和材料进行定制，并进行小型原型运行。成功的指标将集中于实现性能数字（更高的频率、高抑制、低插入损耗等）、可靠性、制造可重复性和成品率。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project stems from the increasing need to filter and clean up radio frequency signals. The number radio frequencies used and data bandwidth needs of wireless devices and systems have rapidly expanded in several commercial sectors (e.g., 5G/6G, autonomous vehicles, Internet of Things, satellite communications, defense, test and measurement equipment, etc.). To ensure that all of these high throughput data lanes remain interference free, devices must include better filtering to minimize the noise they broadcast. This filtering must be accomplished in a way that does not adversely impact size or cost. The proposed reflectionless bandpass filters aim to meet these requirements. The filters are being developed for high frequencies (28 GHz for 5G wireless communications for example) and offer a millimeter sized footprint that meets industry expectations for high reliability and low cost. The project aims to build on existing patents and industrial expertise to develop multi-stage, highly complex filter topologies, then perfect the manufacturing process to ensure that the devices meet both the performance and price expectations of commercial customers. Interest and feedback from the industry sectors charged with testing and certifying the current and future wireless devices indicates the potential for commercial success.The proposed project seeks to combine two state of the art technologies with proven track records, namely reflectionless radio frequency bandpass filters for signal-conditioning and Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic (LTCC) based circuit board level components. The team seeks to quantifiably demonstrate that much higher frequency devices can be designed and manufactured in smaller and lower cost, maintaining the hermetically-sealed industry standard package types. These novel topologies and devices are increasingly necessary now that wireless communications and sensing devices are rapidly expanding into the already crowded frequency ranges above 20 GHz. The technology requires new, more complex layouts with multiple layers, as well as new LTCC manufacturing methods that yield reproducible and reliable results. While shown to work in theory, these higher complexity topologies require extensive computer modelling to ensure that the higher number of levels achieve the industry-provided target specifications and gains in performance. The LTCC manufacturing process will then have to be customized for the new layouts and materials and a small prototype run undertaken. The metrics for success will focus on achieving performance numbers (higher frequencies, high rejection, low insertion loss, etc.), reliability, manufacturing reproducibility, and yield.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.