Disclosure of Invention
In view of the above-mentioned drawbacks, an object of the present invention is to provide a dielectric waveguide filter having a cross-cavity coupling structure, which can further improve the frequency selective characteristics of the dielectric waveguide filter without increasing the volume of the filter.
In order to achieve the above purpose, the invention provides a dielectric waveguide filter with a cross-cavity coupling structure, which comprises at least three resonant units connected in sequence, wherein a coupling window is arranged between every two adjacent resonant units, at least one first coupling blind hole and at least one second coupling blind hole are respectively arranged on at least one pair of non-adjacent first resonant units and at least one pair of non-adjacent second resonant units, and the first coupling blind holes and the second coupling blind holes are electrically connected with each other so as to enable the non-adjacent first resonant units and the non-adjacent second resonant units to generate cross coupling.
The dielectric waveguide filter comprises a dielectric waveguide filter, a dielectric waveguide filter and a dielectric waveguide filter, wherein the side surfaces of a first resonant unit and a second resonant unit which are not adjacent are provided with a first coupling blind hole, a second coupling blind hole and at least one circuit board, a first metal inner core and a second metal inner core are respectively arranged in the first coupling blind hole and the second coupling blind hole, at least one first metal wire is arranged on the circuit board and is respectively connected with the first metal inner core of the first coupling blind hole and the second metal inner core of the second coupling blind hole so as to realize electric connection between the first coupling blind hole and the second coupling blind hole, or
The side surfaces of the first resonance unit and the second resonance unit which are not adjacent are provided with the first coupling blind hole, the second coupling blind hole and at least one second metal wire, the first metal inner core and the second metal inner core are respectively arranged in the first coupling blind hole and the second coupling blind hole, and the second metal wire is respectively connected with the first metal inner core of the first coupling blind hole and the second metal inner core of the second coupling blind hole so as to realize electric connection between the first coupling blind hole and the second coupling blind hole.
The dielectric waveguide filter comprises a circuit board with a three-layer structure, a bottom metal layer, an intermediate dielectric layer and a top metal layer, wherein at least one first metal wire is etched on the top metal layer and is electrically connected with a first metal inner core of a first coupling blind hole and a second metal inner core of a second coupling blind hole respectively through a metallization through hole on the circuit board, and/or
The circuit board is a hard circuit board or a flexible circuit board.
The dielectric waveguide filter of the invention, wherein the first metal line or the second metal line is a suspension line, a microstrip line or a coplanar waveguide, and/or
The first metal wire or the second metal wire is in a straight line shape, a fold line shape or a curve shape.
According to the dielectric waveguide filter, the first coupling blind hole and the second coupling blind hole are cylindrical, elliptic cylindrical or prismatic.
According to the dielectric waveguide filter of the invention, the top of each resonant unit is provided with at least one tuning blind hole for tuning the resonant frequency of the resonant unit, and/or
The at least three resonance units are arranged in a straight line, a curve or a broken line.
According to the dielectric waveguide filter, the tuning blind hole is arranged at the center of the top of the resonance unit.
The dielectric waveguide filter comprises a dielectric waveguide filter body, wherein a first metal coating is attached to the outer surface of the dielectric waveguide filter body, second metal coatings are respectively arranged on the inner walls of a first coupling blind hole and a second coupling blind hole, a circle of first electroless plating areas and second electroless plating areas are respectively arranged on the outer edges of the first coupling blind hole and the second coupling blind hole, the first electroless plating areas separate the second metal coating of the first coupling blind hole from the first metal coating of the dielectric waveguide filter body, and the second electroless plating areas separate the second metal coating of the second coupling blind hole from the first metal coating of the dielectric waveguide filter body.
According to the dielectric waveguide filter, the first electroless plating area and the second electroless plating area are circular or polygonal.
According to the dielectric waveguide filter of the invention, the coupling strength of the non-adjacent first and second resonant units is controlled by the depth of the first and second blind coupling holes, the greater the coupling strength the deeper the first and second blind coupling holes are, and/or
The magnitude of the coupling strength of the non-adjacent first resonance unit and second resonance unit is controlled by the position relation between the bottoms of the first coupling blind hole and the second coupling blind hole and the first resonance unit and the second resonance unit respectively, the coupling strength is the largest when the bottoms of the first coupling blind hole and the second coupling blind hole are positioned at the middle positions of the first resonance unit and the second resonance unit, and the coupling strength is weaker when the bottoms of the first coupling blind hole or the second coupling blind hole are positioned closer to the upper end and the lower end positions of the first resonance unit and the second resonance unit.
The dielectric waveguide filter with the cross-cavity coupling structure comprises at least three resonant units which are sequentially connected, wherein the dielectric waveguide filter is provided with a first coupling blind hole and a second coupling blind hole on at least one pair of non-adjacent first resonant units and second resonant units respectively, and the first coupling blind holes and the second coupling blind holes are electrically connected with each other, so that the non-adjacent first resonant units and second resonant units generate cross-cavity coupling, and a transmission zero point can be generated near a pass band. Preferably, the top of each resonance unit is provided with a tuning blind hole for adjusting the resonance frequency point. Therefore, the cross coupling is realized by introducing the cross-cavity coupling structure between the two non-adjacent resonant units, and the transmission zero point of the dielectric waveguide filter is increased, so that the frequency selection characteristic of the dielectric waveguide filter can be further improved under the condition that the volume of the filter is not increased, and the cross-cavity coupling structure has the characteristics of simple realization structure and convenience in manufacturing and maintenance. The invention plays an important role in promoting the development of the dielectric waveguide filter in a modern miniaturized integrated communication system.
Detailed Description
The present invention will be described in further detail with reference to the drawings and examples, in order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more apparent. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.
It should be noted that references in the specification to "one embodiment," "an example embodiment," etc., indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarily include the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Furthermore, such phrases are not intended to refer to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to effect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.
Furthermore, certain terms are used throughout the specification and the claims that follow to refer to particular components or parts, and it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that manufacturers may refer to a component or part by different terms or terminology. The present specification and the following claims do not take the form of an element or component with the difference in name, but rather take the form of an element or component with the difference in function as a criterion for distinguishing. In the following description and in the claims, the terms "include" and "comprise" are used in an open-ended fashion, and thus should be interpreted to mean "include, but not limited to. The term "coupled," as used herein, includes any direct or indirect electrical connection. Indirect electrical connection means include connection via other devices.
The dielectric waveguide filter with the cross-cavity coupling structure comprises at least three resonant units which are sequentially connected, wherein the resonant units are connected in an arbitrary topological structure, and a coupling window is arranged between every two adjacent resonant units. At least one pair of non-adjacent first resonance units and second resonance units are respectively provided with at least one first coupling blind hole and at least one second coupling blind hole, and the first coupling blind holes and the second coupling blind holes are electrically connected with each other, so that the non-adjacent first resonance units and the non-adjacent second resonance units form cross coupling, a transmission zero point is generated near a passband, and the frequency selection characteristic of the dielectric waveguide filter can be further improved on the premise of not increasing the volume of the dielectric waveguide filter.
Fig. 1 shows a preferred structure of a dielectric waveguide filter with a cross-cavity coupling structure of the present invention. The dielectric waveguide filter 100 includes five resonant units 101 to 105 connected in sequence, and in this embodiment, the resonant units 101 to 105 are sequentially arranged in a straight line. However, the resonant units of the dielectric waveguide filter 100 of the present invention may be connected in an arbitrary topology structure as needed, for example, the resonant units 101 to 105 may be sequentially arranged in a curved line or a zigzag line. A coupling window 201 to 204 is respectively arranged between every two adjacent resonant units, and the coupling windows 201 to 204 can be hollow cavity structures. Specifically, a coupling window 201 is provided between adjacent resonant cells 101 to 102, a coupling window 202 is provided between adjacent resonant cells 102 to 103, a coupling window 203 is provided between adjacent resonant cells 103 to 104, and a coupling window 204 is provided between adjacent resonant cells 104 to 105.
In the embodiment shown in fig. 1, the dielectric waveguide filter 100 is composed of five resonant cells 101 to 105 and four coupling windows 201 to 204, and the resonant cells 101 to 105 and the coupling windows 201 to 204 are alternately arranged in a straight line. It should be noted that the number of resonant cells n of the dielectric waveguide filter 100 of the present invention is not less than 3, and the number of coupling windows is n-1. The specific number of the resonance units is not limited, and the number of the resonance units can be increased or decreased according to actual needs as long as n is more than or equal to 3. For example, dielectric waveguide filter 100 may include three, four, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, or more resonant cells.
In order to further improve the frequency selective characteristics of the dielectric waveguide filter, the present invention proposes to introduce a cross-cavity coupling structure between at least one pair of non-adjacent two resonant cells of the dielectric waveguide filter 100 to achieve cross-cavity cross-coupling. As shown in fig. 1, at least one first coupling blind hole 301 and one second coupling blind hole 302 are preferably disposed on the non-adjacent first resonant unit 102 and second resonant unit 104, respectively, and the first coupling blind hole 301 and the second coupling blind hole 302 are electrically connected to each other. Thus, the non-adjacent first resonant cells 102 and second resonant cells 104 form cross coupling, thereby generating a transmission zero near the passband, and improving the frequency selective characteristic of the dielectric waveguide filter 100 without increasing the volume of the dielectric waveguide filter 100. The first coupling blind hole 301 and the second coupling blind hole 302 which are electrically connected with each other in the dielectric waveguide filter 100 form a cross-cavity coupling structure, and the cross-cavity coupling structure has the characteristics of simple implementation, easy manufacturing and maintenance and low cost.
In the embodiment shown in fig. 1, the sides of the non-adjacent first and second resonant cells 102, 104 are provided with a first blind coupling hole 301, a second blind coupling hole 302 and at least one circuit board 501. The interiors of the first coupling blind via 301 and the second coupling blind via 302 are provided with a first metal inner core 401 and a second metal inner core 402, respectively. At least one first metal wire 502 is arranged on the circuit board 501, two ends of the first metal wire 502 are respectively connected with the first metal inner core 401 of the first coupling blind hole 301 and the second metal inner core 402 of the second coupling blind hole 302, and the first metal inner core 401 and the second metal inner core 402 enable the first metal wire 502 on the circuit board 501 to be electrically connected with the two coupling blind holes 301-302, so that non-adjacent resonance units 102 and 104 are in cross coupling.
Of course, the first coupling blind hole 301, the second coupling blind hole 302, and the circuit board 501 of the present invention are not limited to being disposed on the side surfaces of the non-adjacent resonance units 102 and 104, but may be disposed on the top, bottom, etc. of the non-adjacent resonance units 102 and 104 according to actual needs.
The first coupling blind hole 301 and the second coupling blind hole 302 in fig. 1 are preferably cylindrical. However, the first coupling blind hole 301 and the second coupling blind hole 302 may be any regular geometric cylinder or irregular geometric cylinder such as an elliptical cylinder or a prismatic cylinder. But for ease of production the first coupling blind hole 301 and the second coupling blind hole 302 are preferably cylindrical.
Preferably, the circuit board 501 has a three-layer structure, which includes a bottom metal layer, an intermediate dielectric layer, and a top metal layer (not shown). At least one first metal line 502 may be etched on the top metal layer, the first metal line 502 being electrically connected to the first metal core 401 of the first coupling blind via 301 and the second metal core 402 of the second coupling blind via 302, respectively, through a metallized via on the circuit board 501. The circuit board 501 may be a hard circuit board or a flexible circuit board. The flexible circuit board may be suitable for use in a case where the non-adjacent resonant cells 102 and 104 are arranged in a non-straight line such as a curved arrangement or a zigzag arrangement.
It should be noted that the electrical connection between the first coupling blind via 301 and the second coupling blind via 302 is not limited to the combination of the circuit board 501 and the first metal wire 502 shown in fig. 1. In another embodiment of the present invention, the sides of the non-adjacent first and second resonant cells 102 and 104 are provided with a first coupling blind via 301, a second coupling blind via 302, and at least one second metal line (not shown). The interiors of the first coupling blind via 301 and the second coupling blind via 302 are provided with a first metal inner core 401 and a second metal inner core 402, respectively. The second metal wire is connected to the first metal core 401 of the first coupling blind hole 301 and the second metal core 402 of the second coupling blind hole 302, respectively, so as to realize electrical connection between the first coupling blind hole 301 and the second coupling blind hole 302. Namely, the first coupling blind hole 301 and the second coupling blind hole 302 can be directly electrically connected through the second metal wire without adding the circuit board 501. The non-adjacent resonant cells 102 and 104 form cross coupling through the second metal line and the coupling blind holes 301 and 302, so that transmission zero points can be increased, and frequency selective characteristics of the dielectric waveguide filter 100 can be further improved.
Preferably, the first metal line 502 or the second metal line may be a suspension line, a microstrip line, or a coplanar waveguide, and preferably takes the form of a suspension line. The metal wire in the present invention actually performs only an electrical connection function, so the specific shape thereof is not limited, for example, the first metal wire 502 or the second metal wire may be linear, polygonal, curved, or the like.
It should be noted that the dielectric waveguide filter 100 of the present invention is not limited to only providing the coupling blind holes on the pair of non-adjacent first resonant cells 102 and second resonant cells 104. In practice, the dielectric waveguide filter 100 of the present invention may further include coupling blind holes on other non-adjacent two resonant units according to practical needs. For example, coupling blind holes may be respectively disposed on two non-adjacent resonant units such as the resonant unit 101 and the resonant unit 103, the resonant unit 101 and the resonant unit 104, the resonant unit 102 and the resonant unit 105, and the coupling blind holes of the two non-adjacent resonant units are electrically connected, so that a cross-cavity coupling structure may be introduced between the two non-adjacent resonant units, that is, the dielectric waveguide filter 100 may implement cross-cavity coupling by disposing a plurality of cross-cavity coupling structures.
Preferably, the top of each resonant cell 101-105 is provided with at least one tuning blind hole for tuning the resonant frequency of the resonant cell. In this embodiment, the tuning blind hole is preferably disposed at the center of the top of the resonant unit 101 to 105, so that the tuning effect is better.
The dielectric material of the dielectric waveguide filter 100 of the present invention is preferably a ceramic material, although other dielectric materials may be used. Preferably, the dielectric waveguide filter 100 has a first metal plating applied to the outer surface thereof. The inner walls of the first coupling blind hole 301 and the second coupling blind hole 302 are respectively provided with a layer of second metal plating. The material of the first metal plating layer and the second metal plating layer is preferably silver, and other metal materials such as copper and aluminum can be used. The outer edges of the first coupling blind hole 301 and the second coupling blind hole 302 are respectively provided with a circle of first electroless plating area 310 and a circle of second electroless plating area 311. The first electroless plated region 310 is for separating the second metallization of the first coupling blind via 301 from the first metallization of the dielectric waveguide filter 100, and the second electroless plated region 311 is for separating the second metallization of the second coupling blind via 302 from the first metallization of the dielectric waveguide filter 100.
In the embodiment shown in fig. 1, the first electroless plating region 310 and the second electroless plating region 311 are preferably annular. However, in practice, the first electroless plating region 310 and the second electroless plating region 311 may take the shape of a polygon or various irregularities. The first electroless plating region 310 and the second electroless plating region 311 can have an effect of separating the first metal plating layer on the surface of the dielectric waveguide filter 100 from the second metal plating layer on the inner walls of the coupling blind holes 301 to 302 by adopting a closed structure with any shape.
It should be noted that, although the structure of the dielectric waveguide filter 100 of the present invention is mainly described in fig. 1, it is only a partial example of the implementation method of the present invention and is not intended to limit the present invention.
Preferably, the magnitude of the coupling strength of the non-adjacent first and second resonant cells 102 and 104 is controlled by the depth of the first and second coupling blind holes 301 and 302. I.e. the coupling strength between non-adjacent first and second resonator elements 102, 104 is related to the depth of the first and second coupling blind holes 301, 302, the deeper the first and second coupling blind holes 301, 302, the greater the coupling strength.
More preferably, the coupling strength of the non-adjacent first and second resonant cells 102 and 104 is controlled by the positional relationship between the bottoms of the first and second blind coupling holes 301 and 302 and the first and second resonant cells 102 and 104, respectively. That is, the coupling strength of the non-adjacent first and second resonant cells 102 and 104 is related to the bottom positions of the first and second coupling blind holes 301 and 302, and the coupling strength is maximized when the bottoms of the first and second coupling blind holes 301 and 302 are at the intermediate positions of the first and second resonant cells 102 and 104. The lower the bottom of the first coupling blind hole 301 or the second coupling blind hole 302 is, the weaker the coupling strength is when the bottoms of the first resonance unit 102 and the second resonance unit 104 are located at the upper and lower ends. When the bottoms of the first coupling blind holes 301 or the second coupling blind holes 302 are at the upper and lower end positions of the first resonance unit 102 and the second resonance unit 104, the coupling strength is minimum.
In summary, the dielectric waveguide filter with the cross-cavity coupling structure comprises at least three resonant units which are sequentially connected, wherein the dielectric waveguide filter is provided with a first coupling blind hole and a second coupling blind hole on at least one pair of non-adjacent first resonant units and second resonant units respectively, and the first coupling blind holes and the second coupling blind holes are electrically connected with each other, so that the non-adjacent first resonant units and second resonant units generate cross-cavity coupling, and a transmission zero point can be generated near a passband. Preferably, the top of each resonance unit is provided with a tuning blind hole for adjusting the resonance frequency point. Therefore, the cross coupling is realized by introducing the cross-cavity coupling structure between the two non-adjacent resonant units, and the transmission zero point of the dielectric waveguide filter is increased, so that the frequency selection characteristic of the dielectric waveguide filter can be further improved under the condition that the volume of the filter is not increased, and the cross-cavity coupling structure has the characteristics of simple realization structure and convenience in manufacturing and maintenance. The invention plays an important role in promoting the development of the dielectric waveguide filter in a modern miniaturized integrated communication system.
Of course, the present invention is capable of other various embodiments and its several details are capable of modification and variation in light of the present invention, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art, without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.