In this article, a novel coupling structure is proposed. The surface voltage and current distribution on this structure can be tuned by changing the ratio of the two capacitances so that the central frequency and coupling coefficient can be tuned. The coupling structure can also be tuned to change the sign of coupling coefficient, which is utilized to control the transmission zero of cross coupled tunable bandpass filter. A second order bandpass filter with tunable central frequency and bandwidth is designed and measured. The measurement shows that the central frequency tuning range is 0.768 to 1.512 GHz and the fractional bandwidth tuning range is 0.052 to 0.18 at 1.14 GHz. It shows that the filter can also be tuned with constant fractional bandwidth or constant absolute bandwidth. A tunable cascaded triple bandpass filter with tunable central frequency and bandwidth is designed and measured, as well. The crosscoupled transmission zero can be configured to locate at either high side or low side of the passband by changing the coupling type of the filter topology.

The optical true-time-delay line is a key building block for modern broadband phased-array antennas, which have become one of the most critical technologies for both military and civilian wireless communications. We present our research results in developing an optical polymer-based waveguide true-time-delay module for multilink phasedarray antennas by incorporating wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) technology. The demonstrated optical polymeric waveguide circuits can provide a large number of optical true-time delays with a dynamic range of 50 ns and a time resolution of 0.1 ps. Various fabrication techniques are investigated for producing ultralong low-loss (0.02 dB/cm) polymeric channel waveguides with tilted waveguide grating output couplers. Fast photodiode arrays are fabricated and rf signals with frequencies of 10 to 50 GHz are generated through the optical heterodyne technique. A detailed study of waveguide amplification to achieve loss-less polymeric waveguide is conducted. The optical amplification of 3.8 dB/cm is achieved at a wavelength of 1064 nm in a Nd 3ϩ-doped polymeric waveguide. WDM techniques are also employed for potential multilink applications. The presented methodologies enable hybrid integration with a reduced cost in optoelectronic packaging and an increased reliability and decreased payload for the next generation of phased-array antennas.

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