Development of highly selective compact high-temperature superconducting quad-band bandpass filter using interdigital feeding structure for radio astronomy

Abstract

Astronomers at the Mizusawa Very Long Baseline Interferometry Observatory of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan are promoting the development of broadband receivers in the ultra-high frequency (UHF) band. The presence of extensive radio frequency interferences (RFI) in the UHF band hinders continuous broadband radio observations in this band. A promising technical solution to this problem is to use a superconducting multi-band bandpass filter as it enables the bundling of several RFI-free bands. We have developed a high-temperature superconducting compact quad-band bandpass filter (QB-BPF) at 0.7, 1.4, 1.6, and 2.1 GHz with low loss and steep cutoff characteristics for broadband receivers. That consists of two six-pole dual-band bandpass filters. We have devised an interdigital feeding structure with a high degree of freedom that enables the external quality factor to be designed individually for each band. A compact QB-BPF was fabricated using double-sided YBa2Cu3Oy thin films on a 36.4 mm × 42.0 mm (0.22λg × 0.25λg) Al2O3 substrate. The measurement results agreed well with the simulated ones, indicating that the QB-BPF overcomes the problem of extensive RFI in the UHF band.