Ridged waveguide wide band diplexer with extremely sharp cut-off properties

A wideband balanced diplexer splits an incoming wideband microwave frequency signal into separate upper and lower frequency outputs and possesses a sharp band cut-off to increase effective bandwidth. The diplexer includes a pair of waveguide assemblies for separating the upper frequency band from the incoming signal. Each waveguide assembly includes a tuneable, ridged waveguide phase shifter for shifting the phase of the lower frequency band, a reference waveguide for inserting a delay onto the upper frequency signal in order to compensate for the effects of the phase shifter in the other waveguide assembly, and a high pass filter. The high pass filter includes a ridged waveguide having tapered ends of a shape comprising an exponential function raised to a cosine squared power to increase the bandwidth of the upper frequencies and to provide a sharper frequency cut-off.