High-Tc superconductive microwave filters

Four-pole microstrip bandpass filters have been fabricated using both postannealed and in-situ-grown thin films of Y-Ba-Cu-O. The 4-GHz, 3 percent bandwidth filters exhibit, at 77 K, a passband insertion loss as low as 0.3 dB, compared to the 2.8-dB loss of similar gold metallic filters at the same temperature. These results demonstrate that complex passive microwave devices can be designed and implemented using high-temperature superconducting (HTS) material. More aggressive filter designs utilizing many more poles will result in much greater performance advantages for an HTS filter technology over a normal metal technology. Ultimately, ultrasharp-skirt filters can be produced, which would allow for more closely spaced communication channels and more efficient use of microwave communication bands than is currently possible with conventional filters. (I.E.)