The history of advances in the development of RF and microwave filters is well documented. The broad innovation goals have remained essentially the same over decades. Better performance, smaller size, lower cost and greater power handling are some of the general “wants” engineers are always working to achieve.
However, certain observations about recent industry trends can be made. For instance, material advances and ever-increasing electromagnetic simulation speeds and capabilities have spurred filter innovation in the last ten years. Accordingly, Lumped component products are supporting higher power handling in smaller packages with little loss in Q.
Andrew Stringer, Microwave Products Group (MPG) on behalf of Heynen