Nonreciprocal Isolating Bandpass Filter With Enhanced Isolation Using Metallized Ferrite

The nonreciprocal bandpass filter has been achieved by utilizing the nonreciprocity characteristics of the magnetostatic surface wave (MSSW) in planar ferrite slabs. In this article, the dispersion relation, impedance, and attenuation of MSSW between the pure and metallized ferrite slabs have been analyzed and compared. Theoretical analysis indicates that the ferrite slab metallized by a thin conductive layer would introduce significant attenuation on the metallized interface, which is MSSW propagating on the isolated direction, while MSSW on the other surface is barely affected. Therefore, nonreciprocal bandpass filter with enhanced isolation can be achieved with metallized ferrite slab. Simulated S-parameters show that a notch in the isolating direction can be obtained at the passing band of the transmitting direction. Experimental results show that the nonreciprocal filter with metallized yttrium iron garnet (YIG) slab (by depositing 100- $\mathbf {nm}$ copper film) exhibits more than 10-dB higher isolation than that with pure YIG slab, while the center frequency, insertion loss, and 3-dB bandwidth maintain almost the same. The center frequency of the filter with metallized YIG slab can be tuned from 7.26 to 8.38 GHz with insertion loss of less than 3 dB, and in-band isolation of more than 30 dB as the dc bias magnetic field is increased from 1.8 to 2.3 kOe. Besides, the nonreciprocal filter has ultra-wide out-band suppression since it utilizes the narrow frequency band of MSSW. The −10-dB out-band rejection exceeds 36 GHz in the upper band and 1 MHz in the lower band.