Spatially tailored spin wave excitation for spurious-free, low-loss magnetostatic wave filters with ultra-wide frequency tunability

Abstract: Yttrium iron garnet magnetostatic wave (MSW) radio frequency (RF) cavity filters are promising for sixth-generation (6G) communication systems due to their wide frequency tunability. However, the presence of severe spurious modes arising from the finite cavity dimensions severely degrades the filter performance. We present a half-cone transducer that spatially tailors spin wave excitation to selectively enhance the primary cavity modes comprising the MSW filter passband, while strongly suppressing the undesired spurious modes. Theoretical analysis, numerical simulations and experiments verify the effectiveness of the spatially tailored technique. We utilize the half-cone transducer to demonstrate a spurious-free, single-cavity half-cone MSW filter (HC-MSWF) with an insertion loss (IL) of 2.4-3.2 dB over a frequency tuning range of 6.3-16.8 GHz. Extending our study, we further demonstrate a spurious-free, dual-cavity HC-MSWF with an unprecedented tuning range of 21.7 GHz (9.8-31.5 GHz) while maintaining a low IL of 2.9-3.8 dB. This significant advance in performance will enable highly reconfigurable and robust 6G networks.