Highly-selective MOCA lowpass filter designs using glass-based TF-IPD technology

In this work, a thin-film integrated passive device (TF-IPD) technology has been developed to meet the requirements of smaller form factor, lower cost, and faster design cycling time in modern RF front-end application. Two very compact and highly-selective TF-IPD lowpass filter designs for the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) application are demonstrated. They are required to pass the CATV-band from 50 to 750MHz, and exhibit very good rejection for frequency higher than 975MHz. Specifically, the Design 1 has an in-band insertion loss of 1.8dB with more than 40dB rejection from 975MHz to 5.8GHz. On the other hand, the Design 2 with a different layout method and thus different coupling effect has an excellent in-band insertion loss of 1.4dB and a flat 30 dB stop-band from 1.4 to 4 GHz. It is thus possible to adjust the coupling within the circuit layout to meet different filter specifications. Both designs have chip sizes around 6 mm2, which are much smaller than the conventional designs based on discrete components. The proposed highly-selective lowpass filter designs can also be applied to mobile communication devices due to their compact size and good performance.