Oxidized Macroporous Silicon Based Tunable Filter

To address the Navy¡¦s need for tunable UHF filters with a low insertion loss and fast response time for various radio systems in the JTRS program, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new, oxidized, macroporous, silicon-based tunable filter (OMPSi TF). This proposed filter utilizes a low-loss OMPSi plate to support a thin quartz plate with the stripline electrodes pattern, and to confine the shunt electrical discharge within its microchannels. The innovative use of micromachined material will enable the filter to be switched in less than 3 microseconds between ~80 digitally controlled frequency bands within the specified range, while providing an insertion loss of below 0.5 dB in the center of the transmission band. In Phase I, POC will demonstrate the feasibility of OMPSi TF by designing the filter prototype and fabricating the fully operational filter, utilizing established OMPSi manufacturing technology. In Phase II, POC plans to optimize the filter operation parameters to guarantee its fast implementation into military communication equipment.