Novel Approach to the Synthesis of Microwave Diplexers

A procedure for synthesizing microwave diplexers is presented. It is based on the evaluation of the characteristic polynomials of the diplexer including the three-port junction connecting the TX and RX filters (two types of junctions are considered, suitable for waveguide and coaxial diplexers modeling). The novel method is particularly suited for small separation between the two diplexer channels: as known, this is the most difficult case in the diplexers design, due to the strong interaction between the TX and RX filters. The proposed synthesis approach offers noticeable design flexibility, as it allows the synthesis of the two composing filters independently of their connections to the diplexer, taking into account at the same time the interaction produced in the diplexer junction. Moreover the choice of the filters topology is absolutely arbitrary (the number of poles and the transmission zeros of the two filters have to be specified). The proposed method has been validated by the design and fabrication of a diplexer for global system for mobile communications base stations.