Ceramic Filters for telecommunications and test equipment

“This LCW range of ceramic filters is highly cost-effective in production volumes, but makes no compromise in terms of build quality and specification,” confirmed Howard Venning, Managing Director of Aspen Electronics. “Specialising in supplying the needs of the industrial and commercial marketplace, LCW offers a fast turnaround on prototypes, and rapid follow through on high volume production deliveries,” he added.

The LCW ceramic filters are available to cover the frequency band from 40MHz to 5GHz, making them particularly suitable for high volume applications such as cellular infrastructure equipment and wireless LANs. They will also appeal to manufacturers of wireless base stations and high speed telecoms systems, and will be useful in test equipment and systems components such as synthesisers.

There are two principal design styles, array and monoblock. Both designs offer very small sized cavity filters that can be surface mounted. The filters are fitted with High Q ceramic resonators ranging in size from 3mm to 6mm square. Various size combinations are offered featuring from 2 to 6 poles. Typical VSWR is 1 to 5:1, while power handling is quoted at 1W. Operating temperature range is an extended -40 to 85oC.

The devices are designed for PCB mounting, being considerably smaller than conventional cavity designs. Yet the filters offer similar insertion loss and rejection characteristics as traditional components.
Pricing is highly competitive, ranging from £10 to £80, depending on the specification and volume ordered. Sample filters can be available within two weeks at Aspen, and volume orders are on 4 to 8 week delivery. Manufactured in the US and the Far East, the filters are fully RoHS compliant.