Spectrum Control Introduces High-Q RF Filter Family with Dramatic Reduction in Filter Size

Washington, DC, June 17, 2024 -- Spectrum Control, a leading provider of miniature, modular, and intelligent RF components and solutions, today demonstrated a revolutionary reduction in the size of high-performance, anti-aliasing filters to complement its emerging class of Direct RF solutions. In cooperation with 3D Glass Solutions, Spectrum Control has developed a family of surface-mount, BGA devices from 500 MHz to 10 GHz with wafer-scale manufacturing on glass substrates. These new filters boast a physical size of only 2.6 x 5.4 mm.

The company is launching a family of standard filters for low-pass, high-pass and band-pass applications, with custom derivatives available for any frequency requirement from 500 MHz to 10 GHz. The initial filter in the family will be on display for the first time in the Spectrum Control booth (#208) during IMS 2024 in Washington, D.C. Future products will include mmWave filters and interconnects up to 300 GHz.

“This is a foundational building block for our SCi Blocks™ family of products,” said Jeff Miner, chief technologist for RF solutions at Spectrum Control. “The ability to manufacture solenoidal high-Q inductor structures in glass delivers unrivaled filter performance in an extremely small footprint and will have a profound impact on the miniaturization of RF solutions. By using wafer-scale manufacturing in glass, we can achieve an extremely high correlation between our simulations and the manufactured product. And even with tight fabrication tolerances we see negligible unit-to-unit variations.”

4 GHz IF Filter

The showcase product for this launch is a 4 GHz IF filter, MMG-4000-2000-B, available in a 2.6 x 5.4 mm (0.100” x 0.210”) BGA package. It has a pass-band from 3 to 5 GHz with mid-band insertion loss of 2.2 dB and group delay of 0.8 ns over a temperature range of -55° C to 125° C. Stop-band suppression is greater than 60 dBc from DC - 2.5 GHz and 5.8 to 15 GHz, typical 15% from the band edges (see Table 1 for MMG-4000-2000-B specifications).

“Spectrum Control is delivering on its promise to radically shrink the RF front end and achieve a whole new level of mass affordability / affordable mass in the RF industry,” commented Ian Dunn, chief technology officer. “We are enabling a new era of SWaP-C in the RF industry by reducing footprints, minimizing integration efforts, and leveraging volume manufacturing.”

Collaboration with 3D Glass Solutions

After an extensive survey of the market, Spectrum Control selected 3D Glass Solutions to develop the filters. The dielectric and reliability properties and promise of glass, the precision of 3D Glass’s semiconductor manufacturing capabilities to create miniature 3D RF structures in glass, and finally its world-class US foundry aligned with national objectives to on-shore key technology building blocks in line with the country’s national security priorities were all factors in the selection process.

“We are pleased to be a manufacturing partner with Spectrum Control for these RF filters. Spectrum Control’s engineering team is exercising key features of our 3D glass technology to achieve RF miniaturization that is game-changing for the industry” said Jeb H. Flemming, chief technology officer, 3D Glass Solutions.

About the SCi Blocks™ Family 

Spectrum Control’s SCi Blocks (pronounced “sky blocks”) RF+Digital architecture revolutionizes how RF is integrated into digital defense systems. Platform elements include SiPs, RF-on-mezzanine and SOSA-aligned 3U OpenVPX modules. Each offers a dramatic reduction in size, weight, and power (SWaP) and an open-standard digital interface for tuning, monitoring, and control, and vastly simplified system integration. Visit spectrumcontrol.com/sci-blocks for more information.

About Spectrum Control 

Ensuring highly reliable and high-fidelity radio signal transmission can be the difference between life and death in mission-critical applications. Spectrum Control offers the world’s most comprehensive portfolio of high reliability products for controlling that electromagnetic spectrum: components, IMAs, subsystems, RF+Digital blocks, and custom solutions. The company is leveraging its design and manufacturing prowess to create disruptive new products that deliver revolutionary size and performance advantages. Leading companies and governments trust Spectrum Control to help them design, engineer, and build the devices and solutions that connect and protect our world.

RF+, RF+Digital, DirectRF+, and SCi Blocks are trademarks of Spectrum Control Inc.

About 3D Glass Solutions

3D Glass Solutions is a world-class expert on the fabrication of electronic packages and devices using photo-definable glass-ceramics. The Company manufactures a wide variety of glass-based, system-in-package (SiP) devices and components using its patented low-loss photosensitive APEX® glass ceramic technology for applications in RF electronics and photonics used in automotive radar, IC electronics, medical, aerospace, defense, wireless infrastructure, mobile handset and IoT industries. 3DGS offers high precision products with exceptional high- frequency and low-loss properties. 3DGS glass ceramic-based RF products can be combined with any number of designs or devices to create incredibly unique and valuable SiP products. The Company has created foundational patent positions related to all photosensitive glass- ceramic materials and devices and owns the fundamental intellectual property for all four positions (materials, design, systems and manufacturing) related to glass-ceramic devices for the electronics packaging industry. 3DGS leverages its unique product solutions to provide device manufacturing and systems integration services for several standard and custom products. 3DGS has a PDK available for designers to use for the custom design of products.  For more information about 3DGS, please visit www.3DGSinc.com.