Technical Article: Tradeoffs And Other Requirements When Specifying RF Filters

Tradeoffs are paramount in understanding manufacturing and design cost drivers when it comes to specifying RF filters. For example, over-specifying requirements for a bandpass filter like low insertion loss accompanied with very high rejection within a narrow bandwidth of the passband increases the complexity, size, and the cost of the design as well, adding extra manufacturing efforts in the build and test cycles. This article focuses on tradeoffs to assist the RF System Engineer in understanding and consequently specifying requirements realistically as well as more effectively for the various types of RF filters presented.