Compact and Passive Thin-Film Frequency-Selective Limiters

GPS receivers need to be able to operate in a complex electromagnetic environment, which requires measures against interfering signals to ensure reliable operation. Receiver electronics must be robust against strong in-band interfering signals, providing reliable readings of the GPS code regardless of the interfering signals. Here, we demonstrated a new compact and passive thin-film frequency selective limiter (TF-FSL) for GPS applications with a low insertion loss (IL), low-power rejection threshold, and high interference signals’ power suppression. The TF-FSL is enabled by a new transducer structure and the magnetostatic surface wave of a low-damping yttrium iron garnet (YIG) thin film with a thickness of 1900 nm. The TF-FSL shows a low IL of 3 dB, low-power rejection threshold at around −40 dBm, $\sim $ 25 dB power suppression, $\sim $ 40 dB FSL dynamic range, and 8.5 MHz interfering signal selectivity (at 5 dB compression point) with 0 dBm input interfering power.