Re: Small magnetic tunable filter for 6G and beyond

Jeroen Belleman <jeroen@nospam.please> wrote:

On 5/27/24 07:08, Jan Panteltje wrote:

To 6G and beyond: Engineers unlock the next generation of wireless communications:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/05/240524114938.htm
Source:
University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science
Summary:
Engineers have developed a new tool that could unlock 6G and the next
generation of wireless networks: an adjustable filter that can
successfully prevent interference in high-frequency bands of the electromagnetic spectrum.
partial quote:
What makes the filter adjustable is a unique material, "yttrium iron garnet" (YIG),
a blend of yttrium, a rare earth metal, along with iron and oxygen.
"What's special about YIG is that it propagates a magnetic spin wave," says Olsson,
referring to the type of wave created in magnetic materials when
electrons spin in a synchronized fashion.
When exposed to a magnetic field, the magnetic spin wave generated by
YIG changes frequency.
"By adjusting the magnetic field," says Xingyu Du, a doctoral student in
Olsson's lab and the first author of the paper,
"the YIG filter achieves continuous frequency tuning across an extremely
broad frequency band."
As a result, the new filter can be tuned to any frequency between 3.4 GHz and 11.1 GHz,
which covers much of the new territory the FCC has opened up in the FR3 band.
 

 
YIG filter and resonators have always been a bit exotic. Maybe this
will make them common-place. And more compact, hopefully! The YIG
was tiny, sure, but the magnet wasn't.
 
Jeroen Belleman
 

YIG-tuned VFOs are the champs for low close-in phase noise. My HP 8566B’s
noise floor at 1kHz is a good 30 dB better than any SDR-style analyzer.

If they manage to get them down to Digikey-level practicality without
screwing that up, it would be huge.

I wonder if you could use a mag amp sort of structure, with a rare earth
magnet biasing some cleverly designed bits of saturable ferrite, plus some
small coils changing the effective gap in the magnetic circuit.

Fun to think about.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs  Principal Consultant  ElectroOptical Innovations LLC /
Hobbs ElectroOptics  Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics