Reconfigurable, cost-effective gap waveguide filtering at the millimeter waves

An approach to the design of reconfigurable and cost-effective groove gap waveguide filtering functionalities for the millimeter waves is presented. By not requiring electrical contact at the metal walls, this technology offers a flexible solution to the design and realization of all-metal waveguide components at this frequency range where conventional rectangular waveguides can become complex and costly to manufacture. A reconfigurable bandpass filter is designed to be compatible with emerging low-cost fabrication technologies such as metal additive manufacturing and hybrid approaches. A prototype is realized for bandpass tuning approximately in the range 28-33 GHz and measured to compare with numerical simulations.