
152 MICROWAVE COMPONENTS
where
Fr
= resonant frequency
BW3 dB
is the bandwidth between -3-dB points on the passband response
curve
The Q of the resonant cavity tends to be very much higher than the Q of
LC tank
circuits. Values on the order of 10,000 are not uncommon.
As is also true of
LC
tank circuits, input and output coupling tend to reduce
Q, creating the
loaded Q
concept. The coefficient of coupling (K) determines the re-
lationship between loaded Q and unloaded Q (Q versus
Qo)
according to
Q = Qo
(7- 5)
I+K
Three general cases are recognized:
critical coupling, subcritical coupling
(also called
undercoupling),
and
overcritical ...