A varactor-loaded resonator inserted between two Bragg reflectors has been implemented to design high-selectivity tunable bandpass filters. First, a mechanical tuning method is demonstrated. A varactor tunable bandpass filter is then implemented at 9 GHz, yielding good agreement between computational and experimental results. The tuning range reaches 3.5% with a loaded quality factor Q/sub L/=40, a maximum insertion loss of 4.75 dB, and a return loss exceeding 20 dB. The theory is carefully explained, showing the importance of the parameters of the Bragg reflectors and of the resonator, in particular, the effect of diode-case parasitics and varactor position with respect to the resonator. A large-signal experimental analysis is done, showing a maximum allowable input power of a few dBm. Finally, possible filter improvements are discussed, and simulations with a microelectromechanical systems varactor are shown.