Electronically Tunable Liquid-Crystal-based F-Band Phase Shifter

Shuang-Yuan Sun, Xuan Yu, Peng-Jun Wang, Chao-Fan Wan, Jun Yang, Zhi-Ping Yin, Guang-Sheng Deng, Hong-Bo Lu
2020 IEEE Access  
We propose an F-band phase shifter based on the nematic liquid crystals (NLCs). The proposed phase shifter is formed by a voltage-controlled cavity through introducing an NLC layer between a dipole structure array and a metal floor. Under the action of electric field, the orientation of the NLC molecules will be deflected. We adjust the resonant frequency and phase of the reflected electromagnetic (EM) wave by tuning the permittivity. The transmission characteristics and the LC parameters are
more » ... lculated and analyzed for EM waves within the frequency range from 85 to 115 GHz. The LC-based device with a 30×30 array of two parallel unequal dipoles is printed on a quartz substrate, with 4 cm × 4 cm area and 490 µm thickness. The experimental results show that phase shift of zero to 350.7° is achieved at 104.2 GHz by changing the applied bias voltage on the LC layer from 0 to 20 V. Considering the anisotropy and inhomogeneity of the LC, an improved electrification model is established and compared with the test results. The proposed phase shifter is expected to find several applications in millimeter wave and terahertz reconfigurable antenna systems.
doi:10.1109/access.2020.3017165 fatcat:pjpvxpzkkzfcdgsenu4lupryr4