Liquid Crystal-Based Enclosed Coplanar Waveguide Phase Shifter for 54–66 GHz Applications
File(s)crystals-09-00650.pdf (6.96 MB)
Published version
OA Location
Author(s)
Li, Jinfeng
Chu, Daping
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
<jats:p>A 0–10 V bias voltage-driven liquid crystal (LC) based 0°–180° continuously variable phase shifter was designed, fabricated, and measured with insertion loss less than −4 dB across the spectrum from 54 GHz to 66 GHz. The phase shifter was structured in an enclosed coplanar waveguide (ECPW) with LC as tunable dielectrics encapsulated by a unified ground plate in the design, which significantly reduced the instability due to floating effects and losses due to stray modes. By competing for spatial volume distribution of the millimeter-wave signal occupying lossy tunable dielectrics versus low-loss but non-tunable dielectrics, the ECPW’s geometry and materials are optimized to minimize the total of dielectric volumetric loss and metallic surface loss for a fixed phase-tuning range. The optimized LC-based ECPW was impedance matched with 1.85 mm connectors by the time domain reflectometry (TDR) method. Device fabrication featured the use of rolled annealed copper foil of lowest surface roughness with nickel-free gold-plating of optimal thickness. Measured from 54 GHz to 66 GHz, the phase shifter prototype presented a tangible improvement in phase shift effectiveness and signal-to-noise ratio, while exhibiting lower insertion and return losses, more ease of control, and high linearity as well as lower-cost fabrication as compared with up-to-date documentations targeting 60 GHz applications.</jats:p>
Date Acceptance
2019-12-04
Citation
Crystals, 9 (12), pp.650-650
Publisher
MDPI AG
Start Page
650
End Page
650
Journal / Book Title
Crystals
Volume
9
Issue
12
Copyright Statement
© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access
article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution
(CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution
(CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Subjects
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Technology
Crystallography
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Materials Science
liquid crystal
millimeter-wave
phase shifter
enclosed coplanar waveguide
60 GHz
tunable circuits and devices
true time delay
0306 Physical Chemistry (incl. Structural)
Publication Status
Published online
Date Publish Online
2019-12-06