Continuously tunable W-band phase shifter based on liquid crystals and MEMS technology

Author

Fritzsch, Carsten ; Giacomozzi, Flavio ; Karabey, Onur Hamza ; Goelden, Felix ; Moessinger, Alexander ; Bildik, Saygin ; Colpo, Sabrina ; Jakoby, Rolf

Author_Institution

Inst. of Microwave Eng. & Photonics, Tech. Univ. Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

fYear

2011

fDate

10-11 Oct. 2011

Firstpage

522

Lastpage

525

Abstract

In this paper we present a continuously tunable phase shifter realized in MEMS technology. Varactors with liquid crystals as a tunable dielectric layer underneath gold bridges are utilized to build a loaded line phase shifter. Measurements show that the phase shifter has a differential phase shift of 92°, a figure of merit (FoM) of 42°/dB and an input matching of -19 dB at 76 GHz. The realized phase shifter can be used in combination with MEMS switches in order to build a 360° tunable reflection phase shifter.

Keywords

circuit tuning; liquid crystals; microswitches; millimetre wave phase shifters; varactors; FoM; MEMS switches; continuously tunable W-band phase shifter; differential phase shift; figure of merit; frequency 76 GHz; gold bridges; input matching; liquid crystals; loaded line phase shifter; tunable dielectric layer; tunable reflection phase shifter; varactors; Bridge circuits; Coplanar waveguides; Micromechanical devices; Phase shifters; Switches; Tuning; Varactors; Liquid Crystals; MEMS; Phase Shifters;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Integrated Circuits Conference (EuMIC), 2011 European

Conference_Location

Manchester

Print_ISBN

978-1-61284-236-3

Type

conf

Filename

6102793