High Performance Low Cost Ferroelectric Phase Shifters Designed for Simple Biasing

Abstract

A novel approach in ferroelectric phase shifters design using Ba x Sr 1-x TiO 3 (BSTO) films in a multilayer dielectric coplanar waveguide structure is described. By including a low loss dielectric layer (SiO 2 ) between the coplanar waveguide conductors and the ferroelectric material in conjunction with a via to allow the signal conductors to contact the ferroelectric layer to employ biasing, significant reduction in insertion loss can be achieved in conjunction with a three fold increase in figure of merit ( o /dB) compared to the case with direct metallization on the ferroelectric layer.