Liquid Crystal Devices for Beam Steering Applications

Morris, Rowan; Jones, John C.; Nagaraj, Mamatha

doi:10.3390/mi12030247

Cited by 29 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 208 publications

(310 reference statements)

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“…There are many manufacturing ways to manufacture LC beam steering devices, depending on the requirements for the specific application 48 , 49 . In the case of passive blazed gratings they can be manufactured , for instance, using a deposition and a photolithography process 50 , 51 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

High resolution 2D beam steerer made from cascaded 1D liquid crystal phase gratings

Blas

García

Andreu

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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Optical beam steering (BS) has multiple applications in fields like target seeking and tracking, optical tweezers, billboard displays and many others. In this work, a two-dimensional beam deflector based on blaze gratings is presented. Phase-only 1D blaze gratings have been prepared using maskless Direct Laser Writing (DLW) resulting in high-resolution structures in indium-tin oxide (ITO) coated glass wafers. The device is composed of two identical 1D liquid crystal (LC) cells cascaded orthogonally back-to-back, with a resultant active area of 1.1 × 1.1 mm2. The 1D cells have been prepared with 144 pixels each with a 7.5 µm pitch. The total 288 pixels are driven by a custom made 12-bit Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) electronic driver, allowing for an arbitrarily high resolution. The system performance is documented, and the efficiency of the system has been tested. A maximum diagonal steering angle of ± 3.42° was achieved.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

High resolution 2D beam steerer made from cascaded 1D liquid crystal phase gratings

Blas

García

Andreu

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Unlike electronic reconfiguration, the optical technique has constraints for lossy behavior and complex activation mechanisms, while the mechanical technique confronts a slow response [36][37][38][39], but the best are these two tend to perform without require biasing lines. The material change technique exhibits low profile and lighter weight but, unfortunately, had limited application [40,41].…”

Section: Non-electronic Reconfiguring Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconfigurable Pattern Patch Antenna for Mid-Band 5G: A Review

Isa¹,

Jusoh²,

Sabapathy³

et al. 2022

Computers, Materials &Amp; Continua

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New requirements in communication technologies make it imperative to rehash conventional features such as reconfigurable antennas to adapt with the future adaptability advancements. This paper presents a comprehensive review of reconfigurable antennas, specifically in terms of radiation patterns for adaptation in the upcoming Fifth Generation (5G) New Radio frequency bands. They represent the key of antenna technology for materializing a high rate transmission, increased spectral and energy efficiency, reduced interference, and improved the beam steering and beam shaping, thereby land a great promise for planar antennas to boost the mid-band 5G. This review begins with an overview of the underlying principals in reconfiguring radiation patterns, followed by the presentations of the implemented innovative antenna topologies to suit particular advanced features. The various adaptation techniques of radiation pattern reconfigurable planar antennas and the understanding of its antenna design approaches has been investigated for its radiation pattern enhancement. A variety of design configurations have also been critically studied for their compatibilities to be operated in the midband communication systems. The review provides new insights on pattern reconfigurable antenna where such antennas are categorized as beam steering antenna and beam shaping antennas where the operation modes and purposes are clearly investigated. The review also revealed that for mid-band 5G communication, the commonly used electronic switching such as PIN diodes have sufficient isolation loss to provide the required beam performance.

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“…Liquid crystal (LC) has been widely used in various applications such as tunable lenses [ 5 , 6 ], holographic displays [ 7 , 8 , 9 ], smart glasses [ 10 ], random lasing [ 11 ], and intensity modulators [ 12 ] by taking advantage of a low cost with a relatively simple process, and it has also been used for beam steering as an electro optical modulators [ 13 , 14 , 15 ]. Among them, nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) have the advantage of a low driving voltage, robust manufacturing process, and a low cost; in particular, the NLCs with a high birefringence are of special interest because they can reduce switching time with a small cell gap [ 16 , 17 , 18 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimization of Optical Phase Profile in Beam Deflector with Advanced Simulation Method for High Diffraction Efficiency

et al. 2022

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Controlling the phase of light with a high efficiency and precision is essential for applications in imaging, tunable devices, and optical systems. Spatial light modulators (SLMs) based on liquid crystals (LCs) have been regarded as one of the best choices for the generation of phase profiles for the steering of light. The upper glass substrate has an unpatterned electrode for a common electrode, while the lower glass substrate has one-dimensional micro-patterned electrodes for controlling the single pixel level by the applied voltages. By applying different voltages to each electrode to create a sawtooth-shaped phase profile, the collimated input beam is deflected to the desired angle. To maximize the diffraction efficiency (DE) values, an advanced simulation method has been developed to find the optimized phase profile through the analysis of LC director distributions. The resulting diffraction patterns are investigated both computationally and experimentally, with a good agreement between the results obtained. Finally, the beam deflector (BD) system with an advanced driving algorithm has a high 1st order DE, about 60%, 37%, and 7.5% at 1°, 2.5°, and a maximum steering angle of 7.5°, respectively. The LC director distributions in relation to various diffraction angles are simulated and an experimental success in realizing enhanced DE for the beam steering device is presented.

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Liquid Crystal Devices for Beam Steering Applications

Cited by 29 publications

References 208 publications

High resolution 2D beam steerer made from cascaded 1D liquid crystal phase gratings

High resolution 2D beam steerer made from cascaded 1D liquid crystal phase gratings

Reconfigurable Pattern Patch Antenna for Mid-Band 5G: A Review

Optimization of Optical Phase Profile in Beam Deflector with Advanced Simulation Method for High Diffraction Efficiency

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