Voltage-controlled ferroelectric lens phased arrays

Abstract

A new concept for phased arrays is proposed using a voltage-controlled ferroelectric lens. The ferroelectric lens concept uniquely incorporates bulk phase shifting-the array does not contain individual phase shifters-using ferroelectric material. This will reduce the number of phase shifters from (n2m) to (n+m), where n is the number of columns and m is the number of rows in a phased array. The number of phase shifter drivers and phase shifter controls is also significantly reduced by using row-column beam steering. Thus, the ferroelectric lens concept can potentially lead to low-cost phased arrays. This paper presents the ferroelectric lens concept, theoretical analysis and design, and experimental results. The results indicate that the ferroelectric lens concept is viable and sound. Various phasedarray configurations using ferroelectric lens are included. A brief discussion on ferroelectric materials is included along with information on a U.S. Department of Defense program to improve ferroelectric materials.

Voltage controlled ferroelectric lens phased arrays

“…Low frequency results were calculated from capacitance measurements. Measurements at 10 GHz were performed by Dr. R. Geyer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and confirmed with our measurements. We see that, in general, tunability, , and decrease with decreasing Ba content; they also decrease with increasing oxide content.…”

“…Using the analytical solutions that were developed in the previous section, optimization algorithms based on the minimax approach have been devised and computer programs have been written to implement these algorithms [12]. The programs optimize the length of each transformer.…”

“…4. It can also be approximated by using the Binomial series as (dB) tunability (10) In general, the ferroelectrics with higher offer higher tunability, which is desired to reduce the lens thickness. However, the lens matching to free-space is easier for smaller .…”

“…Continuing this process of writing the TEM field components in each consecutive area and applying boundary conditions at each interface, we arrive at the expression for the dominant mode-reflection coefficient in waveguide as reported earlier [12] …”

Ferroelectric-Dielectric Solid Solution and Composites for Tunable Microwave Application

“…The ferroelectric-dielectric composite bulk ceramics show promising application, especially in accelerator, as active elements of electrically controlled switches and phase shifters in pulse compressors or power distribution circuits of future linear colliders as well as tuning layers for the dielectric based accelerating structures (Kanareykin et al 2006(Kanareykin et al , 2009a(Kanareykin et al , 2009b. The ferroelectric bulk ceramics can also be used in ferroelectric lens (Rao et al 1999). …”