Continuously tuneable liquid crystal based stripline phase shifter realised in LTCC technology
(2015)
This work presents the design, fabrication and measurements of a low temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC) integrated liquid crystal (LC) phase shifter. The effective permittivity of the phase shifter and therefore its differential phase shift can be tuned continuously by orienting the LC directors with electric fields. The phase-shift demonstrator is designed for Ka-band frequencies around 30 GHz and represents a stripline filled with LC, embedded inside an LTCC multilayer structure, which provides a space-qualified and hermetically-sealed LC cavity within an RF-capable material system. The total length of the device is 37 mm while the phase shifting LC section has a length of 14.6 mm. At 30 GHz it exhibits a differential phase shift of 60° with an insertion loss around 6 dB, resulting in a figure of merit around 10°/dB. An advantage is that the insertion loss is nearly independent of the tuning state of the LC. The response time of the phase shifter, depending on the desired LC orientation, is between 62 ms and 37 s.
Reliability study of a tunable ka-band SIW-phase shifter based on liquid crystal in LTCC-technology
(2014)
A tunable substrate-integrated waveguide phase shifter using low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC)-technology is presented in this paper. By changing the effective permittivity in the liquid crystal (LC)-filled waveguide, the differential phase can be tuned continuously. This is achieved by means of an analog signal applied to the electrodes, surrounding the LC. The design allows for precise tuning of the differential phase, which is proven with a Monte Carlo measurement resulting in phase errors of less than 3° at 28 GHz. Besides that, the ambient temperature dependency of the module is shown. The phase shifter has a high integration level and can be included into a complete and lightweight single-phased array antenna module. The phase shifter is realized with a high level of integration which is available through the multilayer process of the LTCC. It has a length of 50 and provides a differential phase shift of more than 360° at 28 GHz. The figure of merit for tunable phase shifters is >40°/dB.
Implementation of Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO3-ZnO-B2O3 based tunable microwave phase shifters in LTCC technology
(2017)
Tunable dielectric Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO3-ZnO-B2O3 thick-films were analyzed regarding their integration potential into the LTCC technology. Therefore, tunable loaded line phase shifters based on metal-insulator-metal varactors with single- and double- printed BST thick-films were fabricated and co-sintered inside a four layer LTCC module. Microstructural and chemical investigations showed a sufficient compatibility and adhesion between the silver, BST composite and LTCC layers and a resulting morphology depending on the processing route. The microwave characterization of the LTCC-embedded phase shifters revealed comparable results to phase shifters with the same design on alumina substrates.