Compact Liquid Crystal-based Defective Ground Structure Phase Shifter for Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces
- Resource Type
- Conference
- Authors
- Neuder, Robin; Wang, Dongwei; Schusler, Martin; Jakoby, Rolf; Jimenez-Saez, Alejandro
- Source
- 2023 17th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP) Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP), 2023 17th European Conference on. :1-5 Mar, 2023
- Subject
- Aerospace
Communication, Networking and Broadcast Technologies
Components, Circuits, Devices and Systems
Engineered Materials, Dielectrics and Plasmas
Fields, Waves and Electromagnetics
Photonics and Electrooptics
Signal Processing and Analysis
Fabrication
Phase shifters
Europe
Insertion loss
Time factors
Microstrip
Wideband
Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface
Liquid Crystal
Phase Shifter
Defective Ground Structure
- Language
This paper investigates the applicability of defective ground structure inverted microstrip lines (DGS-IMSL) for liquid crystal (LC)-based phase shifters that can be integrated in a Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS). The DGS features a slow-wave effect as well as low insertion losses even for thin LC-layer thicknesses, making it a promising candidate for compact phase shifting elements with low insertion loss and response times below 100 ms . Using Merck’s GT7-29001 LC, simulations and measurements are presented from 25 to 30 GHz. The compact, wideband phase shifters cover the entire band with a FoM > 74 °/dB reaching up to 79 °/dB. The 4.6 μm thick LC layer permits full 360° phase shift with a bias voltage of only 10 V. The phase shifter’s physical lengths could be miniaturized down to 0.35 to 0.45 λ 0 due to the slow-wave effect of the DGS.