Evaluating voltage-tunable materials for RF phase shifter technology

Abstract

Today's phased-array antennas use hundreds of radiating elements that use relatively high-loss phase shifters that operate over a limited bandwidth. The number of elements and the phase shifter losses affect the overall cost of the antenna system. Ferroelectric RF phase shifters have the potential to meet the low-loss, low-cost requirements driving many phased-array applications. Some of the issues affecting the development of ferroelectric phase shifters include ferroelectric tunability, dielectric losses, conductor losses, and impedance mismatch. We used the measured tunability (250 kHz, room temperature), dielectric constant, and loss tangent (10 GHz, room temperature) of Ba_1-xSr_x/TiO₃ (0.4x 0.6) with various amounts of MgO additive, 0 to 60 wt.%, to estimate the device performance of microstrip phase shifters. The electromagnetic model of the microstrip (which uses a standard 3-mil-wide 1-oz. copper line, 3-mil-thick BST/MgO composite and the bias criteria of 2 V/μm) has produced performance benchmarks for a number of composites providing 360° of phase shift. While the accuracy of the electromagnetic model used to evaluate these materials has limitations, the results do provide some insight as to which materials may be better suited for 10-GHz phase shift devices.