Scanning ferroelectric apertures

To reduce the loss of an array due to the fixed element pattern and to reduce the grating-lobe problem for large steering angles, the use of. scanning ferroelectric apertures is proposed. The phase front and, as a result, the beam direction of a scanning ferroelectric element are determined by its permittivity controlled by the biasing voltage applied to it. The calculated angle of steering of a scanning element, made of polycrystalline BaTiO3, is more than ±75° at 10 GHz. A quality factor is defined for the purpose of comparing the efficiency of different ferroelectric materials for application in a scanning element.