Reconfigurable ground plane membranes for analog/digital microstrip phase shifters and frequency agile antenna

Author

Shafai, C. ; Shafai, L. ; Al-Dahleh, R. ; Chrusch, Dwayne D. ; Sharma, Satish K.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Manitoba Univ., Winnipeg, Man., Canada

fYear

2005

fDate

24-27 July 2005

Firstpage

287

Lastpage

289

Abstract

A new type of RF MEMS device is presented for microstrip transmission line phase shifters and frequency agile patch antenna. Ground plane membranes are implemented to control local substrate effective dielectric constant and so microstrip device capacitance. Continuous control of transmission line phase shift or antenna resonant frequency is demonstrated. In phase shifter implementation, a figure of merit of over 700° phase shift/dB signal power loss has been achieved. In MPA implementation, a MPA was continuously swept from 16.8 GHz to 17.82 GHz (6% variation). Additionally, while MEM switch devices are limited in power handling capability, the presented device is not so limited.

Keywords

frequency agility; micromechanical devices; microstrip antennas; microstrip resonators; phase shifters; transmission lines; 16.8 to 17.82 GHz; RF MEMs switch devices; analog-digital microstrip transmission line phase shifters; antenna resonant frequency; dielectric constant; frequency agile patch antenna; microstrip device capacitance; phase shifter implementation; power handling capability; reconfigurable ground plane membranes; signal power loss; Biomembranes; Dielectric constant; Dielectric substrates; Frequency; Microstrip antennas; Patch antennas; Phase shifters; Power transmission lines; Radiofrequency microelectromechanical systems; Switches;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

MEMS, NANO and Smart Systems, 2005. Proceedings. 2005 International Conference on

Print_ISBN

0-7695-2398-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICMENS.2005.102

Filename

1540836