Phase control of reflectarray patches using liquid crystal substrate

Abstract

In this proof of concept study we employ numerical and measured results at X- band to demonstrate that the dielectric anisotropy of nematic state liquid crystal can be exploited to produce electronically controlled phase shifters for printed reflectarray antennas. Phase agility is realized by inserting a layer of liquid crystal in the region between the resonant patch array and the conductive ground plane. Applying a low frequency biasing voltage produces a small change in the permittivity of the substrate and this is shown to create a large shift in the phase of the reflected signal. Ansoft HFSS version 10.0 is employed to study the scattering behaviour of the array elements in the range 9-11 GHz using the dielectric properties of commercially available liquid crystals. The simulated phase range, bandwidth and reflection loss are shown to be in close agreement with measurements that were obtained from a waveguide simulator. The most significant impact of this new active control strategy is in the mm and sub-mm wave band and therefore a technique is proposed for characterising the electrical performance of liquid crystals at these frequencies. This paper summarises the progress that has been made in the first stage of a collaborative academic/industrial project to investigate the feasibility of creating high frequency beam scanning reflectarray antennas for future space science instruments.