Reconfigurable Reflectarrays and Array Lenses for Dynamic Antenna Beam Control: A Review

Advances in reflectarrays and array lenses with electronic beam-forming capabilities are enabling a host of new possibilities for these high-performance, low-cost antenna architectures. This paper reviews enabling technologies and topologies of reconfigurable reflectarray and array lens designs, and surveys a range of experimental implementations and achievements that have been made in this area in recent years. The paper describes the fundamental design approaches employed in realizing reconfigurable designs, and explores advanced capabilities of these nascent architectures, such as multi-band operation, polarization manipulation, frequency agility, and amplification. Finally, the paper concludes by discussing future challenges and possibilities for these antennas.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figure

Design of Tunable Beamforming Networks Using Metallic Ridge Gap Waveguide Technology

Wireless communication is a leap of development in the history of humanity. For the past 100 years, a considerable effort has been spent to develop better standards, and technologies for a higher speed wireless communication with high system capacity for different applications. This requires the design of a high-frequency, point-to-multipoint antenna array system to achieve the mentioned goals. In addition, the reconfigurability of this antenna system is essential to change the system characteristics to achieve acceptable performance in different situations. The main goal of this thesis is to design a reconfigurable beamforming network to work on the Ka-band for waveguide applications. Among different beamforming networks in the literature, the Butler matrix is chosen due to its higher efficiency and the smaller number of components required than other beamforming networks. The Butler matrix is designed using a dual-plane topology to avoid using crossovers. Ridge gap waveguide technology is chosen among different transmission lines to implement the Butler matrix for several reasons: It does not need dielectrics to operate, so its power handling capacity is defined by the gap height, and it has no dielectric losses. Its zero-field region represents the operating principle for some tunable devices introduced here and its contactless nature, which eases the assembly of waveguide parts at the millimeter-wave frequencies. The reconfigurability of the Butler matrix is implemented such that beamwidth, maximum gain, and beam direction may be all tuned for optimum system performance. To that end, several components are designed to achieve the required target, and strict requirements are placed on several components to achieve an acceptable cascaded-system performance. These components include a ridge gap waveguide 90o-hybrid working over a more than 30% bandwidth, which can provide several coupling levels ranging from 3 dB to 33 dB and a return loss and isolation better than 30 dB. Another component is a wideband reconfigurable power splitter that has a 40% bandwidth, a return loss better than 20 dB in the worst case and the ability to achieve all power splitting ratios including switching between the two guides. In addition, a wideband reconfigurable phase shifter is designed to have 33% bandwidth and phase shift tuning range from 0o to 200o. Two coaxial-to-ridge gap waveguide transitions are designed to work over a more than 100% bandwidth to facilitate testing different ridge gap waveguide components. Analysis of the asymmetric double ridge waveguide is introduced where its impedance is deduced and may be used to design a single to double ridge waveguide transition useful for the dual-plane Butler matrix introduced here. In addition, this concept is used to develop a wideband unequal power divider in the single ridge waveguide technology. At the end, the whole system is assembled to show its performance in different tuning states. The ability of the system to produce radiation patterns of different characteristics is demonstrated. The presented Butler matrix design is a promising beamforming network for several applications like radar, base stations for mobile communications, and satellite applications

Liquid Metal-Based Tunable Linear Phase Shifters With Low Insertion Loss, High Phase Resolution, and Low Dispersion

A linear, tunable, and self-compensating phase shifter based on liquid metal (LM) is proposed in this article using a half-mode substrate-integrated waveguide (HMSIW). The key phase shifting element is a via-pad-slot (VPS) structure where a thru via is attached to a pad surrounded by an annular slot. This is equivalent to a shunt capacitance and inductance loaded on the HMSIW. Phase shift is achieved when the annular slot is covered by the LM that runs in microfluidic channels on the surface of the HMSIW. This allows easy implementation and convenient manipulation of the LM without incurring excessive losses. A self-compensation structure, based on multiple rows of VPSs, is proposed to achieve a low phase deviation with frequency (low dispersion). The design method to ensure a linear and small phase step over a large phase range is presented. Two phase shifters have been designed and experimentally verified. Phase shifter-I, with two VPS rows, provides a phase shift from 0&lt;inline-formula&gt; &lt;tex-math notation="LaTeX"&gt;$^{\circ}$&lt;/tex-math&gt; &lt;/inline-formula&gt; to 41&lt;inline-formula&gt; &lt;tex-math notation="LaTeX"&gt;$^{\circ}$&lt;/tex-math&gt; &lt;/inline-formula&gt; with &lt;inline-formula&gt; &lt;tex-math notation="LaTeX"&gt;$\pm$&lt;/tex-math&gt; &lt;/inline-formula&gt;1&lt;inline-formula&gt; &lt;tex-math notation="LaTeX"&gt;$^{\circ}$&lt;/tex-math&gt; &lt;/inline-formula&gt; phase deviation with frequency over 9.5&amp;#x2013;12.5 GHz. The average phase resolution is 1&lt;inline-formula&gt; &lt;tex-math notation="LaTeX"&gt;$^{\circ}$&lt;/tex-math&gt; &lt;/inline-formula&gt;. The measured insertion loss (IL) is 0.8 &lt;inline-formula&gt; &lt;tex-math notation="LaTeX"&gt;$\pm$&lt;/tex-math&gt; &lt;/inline-formula&gt; 0.1 dB, with a figure of merit of 45.6&lt;inline-formula&gt; &lt;tex-math notation="LaTeX"&gt;$^{\circ}$&lt;/tex-math&gt; &lt;/inline-formula&gt;/dB. Phase shifter-II uses three VPS rows to provide a phase shift from 0&lt;inline-formula&gt; &lt;tex-math notation="LaTeX"&gt;$^{\circ}$&lt;/tex-math&gt; &lt;/inline-formula&gt; to 180&lt;inline-formula&gt; &lt;tex-math notation="LaTeX"&gt;$^{\circ}$&lt;/tex-math&gt; &lt;/inline-formula&gt; with a phase resolution of 1.68&lt;inline-formula&gt; &lt;tex-math notation="LaTeX"&gt;$^{\circ}$&lt;/tex-math&gt; &lt;/inline-formula&gt;. The achieved phase deviation with frequency is within &lt;inline-formula&gt; &lt;tex-math notation="LaTeX"&gt;$\pm$&lt;/tex-math&gt; &lt;/inline-formula&gt;2&lt;inline-formula&gt; &lt;tex-math notation="LaTeX"&gt;$^{\circ}\mathbf{}$&lt;/tex-math&gt; &lt;/inline-formula&gt; over 10&amp;#x2013;12.5 GHz and within &lt;inline-formula&gt; &lt;tex-math notation="LaTeX"&gt;$\pm$&lt;/tex-math&gt; &lt;/inline-formula&gt;5&lt;inline-formula&gt; &lt;tex-math notation="LaTeX"&gt;$^{\circ}$&lt;/tex-math&gt; &lt;/inline-formula&gt; over 9&amp;#x2013;13 GHz. The measured IL is 1.1 &lt;inline-formula&gt; &lt;tex-math notation="LaTeX"&gt;$\pm$&lt;/tex-math&gt; &lt;/inline-formula&gt; 0.1 dB with a competitively high figure of merit of 163.6&lt;inline-formula&gt; &lt;tex-math notation="LaTeX"&gt;$^{\circ}$&lt;/tex-math&gt; &lt;/inline-formula&gt;/dB. Unlike many other phase shifters, the loss of the proposed phase shifters does not increase with the phase shift. The measurements are in very good agreement with the circuit analysis and simulations. The proposed linear phase shifter has demonstrated high performance and very attractive features such as low IL that does not strongly depend on the phase shift, linear phase change, high phase resolution, and low phase dispersion with frequency. Compared with other LM-enabled phase shifters, it has the advantage of easy implementation and control. This LM-based phase shifter also potentially has high power handling capability.</p

A Recent Approach towards Fluidic Microstrip Devices and Gas Sensors: A Review

This paper aims to review some of the available tunable devices with emphasis on the techniques employed, fabrications, merits, and demerits of each technique. In the era of fluidic microstrip communication devices, versatility and stability have become key features of microfluidic devices. These fluidic devices allow advanced fabrication techniques such as 3D printing, spraying, or injecting the conductive fluid on the flexible/rigid substrate. Fluidic techniques are used either in the form of loading components, switching, or as the radiating/conducting path of a microwave component such as liquid metals. The major benefits and drawbacks of each technology are also emphasized. In this review, there is a brief discussion of the most widely used microfluidic materials, their novel fabrication/patterning methods

Electronically Controllable Phase Shifter with Progressive Impedance Transformation at K Band

This communication presents the design of a two-port electronically tunable phase shifter at K band. The phase shifter consists of a 3 dB hybrid coupler loaded with reflective phase-controllable circuits. The reflective circuits are formed by varactors and non-sequential impedance transformers which increase the operational bandwidth and the provided phase shift. The final phase shifter design is formed by two loaded-coupler stages of phase shifting to guarantee a complete phase turn. An 18 GHz phase shifter design with dynamic range of 600 degrees of phase shift is depicted in this document. The prototype is manufactured and validated through measurements showing good agreement with the simulation results.This work has been partially supported by the TIN2016-75097-P, RTI2018-102002-A-I00, and EQC2018- 004988-P projects of the Spanish National Program of Research, Development, and Innovation and project B-TIC-402-UGR18 of Junta de Andalucí

Electronically controllable phase shifter with progressive impedance transformation at K band

This communication presents the design of a two-port electronically tunable phase shifter at K band. The phase shifter consists of a 3 dB hybrid coupler loaded with reflective phase-controllable circuits. The reflective circuits are formed by varactors and non-sequential impedance transformers which increase the operational bandwidth and the provided phase shift. The final phase shifter design is formed by two loaded-coupler stages of phase shifting to guarantee a complete phase turn. An 18 GHz phase shifter design with dynamic range of 600 degrees of phase shift is depicted in this document. The prototype is manufactured and validated through measurements showing good agreement with the simulation results

An All-Pass Topology to Design a 0-360° Continuous Phase Shifter with Low Insertion Loss and Constant Differential Phase Shift

International audienceIn this paper, an analog phase shifter is designed by using a novel all-pass topology. The phase shift can be continuously adjusted from 0 up to 380° by biasing varactor-diodes while maintaining the differential phase shift constant across the 6.7 GHz - 7.7 GHz band. This two-stage circuit is simple and compact with respectively insertion losses of 2.9 dB +- 1.3 dB, return losses better than 9.4 dB and a differential phase shift flatness of +- 11° in the worst case. With a 90.5°/dB Figure-of-Merit, this topology presents an interesting trade-off between low-cost, low loss, large phase-shift range, phase flatness and bandwidth. Measurements are discussed and carefully compared to current competing topologies

Design of new radiating systems and phase shifters for 5G communications at millimeter-wave frequencies

With the arrival of the new generation of communications, known as 5G, the systems that constitute it must offer better performance in terms of data speed, latency and connection density than the previous generation of communications. For 5G, an allocation of the frequency ranges that will support future wireless communications has been established. This allocation is formed by a range of frequencies corresponding to bands below 6 GHz and the other range of frequencies includes bands above 24 GHz. In the latter frequency range, which includes part of the millimeter-wave frequency band (from 30 GHz to 300 GHz), the development of new radio frequency (RF) components is necessary because their design and manufacture is a technological challenge. As the frequency that supports wireless communications increases, propagation losses also increase. Therefore, these losses must be compensated by the radiating systems in 5G to make these communications possible. The RF devices that make up these new systems must provide high antenna gain, be power efficient and offer spatial reconfigurability of the radiated signal. In this thesis, the main objective is the design of both guided and radiating RF devices to provide design solutions for future 5G systems at millimeter-wave frequencies. In particular, the contributions made have been to the design of phase shifters and antenna arrays. To improve efficiency at millimeter-wave frequencies, these devices have been designed in waveguide technology. Phase shifters are essential RF devices to control the phase shift of the electromagnetic wave that will be radiated to a certain spatial direction by an antenna array. The design of beamforming networks requires the implementation of phase shifters that produce a fixed or variable phase shift value. However, the design and fabrication of these devices at millimeter-wave frequencies is a complex task. In this thesis, four designs of waveguide phase shifters that produce both fixed and variable phase shift are presented. For phase shifters that provide a fixed phase shift, the value of this phase shift along the frequency is tuned in a desired manner by using periodic structures with higher symmetries. These types of configurations provide both flexibility in the design process and improved electromagnetic performance such as greater operating bandwidth. All the phase shifters have been implemented in gap-waveguide technology to demonstrate its effectiveness in these devices for millimeter-wave frequencies. Regarding the radiating systems, two feeding strategies have been considered in the design process. First, the design of a 70 GHz centered antenna array implemented in gap-waveguide technology combined with the use of separate waveguides in E-plane is proposed. In this design, the feed is guided through a waveguide corporate-feed network. Second, the design of a reflectarray whose unit cells are formed using three-dimensional geometries is presented. In this case, the feeding is done in free space by radiation from a source antenna. In the previous designs, the fabrication of the prototypes was done by 3D printing based on stereolithography. Finally, using unit cells with three-dimensional geometries, the design of radiating devices with more complex functionalities such as reflection/transmission with high directivity and reconfiguration of the reflected radiation by means of graphene structures are proposed.Con la llegada de la nueva generación de comunicaciones, denominada 5G, los sistemas que la conforman deben ofrecer unas mejores prestaciones en términos de velocidad de datos, latencia y densidad de conexiones respecto a la generación de comunicaciones anterior. Para 5G se ha establecido una asignación de los rangos de frecuencia que van a soportar las futuras comunicaciones inalámbricas. Esta asignación se compone por un rango de frecuencias correspondiente a las bandas por debajo de los 6 GHz y el otro rango de frecuencias engloba a las bandas por encima de los 24 GHz. En este ´ultimo rango de frecuencias, en el cual están incluidas parte de la banda de las frecuencias milimétricas (desde 30 GHz a 300 GHz), es necesario el desarrollo de nuevos componentes de radiofrecuencia (RF) ya que su diseño y fabricación supone un reto tecnológico. Al aumentar la frecuencia que soporta las comunicaciones inalámbricas, las pérdidas por propagación también aumentan. Es por ello por lo que estas pérdidas deben ser compensadas por los sistemas radiantes en 5G para que las comunicaciones sean posibles. Los dispositivos de RF que componen estos nuevos sistemas deben proporcionar una alta ganancia de antena, ser eficientes en términos de potencia y ofrecer reconfigurabilidad espacial de la señal radiada. En esta tesis, el objetivo principal es el diseño de dispositivos de RF tanto guiados como radiantes para ofrecer soluciones de diseño a los futuros sistemas 5G en frecuencias milimétricas. De manera particular, las contribuciones realizadas han sido al diseño de desfasadores y agrupaciones de antenas. Para mejorar la eficiencia en frecuencias milimétricas, estos dispositivos han sido diseñados en tecnología en guía de ondas. Los desfasadores son dispositivos RF esenciales para controlar el desfase de la onda electromagnética que será radiada hacia una cierta dirección espacial por una agrupación de antenas. Las redes de beamforming tienen la necesidad de implementar en su diseño desfasadores que producen un valor de desfase fijo o variable. Sin embargo, el diseño y fabricación de estos dispositivos en frecuencias milimétricas resulta una tarea de alta dificultad. En esta tesis se presenta cuatro diseños de desfasadores en guía de onda que producen un desfase tanto fijo como variable. Para los desfasadores que proporcionan un desfase fijo, el valor de este desfase a lo largo de la frecuencia es ajustado de manera deseada mediante el uso de estructuras periódicas con simetrías superiores. Este tipo de configuraciones proporcionan tanto flexibilidad en el proceso de diseño como una mejora de las características electromagnéticas como puede ser un mayor ancho de banda de operación. Todos los desfasadores realizados han sido implementados en tecnología gap waveguide para demostrar su efectividad en estos dispositivos para frecuencias milimétricas. Respecto a los sistemas radiantes, se han considerado dos estrategias de alimentación en el proceso diseño. En primer lugar, se propone el diseño de un array centrado a 70 GHz implementado en tecnología gap waveguide combinado con el uso de guías de onda separadas en plano E. En este diseño, la alimentación es guiada a través de una red de alimentación corporativa en guía de onda. En segundo lugar, se presenta el diseño de un reflectarray cuyas celdas unitarias son formadas mediante geometrías tridimensionales. En este caso, la alimentación se hace en el espacio libre mediante la radiación de una antena fuente. En los anteriores diseños, la fabricación de los prototipos se realizó mediante impresión 3D basado en estereolitografía. Finalmente, a través del uso de celdas unitarias con geometrías tridimensionales, se proponen el diseño de dispositivos radiantes con funcionalidades más complejas como la reflexión/transmisión con alta directividad y la reconfiguración de la radiación reflejada mediante estructuras con grafeno.Tesis Univ. Granada

Four-element phased-array beamformers and a self-interference canceling full-duplex transciver in 130-nm SiGe for 5G applications at 26 GHz

This thesis is on the design of radio-frequency (RF) integrated front-end circuits for next generation 5G communication systems. The demand for higher data rates and lower latency in 5G networks can only be met using several new technologies including, but not limited to, mm-waves, massive-MIMO, and full-duplex. Use of mm-waves provides more bandwidth that is necessary for high data rates at the cost of increased attenuation in air. Massive-MIMO arrays are required to compensate for this increased path loss by providing beam steering and array gain. Furthermore, full duplex operation is desirable for improved spectrum efficiency and reduced latency. The difficulty of full duplex operation is the self-interference (SI) between transmit (TX) and receive (RX) paths. Conventional methods to suppress this interference utilize either bulky circulators, isolators, couplers or two separate antennas. These methods are not suitable for fully-integrated full-duplex massive-MIMO arrays. This thesis presents circuit and system level solutions to the issues summarized above, in the form of SiGe integrated circuits for 5G applications at 26 GHz. First, a full-duplex RF front-end architecture is proposed that is scalable to massive-MIMO arrays. It is based on blind, RF self-interference cancellation that is applicable to single/shared antenna front-ends. A high resolution RF vector modulator is developed, which is the key building block that empowers the full-duplex frontend architecture by achieving better than state-of-the-art 10-b monotonic phase control. This vector modulator is combined with linear-in-dB variable gain amplifiers and attenuators to realize a precision self-interference cancellation circuitry. Further, adaptive control of this SI canceler is made possible by including an on-chip low-power IQ downconverter. It correlates copies of transmitted and received signals and provides baseband/dc outputs that can be used to adaptively control the SI canceler. The solution comes at the cost of minimal additional circuitry, yet significantly eases linearity requirements of critical receiver blocks at RF/IF such as mixers and ADCs. Second, to complement the proposed full-duplex front-end architecture and to provide a more complete solution, high-performance beamformer ICs with 5-/6- b phase and 3-/4-b amplitude control capabilities are designed. Single-channel, separate transmitter and receiver beamformers are implemented targeting massive- MIMO mode of operation, and their four-channel versions are developed for phasedarray communication systems. Better than state-of-the-art noise performance is obtained in the RX beamformer channel, with a full-channel noise figure of 3.3 d

26 GHz phase shifters for multi-beam nolen matrix towards fifth generation (5G) technology

This paper presents the designs of phase shifters for multi-beam Nolen matrix towards the fifth generation (5G) technology at 26 GHz. The low-cost, lightweight and compact size 0° and 45° loaded stubs and chamfered 90°, 135° and 180° Schiffman phase shifters are proposed at 26 GHz. An edge at a corner of the 50 Ω microstrip line Schiffman phase shifter is chamfered to reduce the excess capacitance and unwanted reflection. However, the Schiffman phase shifter topology is not relevant to be applied for the phase shifter less than 45° as it needs very small arc bending at 26 GHz. The stubs are loaded to the phase shifter in order to obtain electrical lengths, which are less than 45°. The proposed phase shifters provide return loss better than 10 dB, insertion loss of -0.97 dB and phase difference imbalance of ± 4.04° between 25.75GHz and 26.25 GHz. The Rogers RT/duroid 5880 substrate with dielectric constant of 2.2 and substrate thickness of 0.254 mm is implemented in the designs