Fast and Miniaturized Phase Shifter With Excellent Figure of Merit Based on Liquid Crystal and Nanowire-Filled Membrane Technologies

This paper presents a highly miniaturized tuneable microstrip line phase shifter for 5 GHz to 67 GHz. The design takes advantage of the microstrip topology by substituting the ground plane by a metallic-nanowire-filled porous alumina membrane (NaM). This leads to a slow-wave (SW) effect of the transmission line; thus, the transmission line can be physically compact while maintaining its electric length. By applying a liquid crystal (LC) with its anisotropic permittivity as substrate between the transmission line and the NaM, a tuneable microstrip line phase shifter is realized. Three demonstrators are identically fabricated filled with different types of high-performance microwave LCs from three generations (GT3-23001, GT5-26001 and GT7-29001). The measurement results show good matching in a 50 Ω system with reflection less than −10 dB over a wide frequency range. These demonstrators are able to reach a maximum figure of merit (FoM) of 41 °/dB, 48 °/dB, and 70 °/dB for different LCs (GT3-23001, GT5-26001 and GT7-29001, respectively). In addition, experiments show that all three LCs should be biased with square wave voltage at approximately 1 kHz to achieve maximum tuneability and response speed. The achieved response times with GT3-23001, GT5-26001 and GT7-29001 are 116 ms, 613 ms, and 125 ms, respectively, which are much faster than other reported LC phase shifter implementations. Large-signal analysis shows that these implementations have high linearity with third-order interception (IP3) points of approximately 60 dBm and a power handling capability of 25 dBm

Study of the Young's Modulus in Microstructures through the Resonance Frequency Technique for Applications in Commercial CMOS Processes

<div><p>The companies that manufacture devices with techniques inherited from microelectronics, called foundries, generally provide the electrical characteristics of the layers of their manufacturing processes, but they do not provide the mechanical parameters, which prevents the mechanical optimization of any design used in this manufacturing. Thus, the extraction of mechanical properties from the layers of a commercial process is important and it requires specific techniques and microstructures for this purpose. This work presents a study on the Young's modulus of cooper thin films using the resonance frequency technique to extract this parameter. The microstructures used for the application of the technique are cooper cantilevers with lengths of 100-700 µm, width 40 µm and thickness 2 µm suspended in such a way that it is possible to measure their resonant frequency. These structures are also simulated using the finite element method. The experimental results are compared with the simulations and presented equivalence.</p></div

Implementation of a Millimeter-Wave Butler Matrix on Metallic Nanowires-Filled Membrane Platform

Wireless communications with greater transmission capacities are possible in the millimeter wave (mmWave) region. However, to overcome the significant propagation losses in this frequency band, it is necessary to employ more efficient and intelligent antennas based on MIMO and beam-steering phased array technologies. This paper demonstrates the fabrication of a beam steerable array antenna using a $4\times 4$ Butler matrix at 60 GHz employing the metallic nanowire membrane (MnM) substrate. This substrate has the advantage of interconnecting two metallization layers by vias fabricated through its nanopores. Experimental characterization of the fabricated samples shows that the MnM platform represents a high-potential candidate for millimeter-wave front-ends supporting the beam-steering technique

Compact DC to 110 GHz Crossover Based on Metallic-Nanowire-Filled Membrane

This letter presents an ultra-wideband crossover based on metallic-nanowire-filled membrane (MnM) from dc to 110 GHz. Two designs are proposed with reduced insertion loss and high isolation. Design Type 1 presents a 1.2 dB insertion loss and 19 dB isolation up to 80 GHz, with a phase imbalance of 14° at 80 GHz. This important phase imbalance is due to CPW that passes under the top microstrip (MS) line. To improve the device, a CPW was used in both paths. The improved design Type 2 shows a 1.5 dB insertion loss, 0.2 dB insertion loss imbalance, and 3.3° phase imbalance at 110 GHz. The latter presents a measured isolation of 38 dB up to 70 GHz and a simulated isolation better than 30 dB up to 110 GHz

Fast and Miniaturized Phase Shifter With Excellent Figure of Merit Based on Liquid Crystal and Nanowire-Filled Membrane Technologies

This paper presents a highly miniaturized tuneable microstrip line phase shifter for 5 GHz to 67 GHz. The design takes advantage of the microstrip topology by substituting the ground plane by a metallic-nanowire-filled porous alumina membrane (NaM). This leads to a slow-wave (SW) effect of the transmission line; thus, the transmission line can be physically compact while maintaining its electric length. By applying a liquid crystal (LC) with its anisotropic permittivity as substrate between the transmission line and the NaM, a tuneable microstrip line phase shifter is realized. Three demonstrators are identically fabricated filled with different types of high-performance microwave LCs from three generations (GT3-23001, GT5-26001 and GT7-29001). The measurement results show good matching in a 50 Ω system with reflection less than −10 dB over a wide frequency range. These demonstrators are able to reach a maximum figure of merit (FoM) of 41 ∘ /dB, 48 ∘ /dB, and 70 ∘ /dB for different LCs (GT3-23001, GT5-26001 and GT7-29001, respectively). In addition, experiments show that all three LCs should be biased with square wave voltage at approximately 1 kHz to achieve maximum tuneability and response speed. The achieved response times with GT3-23001, GT5-26001 and GT7-29001 are 116 ms, 613 ms, and 125 ms, respectively, which are much faster than other reported LC phase shifter implementations. Large-signal analysis shows that these implementations have high linearity with third-order interception (IP3) points of approximately 60 dBm and a power handling capability of 25 dBm

Slow Wave Inverted Microstrip Line Based on Metallic Nanowire Filled Alumina Membrane

This paper presents the realization of a slow wave transmission line based on inverted microstrip structure, and a low cost metallic-nanowire-filled-membrane(NaM). The fabrication and processing of NaM are presented, as well as the principle of the slow wave(SW) effect. Simulation and Measurement results at V-band demonstrate that the effective dielectric constant of such transmission lines can be significantly increased beyond the dielectric constant of the substrate. Based on this, the dimension of the transmission line can be miniaturized, and losses can be reduced, thus to achieve a high quality factor