Actionable Extension of Permittivity Operational Range in Liquid Crystal Coaxial Phase Shifters

Liquid crystal (LC) phase-shifting networks have garnered significant research and development interest around the globe due to their potential to reduce costs and enable the production of reliable, phase-modulating phased array antennas’ feeds for next-generation millimetre-wave (mmW) communication systems. These networks also play a crucial role in reducing energy consumption per bit, aligning with the efficiency demands of future communication technologies. This study numerically demonstrates that by addressing fabrication challenges or relaxing pre-alignment constraints on the use of polyimide (PI), the achievable tuning range can exceed initial design targets (without PI). The comprehensive phase shift-to-insertion-loss ratio can be improved by 43.8°/dB (42.8%) at 60 GHz. These findings highlight the potential for further optimisation of liquid crystal-based phase-shifting networks, paving the way for enhanced performance towards standardisation and commercialisation in advanced communication applications.