Millimetre-wave beam steering with analog-resolution and minimised distortion based on liquid crystals tunable delay lines with enhanced signal-to-noise ratios

Jinfeng Li*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Millimetre-wave beam-steering distortions are due mainly to unbalanced feeding amplitudes among the delay lines network. To compensate for this, active amplifiers or attenuators are employed, increasing the circuit complexity and costs, whilst compromising the passive array advantage. This work presents a passive millimetre-wave distortion-free beam steering solution with analog resolution in liquid crystal planar delay line technology. Enclosed coplanar waveguide (ECPW) tunable delay lines with 0-180° and 0-360° phase-shifting ranges are prototyped respectively. A novel impedance matching and mismatching approach for amplitude compensation is proposed and verified, as evidenced by the 67 GHz measured maximum insertion loss of -4.37 dB (variation up to 5%) for the 0-180° delay line, and -8.28 dB (variation up to 8%) for the 0-360° device. Based on a smart combination of the 0-180° and 0-360° ECPW, an optimised delay lines deployment scheme is proposed for two-dimensional beam steering with a fault tolerance capability and a minimised systematic insertion loss in total on the feeding network.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMillimetre Wave and Terahertz Sensors and Technology XIII
EditorsNeil A. Salmon, Frank Gumbmann
PublisherSPIE
ISBN (Electronic)9781510638952
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020
Externally publishedYes
EventMillimetre Wave and Terahertz Sensors and Technology XIII 2020 - Virtual, Online, United Kingdom
Duration: 21 Sept 202025 Sept 2020

Publication series

NameProceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Volume11541
ISSN (Print)0277-786X
ISSN (Electronic)1996-756X

Conference

ConferenceMillimetre Wave and Terahertz Sensors and Technology XIII 2020
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityVirtual, Online
Period21/09/2025/09/20

Keywords

  • Electronic beamforming
  • Liquid crystal
  • Millimetre wave
  • Phase shifter
  • Phased array radar
  • Super-resolution
  • True time delay line
  • Ultra-wideband

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