High-Efficiency Circularly Polarized Phased Array Based on 5 &#x003BC;m-Thick Nematic Liquid Crystals: Design, Over-The-Air Calibration, and Experimental Validation

Xin Yu Wu; Fengshuo Wan; Hongyuan Feng; Shichao Jin; Chong Guo; Yu Wei; Dunge Liu; Yuqian Yang; Longzhu Cai; Zhi Hao Jiang; Wei Hong

doi:10.1016/j.eng.2023.08.013

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Engineering ›› 2024, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (1) : 69-81. DOI: 10.1016/j.eng.2023.08.013

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Article

High-Efficiency Circularly Polarized Phased Array Based on 5 μm-Thick Nematic Liquid Crystals: Design, Over-The-Air Calibration, and Experimental Validation

Xin Yu Wu^a ,
Fengshuo Wan^a ,
Hongyuan Feng^a ,
Shichao Jin^b ,
Chong Guo^a^,^c ,
Yu Wei^a ,
Dunge Liu^b ,
Yuqian Yang^b ,
Longzhu Cai^a^,^c ,
Zhi Hao Jiang^a^,^c^,^* ,
Wei Hong^a^,^c

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Abstract

This paper presents a systematic investigation and demonstration of a K-band circularly polarized liquid-crystal-based phased array (LCPA), including the design, over-the-air (OTA) in-array calibration, and experimental validation. The LCPA contains 16 phase-shifting radiating channels, each consisting of a circularly polarized stacked patch antenna and a liquid-crystal-based phase shifter (LCPS) based on a loaded differential line structure. Thanks to its slow-wave properties, the LCPS exhibits a maximum phase-shifting range of more than 360° with a figure of merit of 78.3(° )·dB⁻¹ based on a liquid crystal layer with a thickness of only 5 μm. Furthermore, an automatic OTA calibration based on a state ergodic method is proposed, which enables the extraction of the phase–voltage curve of every individual LCPA channel. The proposed LCPA is manufactured and characterized with a total profile of only 1.76 mm, experimentally demonstrating a scanned circularly polarized beam from −40° to +40° with a measured peak gain of 12.5 dBic and a scanning loss of less than 2.5 dB. The bandwidth of the LCPA, which satisfies the requirements of port reflection (|S₁₁|) < −15 dB, an axial ratio (AR) < 3 dB, beam squinting < 3°, and a gain variation < 2.2 dB, spans from 25.5 to 26.0 GHz. The total efficiency is about 34%, which represents a new state of the art. The use of the demonstrated low-profile LCPA to support circularly polarized scanning beams, along with the systematic design and calibration methodology, holds potential promise for a variety of millimeter-wave applications.

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Keywords

Circularly polarized / Liquid crystal / Liquid-crystal based phased array (LCPA) / Phase shifter / Over-the-air (OTA) calibration

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Xin Yu Wu, Fengshuo Wan, Hongyuan Feng, Shichao Jin, Chong Guo, Yu Wei, Dunge Liu, Yuqian Yang, Longzhu Cai, Zhi Hao Jiang, Wei Hong. High-Efficiency Circularly Polarized Phased Array Based on 5 μm-Thick Nematic Liquid Crystals: Design, Over-The-Air Calibration, and Experimental Validation. Engineering, 2024, 32(1): 69‒81 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eng.2023.08.013

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