Metamaterial-Based MEMS Compact Phase Shifters

ABSTRACT: During the course of the Phase I project, the university partner Lehigh University invented a unique and highly efficient phase shifter concept based on metamaterial design concepts. This novel phase shifter unit cell allows switching between left-handed and right-handed transmission characteristics to create a phase shift with almost 70 degrees shift using only a single MEMS switch. This new phase bit cell exhibits 2.5x more phase shift than the best slow-wave phase shifting architectures, using one-fifth the number of MEMS switches. During the course of the proposed Phase II project, Lehigh will extend this concept to design 4-bit phase shifters at Ka-band and transfer this technology to MEMtronics for fabrication, packaging, and testing using their MEMS capacitive switch process and contract manufacturing partners. This phase shifter concept enables the possibility of 1-2 dB loss phase shifters at Ka-band that occupy approximately 12 mm2. MEMtronics will commercialize this technology to applications where size, weight, power, and cost are critical to mission success. These include defense and commercial applications focused on air- and ground-based satellite communications for UAV and"SatCom on the move"applications. BENEFIT: By taking advantage of combining the differing dispersion characteristics of metamaterials, non-dispersive phase shifters with a constant phase across a wide range of frequencies can be designed. Incorporating RF MEMS technology with these metamaterial designs makes possible low-loss, low DC power consumption phase shifters at Ka-band. This opens a path to exciting new phased-array antenna system architectures requiring fewer expensive transceiver modules, thereby reducing size, weight, and cost over existing phased array systems. This technology will be directly applicable to commercial satellite communications, where it is anticipated that high-speed broadband Internet, digital television, video broadcasting, and government services will be major areas of growth for this industry.