C-band Meander Line Microstrip Ferrite Phase Shifter Tunable with Multiferroic Heterostructure Fringe Fields

Metamagnetics Inc., a small, veteran-owned, for-profit business, led by Anton Geiler and Pat Parimi, with consultants Vincent Harris and Carmine Vittoria, proposes to develop new phase shifter technology that addresses many of the shortcomings of existing phase shifters and is ideally suited for electronically steered phased array radar applications. The proposed technology is an electric field tunable ferrite microstrip phase shifter. In this proposal Metamagnetics researchers will demonstrate the feasibility of high quality ferrite materials processing, microstrip phase shifter design, active tuning using low power multiferroic transducer technologies, and fabrication, testing, and refinement of prototype devices that operate at C-band. The anticipated phase shifter(s) technology will be planar, low-loss, able to handle high power while consuming low power, reliable, radiation hard, and cost-effective to process and package (no hermetics). By employing meander line design strategies, the Metamagnetics'' C-band phase shifter will be reduced from centimeters in length to an active region of 5 x 5 mm2. The developed technologies during this Phase I program will be commercialized in partnership with the prime contractor Raytheon who has expressed their written support for the proposed research plan.