Electrically Tunable Phase Shifter for HPM Antenna Arrays

The Air Force needs high-power, electrically tuned phase shifters to form conformal, high-power microwave (HPM) antenna arrays with electronic beam steering capability. During Phase I, Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) developed a waveguide-based phase shifter that will enable 20° azimuth/elevation beam steering for conformal megawatt and gigawatt class antenna arrays. This technology has the potential to replace complex and expensive mechanically steered apertures with an electrically tuned, low insertion loss X?band phase shifter devices. During Phase II, PSI will pursue two fabrication approaches for incorporating the tunable dielectric material with biasing electrodes within the waveguide phase shifter. Once reliable manufacturing of full-length phase shifters is demonstrated, PSI will verify power handling with high-peak-power X-band magnetrons. PSI will also demonstrate high average power capability with temperature compensation for improving phase stability. Operational resilience testing will include humidity, altitude pressure, and min/max temperature qualification. Finally, antenna array power handling will be demonstrated at the end of the program using a high-power X-band source. An antenna subarray comprising >16 elements will be scanned in a far-field range to demonstrate >20° beam scanning in Azimuth and Elevation. The program will complete with fabrication and test of a full-scale array with >24 dBi gain on boresight.