An Integrated Phased Array Antenna Design Using Ferroelectric Materials and the Continuous Transverse Stub Technology

In this paper, a new integrated phased array antenna system employing the ferroelectric materials technology for electronic beam steering capabilities is described. The design integrates a ferroelectric coplanar waveguide phase shifter with the continuous transverse stub (CTS) array. The phase shifter employs a multi-dielectric substrate and includes a thin layer of silicon dioxide between the signal conductors and the ferroelectric material to reduce the insertion losses and produce good impedance matching. The coplanar waveguide-based multi-dielectric layer design demonstrated an effective ferroelectric biasing architecture and exhibited an increase in figure of merit by up to 8deg/dB from that of the direct metallization approach. An integrated two elements phased array antenna is developed and demonstrates linearly polarized radiation with +/-20deg of beam scanning between the unbiased and biased states of the ferroelectric phase shifter