Integration of resistive heaters for phase-change reconfigurable antennas

Vanadium dioxide has recently been proven successful as a mechanism of antenna reconfigurability. We present and discuss the integration of resistive heaters underneath the surface of the vanadium dioxide thin film, on the antenna wafer. These resistive heaters are important for the implementation of a biasing mechanism that is fast (in the range of microseconds) and that does not couple electromagnetic energy to the antenna structure. Results of antennas with and without the integrated heaters, along with additional applications of this technology in the GHz frequency range will be presented and discussed.