Ceramic-polymer ferroelectric materials for antenna applications

Ceramic-polymer composites with modified ferroelectric powder Ba/sub 0.65/Sr/sub 0.35/TiO/sub 3/ and an appropriate polymer have been synthesized and investigated. A time-domain method for microwave measurements of the ceramic-polymer material parameters has been also developed. As an example of a possible use of the ceramic-polymer ferroelectric material, a new microstrip electrically controllable traveling-wave antenna is presented. The feasibility of dielectric scanning (changing the direction of the beam by varying the relative permittivity of the electronically controlled ceramic-polymer composite) is investigated. It shows that the beam angle changes more than 30/spl deg/ when a DC bias field of 200 V is applied.