Design of a new flexible phased array based on liquid crystal

The development of traditional phased array devices is relatively mature. Breakthroughs in combination with other materials have become a hotspot for antenna development. Liquid crystal materials can be used in phased array antennas because of their anisotropy. Considering the aerodynamic characteristics of the aircraft, conformal design is required for phased array to fit the shape of aircraft. In this paper, a broadband flexible phased array design based on liquid crystal is proposed. The array works in the Ku frequency band, the antenna scale is 4×4, the working bandwidth is 0.8GHz, the scanning range is ±35°, and the peak gain of proposed array is high (16.1dBi-18.9dBi).