Electrically Microwave Tunable Components Using Liquid Crystals

The study of electrically tunable phase-shifters based on the use of liquid crystals is under consideration. First, the dielectric characterisation of a commercial liquid crystal involved in this study is reported. The anisotropy of such substrates is given by the permittivity tensor. Second, two phase-shifter configurations are studied. Both structures propose inverse strip-line but different accesses and substrates. In addition, phase variation measurements corresponding to these two configurations are compared. Finally, the paper discusses the way to improve performances.