A MEMS-Tunable Frequency-Selective Surface Monolithically Integrated on a Flexible Substrate

A MEMS-tunable conformal frequency-selective surface (FSS) monolithically integrated onto a novel bulk micromachined rigid-flex Kapton substrate has been fabricated and tested. The FSS structure switches between the Ku and Ka bands with good correlation between simulated and measured results. In addition to added reconfigurablility for multi-band reflector antennas, the structure facilitates MEMS-based tunable conformal radomes capable of high-frequency operation in the Ka band and beyond.