Lead Niobate-based Tunable Dielectrics for Smart Microwave and Millimeter-wave Systems

微波和毫米波(毫米波)频率的电子波束可控阵列天线(相控阵或智能天线)对于各种无线系统极其重要，包括卫星通信、地面移动通信、雷达、物联网、无线电力传输、卫星导航和深空通信。传统的天线波束控制是通过机械移动反射面来实现的，速度慢、体积大、不可靠。相控阵集成了天线和移相器电路，是万向架抛物面反射器的一种有吸引力的替代方案，因为它们提供了快速的波束转向目标和更好的可靠性。移相器是相控阵中的关键部件，因为移相器是通过电子控制移相器来实现波束控制的。利用可调谐介质材料可以实现阵列天线和电路的单片式制造，因此利用可调谐介质材料可以在高频下实现小、快、可靠的移相器。这种材料的突破是最近出现的，我们证明了NbnNb2O5+n PbnNb2O5+n是已知薄膜系统中介电常数、可调性和低损耗的最佳组合。将这些优异的材料性能转化为实际的器件性能和高性能的微波和毫米波电子波束可控阵列天线是该项目的主要目标。

Electronically beam-steerable array antennas (phased arrays or smart antennas) at microwave and millimetre-wave (mm-wave) frequencies are extremely important for various wireless systems including satellite communications, terrestrial mobile communications, radars, "Internet Of Things", wireless power transmission, satellite navigations and deep-space communication. Traditionally, beam steering of antenna is achieved by moving the reflector mechanically, which is slow, bulky and not reliable. Phased arrays, which integrate antennas and phase shifter circuits, are an attractive alternative to gimbaled parabolic reflectors as they offer rapid beam steering towards the desired targets and better reliability. Phase shifters are critical components in phased arrays as the beam steering is achieved by controlling phase shifters electronically.A promising research direction to create small, fast, reliable phase shifters with low insertion loss at high frequency is the use of tunable dielectric materials due to its potential of monolithic fabrication of array antennas and circuits. A breakthrough in such materials came recently when we demonstrated that Lead Niobate Pyrochlores PbnNb2O5+n gives the best combination of dielectric constant, tunability and low loss of any known thin film system. Translating these superior materials properties into actual device performance and high-performance electronically beam-steerable arrays antennas at microwave and mm-wave bands are the key aims of this project