STTR Phase I: Novel Thin Film Electric Field Tunable Microwave Devices

这项小型企业技术转移研究(STTR)第一阶段计划将扩大薄膜铁电材料的类型，用于包括谐振器、滤波器和移相器在内的电可调微波设备应用。例如，移相器在相控阵天线中起着至关重要的作用。与依赖磁场来改变材料的磁导率的传统铁氧体基器件不同，铁电器件具有电介电常数，或者相应地，介电常数随施加的电场而变化。电而不是磁的可调性允许更紧凑和更省电的设备。与块状铁电材料相比，薄膜铁电材料有更多的优势，因为它们在较低的电压下工作。在这个第一阶段的科技创新研究项目中，F&&P；S/露娜创新公司和他们的大学研究伙伴将开发一种用于电调谐微波器件应用的新型材料，这种材料基于有机聚合物而不是陶瓷铁电材料。聚合物的优点包括低成本、易加工、低介电常数和损耗正切，以及多种潜在材料的多样性，这些材料可以通过有机合成来优化给定的器件。与现有的元件技术相比，这种技术将通过降低尺寸、成本和功率要求来彻底改变微波开关和相移元件的制造。

This Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) Phase I program will expand the types of thin filmferroelectric materials for electrically tunable microwave device applications including resonators, filters, and phase shifters. Phase shifters play an essential role in phased array antennas, for example. As opposed to the conventional ferrite-based devices, which rely on magnetic fields to vary the magnetic permeability of the material, ferroelectric devices possess an electric permittivity or, correspondingly the dielectric constant, that is varied by an applied electric field. Electrical rather than magnetic tunability allows more compact and power-efficient devices. Thin film ferroelectrics have further advantages over bulk ferroelectrics in that they operate at lower voltages. In this Phase I STTR project, F&S/Luna innovations and their university research partners will develop a new class of materials for electrically tunable microwave device applications that are based on organic polymers rather than ceramic ferroelectric materials. The advantages of polymers include low cost, easy processability, low dielectric constant and loss tangent, and the versatility of a wide range of potential materials that can be optimized for a given device through organic synthesis.This technology would revolutionize the fabrication of microwave switching and phase shifting components by reducing size, cost and power requirements while improving performance compared to existing component technologies.