STTR Phase I: Electronically Tunable RF Passives on Planar Multi-Layer Metamaterials

这个小型企业技术转移（STTR）第一阶段项目研究了一种新型的电子可调谐射频无源，用于可重构的多频段和多功能射频前端无线电系统。前端无源包括天线、滤波器、平衡器和传输线电感和电容器，印刷在由普通印刷电路多金属介电层结构制成的工程金属化材料（元材料）上。通过调整超材料上的注入电流，可以调整材料特性，从而调整无源元件的中心频率和工作频带。设计这样一个电子可调谐系统需要对无源元件、超材料及其相互作用进行严格的电磁分析。所期望的平面超材料尺寸紧凑，金属轮廓谐振频率接近器件频率。整个可调谐系统的设计需要对元件和超材料之间的电磁耦合进行建模，并对整个结构进行三维场分析。近年来，无线通信技术和应用得到了巨大的发展。目前的无线技术正朝着将多个网络整合为一个通信系统以实现全球漫游的方向发展。个人通信系统（PCS）对宽带多媒体应用的需求日益增长，这些系统体积极其紧凑，具有多种功能。多标准和多功能系统的紧凑和节能实现需要可调谐或可重构的RF前端，该前端与电路板上系统的其余部分完全集成。电路板（芯片外）上的射频无源仍然是器件小型化和重新配置的瓶颈。

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project investigates a new type of electronically tunable RF passives for reconfigurable multi-band and multi-function RF front end radio systems. The front-end passives including antennas, filters, baluns, and transmission line inductors and capacitors are printed on an engineered metalized material (meta-materials) made on common printed-circuit multiple metal-dielectric layer structures. By tuning the injected currents on meta-material, it could be possible to adjust material characteristics and as a result, the central frequency and operating band of a passive component. The design of such an electronically tunable system requires a rigorous electromagnetic analysis of passive components, meta-materials, and their interactions. The desired planar meta-materials are compact in size with the metal profile resonant frequencies close to the device frequencies. The entire tunable system design requires the modeling of electromagnetic coupling between components and meta-materials and involves a three-dimensional field analysis of the complete structure.Wireless communication technology and applications have seen tremendous growth in recent years. Present wireless technology is geared toward the consolidation of multiple networks into one communication system for global roaming. There is an ever increasing demand for broadband multimedia applications for personal communication systems (PCS) that are extremely compact in size with multiple functionalities. A compact and power efficient implementation of multi-standard and multi-functional system calls for a tunable or reconfigurable RF front-end that is completely integrated with the rest of the system on circuit boards. RF passives on the circuit board (outside the chips) remain the bottleneck for device miniaturization and reconfiguration.