Under this collaborative effort between A Brown Design, Michigan State University, and Raytheon, a novel phase shifter design is proposed. The phase shifter design builds upon existing RF MEMS capacitive technology by co-integrating MEMS switches with metamaterial unit cells. The metamterial unit cell design is versatile and allows significant degree of freedom in integration and design. It is compatible with existing MEMS fabrication technology that utilizes Microstrip design with solid ground plane. Preliminary Ka-band phase shifter designs show that all of the design goals set under this proposal can be met. This proposal carries out the development of phase shifter by comprehensively analyzing it from design, performance, manufacturability, and utilization. The joint team together brings more than 24years of industry and research experience in the areas of RFMEMS, microwave and millimeter wave designs. A large industry partner (Raytheon) has been identified who will be instrumental in the production and commercialization of the technology. The team brings a unique ability of metamaterial design, phase shifter design, and RF MEMS technology.
Benefit: Low-loss, non-dispersive phase shifters have the potential to revolutionize the phased array market by reducing cost per element through die area reductions and reduced part count through the use of non-dispersive, broadband elements. Further, the low loss characteristics can greatly reduce the SWAP per subarray by reducing the number of PA's/LNA by moving these elements before the main power distribution.
Keywords: MEMS, phase shifters, metamaterials, phased arrays
