Redefinable planar microwave passive electronics enabled by thermal controlled VO2/Cu hybrid matrix

Abstract

Summary: A planar microwave array device with complex electromagnetic functional reconfigurability is demonstrated by means of phase transition film VO2 to manipulate the electromagnetic distribution. Based on planar patch architecture, the microwave device can switch between antenna array and cascaded filter functions. Furthermore, hybrid EM functions such as cascaded antenna arrays and filters are enabled, themselves with further reconfigurability. Therefore, a single design realizes many mono and hybrid antenna and filter functions, which are determined by the order of the array. For simplicity of demonstration, a 2 × 2 array device working at three reconfigurable center frequency points of 3.1, 3.7, and 4.4 GHz, fully compatible with standard planar CMOS processing. A comprehensive design method is proposed to meet the design requirements of a patch-based antenna array and cascaded filter. Based on the functionally reconfigurable microwave device, the front-end circuit could be recombined to suitable for multifunctional microwave systems.

Keywords

• Thermal engineering
• Materials science
• Thermal property