60 GHz Beam-Steering Antenna Array Using Liquid Crystal Phase Shifter

Abstract

The applications of communication devices have extended widely especially with the revolution of 5G systems. The rapid progress in the material science and electronic technology, makes it possible to design tunable and flexible reconfigurable wireless devices. In this paper, the anisotropic properties of liquid crystals in their nematic phase are exploited for desigening tunable wireless devices at 60GHz millimeter wave band. Two different design approaches for 60GHz are presented, a liquid crystal tunable resonator, and beam-steering slotted patch antenna array. Simulations indicate around 5.04% of continuous frequency tuning with low insertion loss, with antenna array ability to steer its beam in the E-plane by a maximum of 20°.