Electrically Tunable Open-Stub Bandpass Filters Based on Nematic Liquid Crystals
Abstract
Electrically tunable bandpass filters based on liquid crystals are designed, built, and characterized using a vector network analyzer. The filters are composed of half-wavelength open stubs and quarter-wavelength connecting lines in an inverted microstrip geometry. The filters are modeled using computational electromagnetics software utilizing the finite integration technique. Photolithography and thin-film deposition processes are employed, and standard liquid-crystal cell-assembly techniques are used to make the final filter structures. The three-stub filters with passband central frequencies of 30, 50, and 85 GHz are filled with the nematic liquid crystal, LC1917, and tested. 10% tuning of the central frequency is achieved with a 14-volt peak-to-peak ac bias across the 38 -μ m liquid-crystal layer (electric field of 0.19 V / μ m ). At 50 GHz, the insertion loss is -3.76 dB , while the return loss ranges from -9 to -25 dB , indicating a good impedance match for a proof-of-concept device. The passband widths of the 30-, 50-, and 85-GHz filters are 5, 9, and 14 GHz, respectively, resulting in a Q factor of 6. The filter devices presented in this study, although intended for microwave signal-processing applications, furnish an effective methodology for characterizing the dielectric properties of liquid-crystal materials (and fluids or solids in general) up to the terahertz frequency range.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Applied
- Pub Date:
- December 2017
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.8.064012
- Bibcode:
- 2017PhRvP...8f4012E