This invention relates generally to electronic systems and more particularly to electromagnetic perturbation utilizing a piezoelectric transducer.
Phase shifters are utilized to introduce a shift in phase of an electrical signal. There are many applications for the use of phase shifters in which shifting a phase in an electrical signal is desired. As one example, phase shifters are often used in antenna arrays. Other examples include timing recovery circuits and phase equalizers for data channels.
Antenna arrays may be designed with a plurality of antennas, each transmitting and receiving an electrical feed. Phase shifters are often used to introduce a phase shift into each of the feeds. The result of introducing phase shift into each of the feeds is a steering of the resulting beam projected by the antenna. Rather than utilizing an antenna that rotates or otherwise moves, the direction at which the antenna electrically points is affected by introducing phase shift into the feeds of the antennas. This is referred to as beam steering.
Many existing phase shifters suffer from various disadvantages. For example, many phase shifters are narrow band, meaning they can operate in only a narrow range of frequencies. In addition, such phase shifters are often high loss devices or provide only a small phase shift. Such devices include monolithic microwave integrated circuit, ferroelectric, solid-state, and photonically controlled phase shifters. Beam steering methods using a ferrite plate have been developed for low cost systems but require very high voltages up to several kV. One example of such a ferrite plate shifter requires impedance matching transformers to a polarization rotator for two dimensional arrays, large size lens, power consumption of 0.5 W, and forced air cooling. In addition these phase shifters are often expensive and inefficient.
Therefore, a need has arisen for an improved phase shifter and associated method. The present invention provides a system and method for introducting phase shift into an electric circuit, including phased array antennas and other devices.
According to one embodiment of the invention, an apparatus for introducing phase shift into an electric circuit includes a piezoelectric transducer configured to deflect in response to an applied voltage, a microstrip or other transmission line, and a perturber separated from the microstrip line by a gap and configured to deflect in response to deflection of the piezoelectric transducer. The deflection of the perturber causes a phase shift in an electric current flowing through the microstrip line.
According to another embodiment of the invention, a phased array antenna system includes an antenna array comprising a plurality of antennas, a plurality of microstrip lines connected in a one-to-one fashion with respective ones of the plurality of antennas, a perturber disposed proximate the plurality of microstrip lines, and a piezoelectric transducer coupled to the perturber such that deflection of the piezoelectric transducer causes deflection of the perturber with respect to the plurality of microstrip lines thereby introducing a phase shift in each of the microstrip lines.
Some embodiments of the invention provide numerous technical advantages. Other embodiments may realize some, none, or all of these advantages. For example, according to one embodiment, a piezoelectric transducer controlled multi-line phase shifter is provided that results in high bandwidth, low-loss, and large phase shift in a relatively inexpensive manner. Some embodiments do not require any impedance matching circuits, such as those found in ferrite plate shifters. Additional advantages of some embodiments include smaller size, lower power consumption (<1 mw in one example) lower DC control voltage (approximately 60 volts in one example), and wider operating bandwidth due to a true time-delay type of phase shifting. The bandwidth of such a piezoelectric transducer phase shifter is very wide because the perturbation of the transmission line changes the phase in the transmission line but does not significantly affect its characteristic impedance.
Other advantages may be readily ascertainable by those skilled in the art and the following FIGURES, description, and claims.
For a more complete understanding of the present invention and the advantages thereof, reference is now made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numbers represent like parts, and which:
Embodiments of the invention and its advantages are best understood by referring to
In operation, a voltage is applied on electrical lines 26 to piezoelectric transducer 12. Application of such a voltage causes piezoelectric transducer 12 to displace up or down at a free end 15, as denoted by arrow 27. This displacement in turn causes perturber 18 to also displace up or down. Displacement of perturber 18 with respect to microstrip line 20 disturbs the electromagnetic field around microstrip line 20. This disturbance results, in this embodiment, in a phase shift in microstrip line 20. The amount of this phase shift may be controlled by the proximity of perturber 18 with respect to microstrip line 20, the distance at which perturber 18 is positioned along length 28 of the microstrip line, and other parameters as described below. In this manner, a selectable phase shift can be introduced into an electrical current running through microstrip line 20, which may be used for a variety of purposes, including steering a phased antenna array. Other applications of utilizing a piezoelectric transducer to disturb an electromagnetic field in a conductor, transmission line, dielectric resonator, or other device in which a disturbance of an electromagnetic field surrounding the device is desired, referred to herein as target device, include tuning microwave circuits, tuning photonic bandgap resonators, tuning dielectric resonator oscillators, and other suitable applications. In such examples instead of the disturbance of the electromagnetic field generating a phase shift, the disturbance of the field results in a frequency change that is used for tuning purposes.
Additional details of this embodiment are described in conjunction with
Supporter 16 may be formed from any suitable material that can mechanically support piezoelectric transducer phase shift 12, such as a metal, dielectric, or insulator. The electrical characteristics of supporter 16 may be insulative or conductive. Piezoelectric transducer 12 may be coupled to supporter 16 by screws or any other suitable manner.
In this embodiment, perturber 18 has a dielectric constant of 10.8, a height 34 (
The use of microstrip line 20 is desirable because of the resulting quasi-transverse electromagnetic mode without cutoff frequency and its easy fabrication with no waveguide transition required. Other transmission lines, or conductors, may also be employed, including coplaner wave guides, coplaner strips, slot lines, and other transmission lines. In this embodiment, microstrip line 20 has a length 28 of 3 inches and a width 32 of 0.022 inches; however, other dimensions may be used.
Perturbation of the electromagnetic fields surrounding microstrip line 20 changes the distributed capacitance, which corresponds to a variation of the effective permitivity and propagation constant, and thus, results in a phase shift. The characteristic impedance of microstrip line 20 is only slightly affected by the perturbation and no additional impedance matching circuit is required for broadband operation.
Substrate 22 may be formed from any material operable to support microstrip line 20; however, according to one embodiment substrate 22 is formed from RT/DUROID 6010.8 with a dielectric constant of 10.8 and a height of 0.025 inches.
As illustrated in
The above description provides example dimensions and parameters that are meant only as examples. In general, it has been determined that a higher permitivity of substrate 22 and perturber 18 results in more desirable operation, such as greater phase shift and less loss. It is additionally desirable to provide a thicker perturber 18. For example one particularly advantageous criteria for construction of perturber 18 is a thickness 34 that is at least twice as great as the thickness of substrate 22. It has also been determined that a narrower strip width 32 and a thinner substrate 22 are desirable. In addition, having a higher permitivity of perturber 18 than that of substrate 22 in most cases tremendously increases the amount of phase shift.
Based on these criteria, it has been determined that a phase shifter having the general configuration shown in
Thus, a relatively low cost phase shifter is provided that results in desirable operation. The above-described phase shifters in one embodiment may provide phase shifts of 460° with an increased insertion loss of less than 2 dB and a total loss of less than 4 dB at 40 GHz.
Although the dimensions and physical characteristics of multi-line phase shifter 110 may vary according to desired outcome, particular parameters used in one instance are as follows. Substrate 122 is formed from RT/DUROID 5870, a high frequency laminate, with a dielectric constant of 2.33 and a height of 0.031 inches. Microstrip lines 120 each have a length of three inches and a width of 0.0917 inches. Perturber 118 is generally triangular with a dielectric constant of 60 and a thickness of 0.05 inches.
The resulting phase shift through any of microstrip lines 20 is proportional to the length over which perturbation occurs. Therefore, perturber 118 is designed to have a length over each microstrip line 120 that is equal to 0, 0.7, 1.4 and 2.1 inches, for microstrip lines 148, 146, 144, and 142, respectively. This triangular configuration for perturber 118 accomplishes differential phase shifting of 0, Φ, 2Φ, and 3Φ required for beamed steering, where (D is the desired progressive phase shift angle.
In operation, a voltage is applied on electrical wires 126, which causes deflection of piezoelectric transducer 112. This in turn causes an up and down perturbation of perturber 118, resulting in the disturbance of the electromagnetic fields along microstrip lines 142, 144 and 146. The field surrounding microstrip line 148 is substantially undisturbed because perturber 148 is designed to not interact with that field. As a result of the perturbation, a phase shift is introduced into microstrip lines 146, 144 and 142. The magnitude of such phase shift is approximately proportional to the length of perturber 118 over the microstrip line. Therefore, microstrip lines 148, 146, 144, and 142 exhibit a generally linear phase shift characteristic.
As described in greater detail below, multi-line phase shifters 10 and 110 may be utilized in combination with antenna elements to provide a phase-array antenna system that is controlled by the multi-line phase shifters. Such phased array antenna systems are described below in conjunction with
Phase shifter 210 includes a piezoelectric transducer 212, a supporter 216 at a first end 214 of transducer 212, a perturber 218, and a substrate 222 found with a plurality of microstrip lines 220. Microstrip lines 220 involve microstrip lines 242, 244, 246, and 248. These components of piezoelectric transducer 212 may be substantially similar to the corresponding components in piezoelectric transducer 110, described above. In this example, a connector 213 is utilized to attach perturber 218 to piezoelectric (transducer 212; however, in other embodiments piezoelectric transducer may attach to perturber 218 without such a connector or transducer 212 and perturber 218 may be formed integral with one another. Attaching structure 213 may be any suitable mechanical structure for coupling piezoelectric transducer 212 to perturber 218. Attaching structure 213 may be electrically conductive or insulative. A power divider 270 may be used to provide power to microstrip lines 242, 244, 246, 248.
In operation, phase shifter 210 introduces a progressive phase shift into microstrip lines 242, 244, 246, 248, as described above in conjunction with phase shifter 110. The progressive phase shifts result is a desired beam steering angle of antenna system 250.
The parameters and dimensions of multi-line phase shifter 210 varying depending upon desired characteristics for phased-array antenna system 200. A description of how to select such parameters is provided below.
One method for effecting beam steering of the beam angle in antenna system 200 is providing a progressive phase shift Φ by multi-line phase shifter 210. Thus beam steering is accomplished by introducing a phase shift of O in microstrip line 248, (in microstrip line 246, 2Φ in microstrip line 244, and 3Φ in microstrip line 242. The amount of phase shift (varies according to the desired operation of antenna system 200; however, 30° of beam steering is one desirable amount.
The parameters of multi-line phase shifter 210 that produce a phase shift of 30° is determined as follows. First an antenna spacing is determined for antennas 252, 254, 256, and 255 according to conventional techniques, such as be those described in R. C. Hansen, Phased Array Antennas, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998; P. H. Schaubert & J. Shin, “Parameter Study of Tapered Slot Antenna Arrays,” IEEE Int. Antennas and Propagat. Symp. Digest, Newport Beach, Calif., 1995, and P. H. Schaubert, “A class of E-plane scan blindness in single-polarized arrays of tapered-slot antennas with a ground plane, IEEE Trans. Antenna Propagat, Vol. 44, No. 7, July 1996, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference. This spacing determination may include considering grating lobes, and scanning blindness. In this embodiment, an antenna element spacing of 0.340 inches is determined.
With a set antenna spacing the phase shift angle α is determined from the following equation:
where θo is the beam scanning angle, d is the distance between two neighboring antenna elements, ko is the propagation constant in the free space, and Φ is the progressive phase shift, using values of θo=30°; d=0.340 inches. This results in a phase shift angle Φ of 51.5° at 10 gigahertz.
Thus, the phase shift of perturbed microstrip line 146 with respect to the phase of unperturbed microstrip line 148, called a differential phase shift, is 51.5°. The differential phase shifts of 144 and 142 are 103° and 154°, respectively.
In order to achieve this phase shift, the length of perturber 118 at the intersection of each of microstrip lines 120 may be selected according to the following description. The length of perturber 118 is calculated from the equation
ΔΦn=Lpert, n ·Δβn (2)
where ΔΦn is a differential phase shift, Lpert, n is the perturbed length, and a differential propagation constant Δβn is (β4-βpn). In one embodiment, P4 refers to a propagation constant of a fourth microstrip line. The fourth microstrip line's value is used as a reference to calculate Δβn. Here βpn is a perturbed propagation constant line n. In addition, Δβn is proportional to the frequency, and so is ΔΦn. The non-linear frequency dependence of Δβn, i.e. dispersion, is included in a variational calculation. Such analysis may be performed according to M. Kirsching and R. H. Jansen, “Accurate model for effective dielectric constant of microstrip with validity up to millimeter-wave frequencies,” Electron. Lett., Vol 18, no 6, pp. 272-273, Mar. 18, 1982; A. K. Verma and G. H. Sadr, “Unified dispersion model for multilayer microstrip line,” IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory and Tech., Vol. 40, No. 7, pp. 1587-1591, July 1992, which and hereby incorporated by reference.
According to such analysis, microstrip lines 120 are formed on a RT/DUROID 6010.8 substrate 222 with a dielectric constant of 10.8 and thickness of 0.025 in. A high dielectric-constant of 10.8 is used for a substrate 222 of phase shifter 210 to reduce the length of phase shifter 210. The distance between microstrip lines 242, 244, 246, 248 is the same as the antenna element spacing of 0.340 in. A total length of 2 inches for microstrip lines 242, 244, 246, 248 is sufficient to obtain the desired phase shifts for beam steering of 30°. A width 232 of 0.022 inches for microstrip lines 242, 244, 246, 248 is designed for a high characteristic impedance of 55 Ω to compensate for a decreased characteristic impedance due to dielectric perturbation. At the maximum perturbation, i.e. when the dielectric perturber is placed on the microstrip line, the characteristic impedance of microstrip lines 242, 244, 246, 248 is close to 50 Ω.
As described above, the particular dimensions and parameters used for the phase shifter may vary depending on application; however, the following dimensions and parameters were used in this embodiment. Dielectric perturber 218 has a dielectric constant of 10.8 and thickness of 0.050 inches. The length of perturber 218 at each microstrip line 242, 244, 246, 248 is varied linearly (0.6, 1.2, and 1.8 in). Piezoelectric transducer 212 has a size of 2.75 (length)×1.25 (width)×0.085 in3 (thickness including supporter 214) with a composition of Lead Zirconate Titanate. Thus the total size of the phase shifter is 4×2 in2. A smaller size can be realized if a smaller piezoelectric transducer is available.
As shown, antenna array 250 comprises a plurality of antennas 252, 254, 256, 258 formed on substrate 222. Therefore antenna array 250 is in the E-plane. E-plane refers to a plane parallel to the electric field of the radiation emitted by an antenna.
An advantage of the E-plane phased array antenna array 250 is its simple fabrication. Antenna array 250 may be fabricated on substrate 222, the same substrate on which microstrip 220 is formed. In this example, antennas 252, 254, 256, and 258 are microstrip-fed Vivaldi antennas. A strip line 260 (
As with substrate 122 of
To achieve a larger phase shift, perturber 218 is formed to have a higher dielectric constant of 6. As a side effect, this reduces the operating frequency of phase shifter 210, in one embodiment, from 40 to 24 GHz because the higher dielectric constant perturber 218 produces not only a larger phase shift but also a higher loss. The total size of phased array antenna system 200 is 7.7 (length)×4.5 (width)×0.6 (height) in3, which is relatively small and therefore desirable.
Thus, an antenna system is provided that is steered by a relatively low cost phase shifter according to the teachings of the invention.
As shown in
Particular dimensions utilized in this embodiment, which may be varied according to application, are: the spacing between each antenna 342, 344, 346, 348 is designed to be 0.340 inches and is equal to the spacing of microstrip lines 320 in piezoelectric phase shifter 310, and phased array antenna system 300 has a size of 4.6×4×1.75 in3. The stripline-fed structure gives a better cross-polarization characteristic than the microstrip line-fed one due to the symmetry.
Antenna system 300 operates in substantially the same manner as antenna system 200 of
In this embodiment, phased array antenna system 400 is designed to operate over the X, Ku, K bands from 8 to 26 GHz; however, other suitable frequency ranges may be prescribed. Power divider 460 is a low loss and broadband 1×4 power divider and was designed using the Chebyshev 4th order transformations to operate from 2 to 29 GHz with a small phase difference of less than 4°; however, other suitable power dividers may be used.
Oppositely aligned piezoelectric transducers 412a, 412b are controlled, in this embodiment, by only one voltage supply. One is aligned for top-down perturbation and the other for bottom-up perturbation. Twin bias wires 426a, 426b of both piezoelectric transducers 412a, 412b are oppositely connected together. Thus if one piezoelectric transducer phase shifter is going down, the other one is going up simultaneously, and vice versa, by one control voltage. In one embodiment, the first and second transducers 412a and 412b are configured to deflect in opposite directions in response to a common applied voltage.
In operation, a voltage applied to lines 426a, 426b results in displacement of piezoelectric transducer 412a in one direction and 412b in the other. This results in a progressive phase shift in microstrip lines 442, 444, 446, 448 as described above in conjunction with FIG. 3. However, the magnitude of such phase shift may double because while one perturber is displaced upward, the other is displaced downward. This results in a swing in phase shift between microstrip lines 442 and 448 of between a maximum negative value and a maximum positive value, rather than between zero and a maximum value.
Particular dimensions and parameters utilized in this example embodiment are provided below; however, other parameters and dimensions may be used. As described above, the amount of the differential phase shift can be maximized with a higher permitivity substrate 422 and perturber 418a, 418b; thicker perturber 418a, 418b; narrower strip width of microstrips 420; and thinner substrate 422. The optimization results in a reduction of the required control voltage applied to lines 426a, 426b and an improvement of the linearity of the phase shifting versus frequency.
Additional particular dimensions and parameters utilized in this example embodiment are provided below; however, other parameters and dimensions may be used. In this embodiment, each perturber 418a, 418b has a dielectric constant of 10.8, thickness of 0.050 inches, and perturbation length of 1.2 inches on a substrate 422 having a dielectric constant of 10.8, thickness of 0.010 inches, and a line width of 0.005 inches; however, other suitable dimensions and parameters may be used. In this example, substrate 422 is RT/DUROID 5870 with a dielectric constant of 2.33, thickness (t) of 40 mil, and the stripline width of 29.4 mil, and the length of antenna is 1.47 in (=1.25 λo at 10 GHz). The round-end design has a radius of about 0.35 in and the height is 1.5 in. The total size of the system is 4×6 in2. A smaller size can be realized if a smaller piezoelectric transducer 412a, 412b is available. The four microstrip-lines of the piezoelectric transducer phase shifter are directly, perpendicularly connected to stripline-fed antennas so that extra connectors are unnecessary, and the system size and cost is thus reduced.
Antennas in antenna array 450 are spaced 0.010 inches from each other. This spacing is determined according to the procedure described above, and includes: considering grating lobes, and scanning blindness. To achieve 30° of beam steering, the progressive phase shift of each line is designed to be about 60° at 10 GHz. To obtain the maximum phase shift of 180° (=3×60°), the chosen perturbation length of the perturber is 1.8 in. The length of triangular dielectric perturber is varied linearly (0.6, 1.2, and 1.8 in) at each line. The Vivaldi antenna of this example embodiment operates from 8 to 26.5 GHz. A round-end Vivaldi antenna results in an improved return loss response. The stripline-fed structure gives a better cross-polarization characteristic than a single microstrip line-fed piezoelectric transducer due to the symmetry.
Thus, another embodiment at an antenna system that is controlled by a piezoelectric transducer is provided.
Although the present invention has been described with several example embodiments, various changes and modifications may be suggested to one skilled in the art. It is intended that the present invention encompass those changes and modifications as they fall within the scope of the claims.
This application claims benefit of U.S.C. § 119(e) of the provisional application having a title of “Tunable Circuits and Devices Controlled by Piezoelectric Transducers”, a filing date of Feb. 16, 2001, Ser. No. 60/269,569.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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60269569 | Feb 2001 | US |