RESUMEN
This study investigates the possibility of increasing the radiation efficiency of printed antennas and arrays by suppressing their inherent surface waves using a metasurface made of quad-split rings (QSR). A symmetrical resonant microstrip dipole and a four-element series-fed dipole array printed on an infinite grounded dielectric layer (layer thickness: 0.2 mm; relative permittivity: 9.4; tanδ: 0.0005) were simulated with FEKO 2022 software. Conducted at 100-116 GHz, the numerical results revealed extremely low radiation efficiencies of approximately 31% and 40% for the studied dipole and dipole array, respectively, which resulted from the presence of surface waves in the dielectric. However, placing only one QSR near each dipole arm triggered an increase in radiation efficiency by 2.5 times (up to 75%). The use of a metasurface in the form of two small QSR arrays triggered a pronounced improvement in radiation efficiency, reaching 93.6% and 95.8% for the studied dipole and dipole array, respectively. Analysis of the electric field distribution images showed that this enhancement resulted from surface wave suppression.
RESUMEN
With the emergence of fifth-generation (5G) cellular networks, millimeter-wave (mmW) and terahertz (THz) frequencies have attracted ever-growing interest for advanced wireless applications. The traditional printed circuit board materials have become uncompetitive at such high frequencies due to their high dielectric loss and large water absorption rates. As a promising high-frequency alternative, liquid crystal polymers (LCPs) have been widely investigated for use in circuit devices, chip integration, and module packaging over the last decade due to their low loss tangent up to 1.8 THz and good hermeticity. The previous review articles have summarized the chemical properties of LCP films, flexible LCP antennas, and LCP-based antenna-in-package and system-in-package technologies for 5G applications, although these articles did not discuss synthetic LCP technologies. In addition to wireless applications, the attractive mechanical, chemical, and thermal properties of LCP films enable interesting applications in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), biomedical electronics, and microfluidics, which have not been summarized to date. Here, a comprehensive review of flexible LCP technologies covering electric circuits, antennas, integration and packaging technologies, front-end modules, MEMS, biomedical devices, and microfluidics from microwave to THz frequencies is presented for the first time, which gives a broad introduction for those outside or just entering the field and provides perspective and breadth for those who are well established in the field.
RESUMEN
RF switches, which use a combination of graphene and two-dimensional high-density electron gas (2DEG) in the AlGaN/GaN system, were proposed and studied in the frequency band from 10 MHz to 114.5 GHz. The switches were integrated into the coplanar waveguide, which allows them to be used in any system without the use of, e.g., bonding, flip-chip and other technologies and avoiding the matching problems. The on-state insertion losses for the designed switches were measured to range from 7.4 to 19.4 dB, depending on the frequency and switch design. Although, at frequencies above 70 GHz, the switches were less effective, the switching effect was still evident with an approximately 4 dB on-off ratio. The best switches exhibited rise and fall switching times of ~25 ns and ~17 ns, respectively. The use of such a switch can provide up to 20 MHz of bandwidth in time-modulated systems, which is an outstanding result for such systems. The proposed equivalent circuit describes well the switching characteristics and can be used to design switches with required parameters.
RESUMEN
Polymer composite films containing fillers comprising quasi-1D van der Waals materials, specifically transition metal trichalcogenides with 1D structural motifs that enable their exfoliation into bundles of atomic threads, are reported. These nanostructures are characterized by extremely large aspect ratios of up to ≈106 . The polymer composites with low loadings of quasi-1D TaSe3 fillers (<3 vol%) reveal excellent electromagnetic interference shielding in the X-band GHz and extremely high frequency sub-THz frequency ranges, while remaining DC electrically insulating. The unique electromagnetic shielding characteristics of these films are attributed to effective coupling of the electromagnetic waves to the high-aspect-ratio electrically conductive TaSe3 atomic-thread bundles even when the filler concentration is below the electrical percolation threshold. These novel films are promising for high-frequency communication technologies, which require electromagnetic shielding films that are flexible, lightweight, corrosion resistant, inexpensive, and electrically insulating.
RESUMEN
We report on the synthesis of the epoxy-based composites with graphene fillers and test their electromagnetic shielding efficiency by the quasi-optic free-space method in the extremely high-frequency (EHF) band (220-325 GHz). The curing adhesive composites were produced by a scalable technique with a mixture of single-layer and few-layer graphene layers of few-micrometer lateral dimensions. It was found that the electromagnetic transmission, T, is low even at small concentrations of graphene fillers: T<1% at a frequency of 300 GHz for a composite with only Ï = 1 wt% graphene. The main shielding mechanism in composites with the low graphene loading is absorption. The composites of 1 mm in thickness and a graphene loading of 8 wt% provide an excellent electromagnetic shielding of 70 dB in the sub-terahertz EHF frequency band with negligible energy reflection to the environment. The developed lightweight adhesive composites with graphene fillers can be used as electromagnetic absorbers in the high-frequency microwave radio relays, microwave remote sensors, millimeter wave scanners, and wireless local area networks.
