Title of Presentation: Recent Advances in the Development of a Lightweight, Flexible 16x16 Antenna Array with RF MEMS Shifters at 14 GHz

Primary (Corresponding) Author: John Papapolymerou

Organization of Primary Author: Georgia Tech

Co-Authors: David Chung, Swapan Bhattacharya, George Ponchak

Abstract: This paper will present recent advances towards the development of a lightweight, flexible 256-element antenna array utiling RF MEMS phase shifters. The antenna array is being developed using the 3-D System-on-a-Package (SOP) RF front end technology, where several organic layers are stacked up together. Passive and active circuits, as well as MEMS devices, can be embedded in this 3-D stack up providing space savings without compromising the performance. The antenna array is fabricated using low cost Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) substrate that shows flexibility and has excellent electrical performance up to 110 GHz.
During the presentation emphasis will be given on the following topics and experimental results will be shown:

1) A 2x2 integrated sub-array module with RF MEMS phase shifters and embedded amplifier on LCP operating at 14 GHz.

2) Stitching technique using low loss vias for the development of multilayer integrated 4x8 sub-arrays and the entire 16x16 array at 14 GHz.