Metamaterial enabled compact wideband tunable phase shifters
First Claim
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1. A metamaterial unit cell, comprising:
- a first transmission line segment; and
a second transmission line segment overlapped with and formed onto the first transmission line segment to form the metamaterial unit cell having a negative refractive index (NRI),wherein the NRI of the metamaterial unit cell is adjustable through dispersion management based on a predetermined dispersion overlap factor associated with the metamaterial unit cell to provide a wide phase tuning range over non-resonance and resonance frequencies.
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Abstract
Negative refractive index (NRI) transmission line (TL) metamaterial may be applied to phase shifter devices. In some aspects, a one dimensional NRI TL enabled compact and tunable phase shifter is provided. The phase shifter comprises cascaded sections of NRI metamaterial TL and positive refraction index TL with tailored dispersion characteristics. The phase shifter, for example as compared to common delay line based or ferrite based phase shifters, may be compact in size, may be continuously tunable from negative to positive phases, may have flatter and more linear phase responses over wideband, may have small group delays, and may be compatible to microwave circuits.
15 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A metamaterial unit cell, comprising:
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a first transmission line segment; and a second transmission line segment overlapped with and formed onto the first transmission line segment to form the metamaterial unit cell having a negative refractive index (NRI), wherein the NRI of the metamaterial unit cell is adjustable through dispersion management based on a predetermined dispersion overlap factor associated with the metamaterial unit cell to provide a wide phase tuning range over non-resonance and resonance frequencies. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. An apparatus comprising:
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a low pass transmission line structure segment; a high-pass transmission line structure segment overlapped with and formed onto the low pass transmission line structure segment to form a metamaterial unit cell having a negative refractive index (NRI), wherein the NRI of the metamaterial unit cell is adjustable through dispersion management based on a predetermined dispersion overlap factor associated with the metamaterial unit cell to provide a wide phase tuning range over non-resonance and resonance frequencies. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A system comprising:
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one or more metamaterial unit cells, comprising; a low pass transmission line structure segment, and a high-pass transmission line structure segment overlapped with and formed onto the low pass transmission line structure segment to form a metamaterial unit cell having a negative refractive index (NRI); and a controller operable to adjust an index of the NRI of each of the metamaterial unit cells, through dispersion management based on a predetermined dispersion overlap factor, to provide a wide phase tuning range over non-resonance and resonance frequencies. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification