Mems-based high-impedance surfaces for millimeter and submillimeter wave applications

The authors propose to use microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) to produce novel phase shifters based on an electronically reconfigurable high-impedance surface (HIS). Typically, HIS is a textured metal surface with reactive impedance varying from an initial value to a very high value. Such phase shifters can be developed with introducing a surface with variable impedance in, e.g., a rectangular metal or dielectric rod waveguide. Placed along narrow walls of the rectangular metal waveguide or adjacent to the dielectric waveguide, the HIS affects the propagation constant, which results in changing the phase of the propagating wave. The authors manufactured a prototype of the microelectromechanical systems-based HIS consisting of a dielectric layer placed on a ground plane, and two arrays of metal patches. The gap between the upper and lower arrays of patches was fixed and filled with SiO2. The measured phase of the wave reflected from the prototype HIS varies in the range of 50 degrees, and its insertion loss is below 0.5 dB (out of resonance). (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.