An electronically steerable conformal antenna is disclosed. The antenna comprises a circuit board having a composite dielectric. The composite dielectric includes an array of a plurality of antenna elements disposed on the top surface and an array of tunable cavities, each tunable cavity disposed between an associated antenna element and a conductive ground plane on the composite dielectric's bottom surface. The composite dielectric also includes a conductor, extending from an antenna input through the composite dielectric and the tunable cavities and which forms a microstrip between each of the antenna elements.

An antenna array is steered electronically by controlling the transmission speed of the RF signal in feed line of each radiator in the array. The transmission speed is controlled using phase shifters, that include variable dielectric constant (VDC) material causing the change in transmission speed. The control signal applied to the VDC material generates the required phase shift. The control signal is calculated for each phase shifter in real time for each control cycle, so as to enable the main beam to track a target, such as a satellite. The control signal is a square wave signal, and each control signal has a specifically calculated duty cycle or frequency to generate the required phase shift.

A liquid crystal phase shifter, a liquid crystal antenna, a communication apparatus, and a method for operating a liquid crystal phase shifter are provided. The liquid crystal phase shifter includes a microwave transmission structure and a phase adjustment structure opposite to each other, and a liquid crystal layer between the microwave transmission structure and the phase adjustment structure; wherein the phase adjustment structure comprises a plurality of phase adjustment units; the plurality of phase adjustment units are configured to change a dielectric constant of the liquid crystal layer according to a voltage applied to the phase adjustment units and a voltage applied to the microwave transmission structure, so as to adjust a phase of a microwave signal; and phase shift amounts adjusted by the plurality of phase adjustment units are different from each other.

A phase shifter and an antenna device are provided. The phase shifter includes a substrate, a signal line on the substrate, ground lines in pairs on the substrate, and a capacitance adjusting component. Two ground lines in a same pair of ground lines are on both sides of the signal line and spaced apart from the signal line, respectively. The capacitance adjusting component includes a film bridge, and both ends of the film bridge are on the two ground lines, respectively. The signal line is in a space enclosed by the film bridge and the substrate. The capacitance adjusting component is configured to adjust a capacitance between the film bridge and the signal line to a target capacitance when the capacitance adjusting component receives a bias voltage, and the target capacitance has a linear correlation with a magnitude of the bias voltage.

A liquid crystal phase shifter, a liquid crystal antenna, a communication apparatus, and a method for operating a liquid crystal phase shifter are provided. The liquid crystal phase shifter includes a microwave transmission structure and a phase adjustment structure opposite to each other, and a liquid crystal layer between the microwave transmission structure and the phase adjustment structure; wherein the phase adjustment structure comprises a plurality of phase adjustment units; the plurality of phase adjustment units are configured to change a dielectric constant of the liquid crystal layer according to a voltage applied to the phase adjustment units and a voltage applied to the microwave transmission structure, so as to adjust a phase of a microwave signal; and phase shift amounts adjusted by at least two of the plurality of phase adjustment units are different from each other.

A phase shift device includes a planar transmission line that is formed by a signal electrode and a ground electrode which are separated by a dielectric substance, whereby the signal electrode of the planar transmission line is divided into several pieces and includes overlapping areas of adjacent pieces that are filled with a tunable liquid crystal material, thereby forming a dielectric tunable component (varactor) with a metal-insulator-metal type capacitor. The several pieces of the signal electrode are arranged at two or more different distance levels with respect to the ground electrode. The tunable liquid crystal material is arranged as a continuous layer between several pieces of the signal electrode that are arranged at two different distance levels.

An electronically steerable conformal antenna is disclosed. The antenna comprises a circuit board having a composite dielectric. The composite dielectric includes an array of a plurality of antenna elements disposed on the top surface and an array of tunable cavities, each tunable cavity disposed between an associated antenna element and a conductive ground plane on the composite dielectric's bottom surface. The composite dielectric also includes a conductor, extending from an antenna input through the composite dielectric and the tunable cavities and which forms a microstrip between each of the antenna elements.

The present disclosure discloses a phase-shift unit, an antenna array, a display panel and a display device. In one embodiment, the phase-shift unit includes a first substrate and a second substrate assembled to each other; a liquid crystal layer between the first substrate and the second substrate; a microstrip line provided at a side of the second substrate facing towards the liquid crystal layer, and configured for receiving a voltage signal that controls deflection of liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal layer and for receiving or transmitting an electromagnetic wave signal; and a grounding layer provided on the first substrate and including a via hole corresponding to the microstrip line.

A liquid crystal phase shifter is disclosed. The liquid crystal phase shifter includes a liquid crystal cell, a partition plate, a first microstrip line, a second microstrip line and liquid crystal molecules. The liquid crystal cell includes a first substrate and a second substrate disposed opposite to each other; the partition plate is disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate; the first microstrip line is disposed on a surface of the partition plate away from the second substrate; the second microstrip line is disposed on a surface of the partition plate away from the first substrate; and the liquid crystal molecules are provided between the first substrate and the partition plate, and between the second substrate and the partition plate.

A non-volatile adjustable phase shifter is coupled to a transceiver in a wireless communication device. The non-volatile adjustable phase shifter includes a non-volatile radio frequency (RF) switch. In one implementation, the non-volatile RF switch is a phase-change material (PCM) RF switch. In one approach, the non-volatile adjustable phase shifter includes a selectable transmission delay arm and a selectable transmission reference arm. A phase shift caused by the non-volatile adjustable phase shifter is adjusted when the non-volatile RF switch engages with or disengages from the selectable transmission delay arm. In another approach, the non-volatile adjustable phase shifter includes a selectable impedance element. A phase shift caused by the non-volatile adjustable phase shifter is adjusted when the non-volatile RF switch engages with or disengages from the selectable impedance element. In either approach, the phase shift changes a phase of RF signals being transmitted from or received by the transceiver.