Metamaterial phase shifters

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10833381-B2
Application number	US-201715807338-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 8, 2017
Priority date	Nov 8, 2017
Publication date	Nov 10, 2020
Grant date	Nov 10, 2020

Abstract

The present technology pertains to a system and method of operation of a metamaterial phase shifter having various use applications. In one aspect of the present disclosure, a phase shifter includes a network of tunable impedance elements and a controller. The controller is coupled to the network of tunable impedance elements and configured to receive a phase shift input value and determine a corresponding tuning voltage to be supplied to each tunable impedance element of the network of tunable impedance elements based on the phase shift input value, the network of tunable impedance element being configured to shift a phase of an input signal based on tuning voltages supplied to the network of tunable impedance elements by the controller.

First claim

We claim:

1. A phase shifter, comprising:
a network of tunable impedance elements; and
a controller coupled to the network of tunable impedance elements and configured to:
receive a phase shift input value; and
determine a corresponding tuning voltage to be supplied to each tunable impedance element of the network of tunable impedance elements based on the phase shift input value, the network of tunable impedance elements being configured to shift a phase of an input signal based on tuning voltages supplied to the network of tunable impedance elements by the controller;
wherein the network of tunable impedance elements comprises a spatially-periodic arrangement of tunable impedance elements, with spatial periodicity in at least one spatial dimension being less than one-half of free-space wavelength.

2. The phase shifter of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to receive the phase shift input value by receiving an integer input corresponding to an index of a corresponding phase shift input value in a finite set of available phase shift values.

3. The phase shifter of claim 2 , wherein the finite set of available phase shift values has 2-to-the-power-of-M possible phase shift values.

4. The phase shifter of claim 2 , wherein the finite set of available phase shift values contains two phase shift values.

5. The phase shifter of claim 2 , wherein a number of tunable impedance elements of the network of tunable impedance elements is proportional to a cardinal number of the finite set of available phase shift values.

6. The phase shifter of claim 2 , wherein the number of tunable impedance elements of the network of tunable impedance elements is at least equal to twice the number of the phase shift input values.

7. The phase shifter of claim 6 , wherein each of the phase shift input values are equally spaced on the [0, 2π] interval.

8. The phase shifter of claim 6 , wherein each of the phase shift input values are distributed on the [0, 2π] interval in accordance with roots of a Legendre polynomial of a corresponding order.

9. The phase shifter of claim 1 , wherein the spatial periodicity is in two spatial dimensions.

10. The phase shifter of claim 1 , wherein the spatial periodicity is in three spatial dimensions.

11. The phase shifter of claim 1 , wherein the phase shifter is a single-frequency device.

12. The phase shifter of claim 11 , wherein the controller is configured to determine the corresponding tuning voltage for each tunable impedance element of the network of tunable impedance elements such that the ratio of the magnitude of the output signal of the network of tunable impedance elements to the magnitude of the input signal of the network of tunable impedance elements is greater than 0.7, 0.8 or 0.9 for all possible phase shift input values.

13. The phase shifter of claim 1 , wherein the phase shifter is a multiple-frequency device with an operational frequency selectable from a set of operational frequency values.

14. The phase shifter of claim 1 , wherein:
the input signal is a continuous-wave signal, and
the controller is further configured to:
receive an input specifying a frequency of the continuous-wave signal, and
determine the corresponding tuning voltage to be supplied to each tunable impedance element of the network of tunable impedance elements based on a dependency of impedances of the tunable impedance elements and impedances of non-tunable branches of the network of tunable impedance elements on the frequency of the continuous-wave signal.

15. The phase shifter of claim 1 , wherein:
the input signal is a continuous-wave signal, and
the controller is further configured to:
receive an input specifying a magnitude of the continuous-wave signal, and
determine the corresponding tuning voltage to be supplied to each tunable impedance element of the network of tunable impedance elements based on dependency of impedances of the tunable impedance elements and impedances of non-tunable branches of the network of tunable impedance elements on at least one local magnitude of radio frequency voltage or current of the continuous-wave signal.

16. The phase shifter of claim 1 , wherein:
the input signal is a continuous-wave signal, and
the controller is further configured to:
receive an input specifying a frequency of the continuous-wave signal,
receive an input specifying a magnitude of the continuous-wave signal, and
determine the corresponding tuning voltage to be supplied to each tunable impedance element of the network of tunable impedance elements based on dependency of impedances of the tunable impedance elements and impedances of non-tunable branches of the network of tunable impedance elements on the frequency and at least one local magnitude of radio frequency voltage or current of the continuous-wave signal.

17. The phase shifter of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to determine the corresponding tuning voltage for each tunable impedance element based on an approximation of the network of tunable impedance elements as a network of lumped ports with characteristic impedances representing impedance values of tunable impedance elements of the network.

18. The phase shifter of claim 17 , wherein the controller is configured to perform the approximation by determining a scattering matrix of the network of lumped ports for a given set of characteristic impedances of lumped ports.

19. The phase shifter of claim 18 , wherein the controller is configured to determine the scattering matrix based on an impedance matrix of the network of lumped ports and the characteristic impedances of the lumped ports.

20. The phase shifter of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to determine the corresponding tuning voltage for each tunable impedance element of the network of tunable impedance elements such that a magnitude of an output signal of the network of tunable impedance elements and a magnitude of an input signal to the network of tunable impedance elements are substantially equal.

21. The phase shifter of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to determine the corresponding tuning voltage for each tunable impedance element of the network of tunable impedance elements such that a ratio of a magnitude of an output signal of the network of tunable impedance elements to a magnitude of an input signal to the network of tunable impedance elements is approximately constant for all possible phase shift input values.

22. The phase shifter of claim 1 , wherein the network of tunable impedance elements has non-negligible mutual coupling between at least one pair of tunable impedance elements.

23. The phase shifter of claim 1 , wherein the network of tunable impedance elements comprises an electromagnetic metamaterial.

24. The phase shifter of claim 1 , wherein the spatial periodicity is in one spatial dimension.

25. The phase shifter of claim 1 , wherein the phase shifter is a finite-operational-bandwidth device with an operational frequency selectable from an operational bandwidth range.

26. The phase shifter of claim 1 , further comprising:
an input coupled to the network of tunable impedance elements and configured to receive the input signal; and
an output coupled to the network of tunable impedance elements and configured to output an output signal, the output signal being a phase shifted version of the input signal.

Assignees

• Searete Llc
• The Invent Science Fund I Llc

Inventors

• Urzhumov Yaroslav A
• Reynolds Matthew S
• Lipworth Guy S
• Hannigan Russell J
• Arnitz Daniel
• Hagerty Joseph

Classifications

• H01P1/18 Primary

  Phase-shifters (H01P1/165 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H01Q3/26

  varying the relative phase or relative amplitude of energisation between two or more active radiating elements; varying the distribution of energy across a radiating aperture ({H01Q3/12,} H01Q3/22, H01Q3/24 take precedence) · CPC title

• H03H11/20

  Two-port phase shifters providing an adjustable phase shift · CPC title

• H03H9/66

  Phase shifters · CPC title

• H01Q15/0086

  said selective devices having materials with a synthesized negative refractive index, e.g. metamaterials or left-handed materials · CPC title