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Continuous, wide field-of-view, high-efficiency, and fast-response beam steering devices are desirable in a plethora of applications. Liquid crystals (LCs)—soft, bi-refringent, and self-assembled materials which respond to various external stimuli—are especially promising for fulfilling these demands. In this paper, we review recent advances in LC beam steering devices. We first describe the general operation principles of LC beam steering techniques. Next, we delve into different kinds of beam steering devices, compare their pros and cons, and propose a new LC-cladding waveguide beam steerer using resistive electrodes and present our simulation results. Finally, two future development challenges are addressed: Fast response time for mid-wave infrared (MWIR) beam steering, and device hybridization for large-angle, high-efficiency, and continuous beam steering. To achieve fast response times for MWIR beam steering using a transmission-type optical phased array, we develop a low-loss polymer-network liquid crystal and characterize its electro-optical properties.

Tunable Liquid Crystal (LC)-based microwave components are of increasing interest in academia and industry. Based on these components, numerous applications can be targeted such as tunable microwave filters and beam-steering antenna systems. With the commercialization of first LC-steered antennas for Ku-band e.g., by Kymeta and Alcan Systems, LC-based microwave components left early research stages behind. With the introduction of terrestrial 5G communications systems, moving to millimeter-wave communication, these systems can benefit from the unique properties of LC in terms of material quality. In this paper, we show recent developments in millimeter wave phase shifters for antenna arrays. The limits of classical high-performance metallic rectangular waveguides are clearly identified. A new implementation with dielectric waveguides is presented and compared to classic approaches.

A 0–10 V bias voltage-driven liquid crystal (LC) based 0°–180° continuously variable phase shifter was designed, fabricated, and measured with insertion loss less than −4 dB across the spectrum from 54 GHz to 66 GHz. The phase shifter was structured in an enclosed coplanar waveguide (ECPW) with LC as tunable dielectrics encapsulated by a unified ground plate in the design, which significantly reduced the instability due to floating effects and losses due to stray modes. By competing for spatial volume distribution of the millimeter-wave signal occupying lossy tunable dielectrics versus low-loss but non-tunable dielectrics, the ECPW’s geometry and materials are optimized to minimize the total of dielectric volumetric loss and metallic surface loss for a fixed phase-tuning range. The optimized LC-based ECPW was impedance matched with 1.85 mm connectors by the time domain reflectometry (TDR) method. Device fabrication featured the use of rolled annealed copper foil of lowest surface roughness with nickel-free gold-plating of optimal thickness. Measured from 54 GHz to 66 GHz, the phase shifter prototype presented a tangible improvement in phase shift effectiveness and signal-to-noise ratio, while exhibiting lower insertion and return losses, more ease of control, and high linearity as well as lower-cost fabrication as compared with up-to-date documentations targeting 60 GHz applications.

This paper proposes a compact coplanar waveguide-fed slot antenna for ultra-wideband wearable applications, featuring six notch bands. The antenna utilizes a flexible liquid crystal polymer substrate with a thickness of 0.1 mm. The antenna achieves six band-notched characteristics by incorporating a split concentric ring etched on the radiating patch and L-shaped branches loaded on the ground plane. The proposed flexible antenna has dimensions of 30 × 30 mm 2 (0.65λ 0 *0.65λ 0, λ0 is the free space wavelength at 6.5 GHz.). Measurement results show an impedance bandwidth ranging from 2.37 to 13.7 GHz and a fractional bandwidth of 134%. The notch bands cover 2.9–3.77 GHz for WiMAX applications, 4.14–4.9 GHz for the ARN band, 5.09–5.55 GHz for the WLAN downlink band, 5.86–6.46 GHz for the C-band uplink band, 6.66–7.39 GHz for the C-band/INSAT/super-extended band, and 7.93–8.43 GHz for ITU-8 GHz. The maximum gain in the operating band is 6.5 dBi. The performances of the flexible antenna are analyzed under bending conditions. The ANSYS HFSS electromagnetic simulator was used for the design and simulation of the proposed antenna. The flexible antenna is suitable for wearable applications.

This paper presents recent development of tunable microwave liquid crystal (LC) components in the lower millimeter wave (mmW) regime up to the W-band. With the utilization of increasing frequency, conventional metallic waveguide structures prove to be impractical for LC-based components. In particular, the integration of the electric bias network is extremely challenging. Therefore, dielectric waveguides are a promising alternative to conventional waveguides, since electrodes can be easily integrated in the open structure of dielectric waveguides. The numerous subcategories of dielectric waveguides offer a high degree of freedom in designing smart millimeter wave components such as tunable phase shifters, filters and steerable antennas. Recent research resulted in many different realizations, which are analyzed in this paper. The first demonstrators of phased array antennas with integrated LC-based phase shifters are reviewed and compared. In addition, beam steering with a single antenna type is shown. Furthermore, the possibility to realize tunable filters using LC-filled dielectric waveguides is demonstrated.

Waveguides are a crucial optical solution for see‐through near‐eye displays. For waveguide‐based systems, lightweight and compact projection optics are essential. Herein, a compact projection optics design utilizing freeform surfaces on two wedge‐shaped prisms is presented. Compared to previous liquid crystal on silicon projection optics, which separate the illumination and imaging optical paths, a common freeform optical path is employed in the design. The optical design methodology is described in detail, and a simulation model of the system is established. Furthermore, stray light issues arising from the coupling between the waveguide and projection optics are analyzed. The proposed projection optics with freeform surfaces achieve a field of view of 32°, an exit pupil diameter of 4 mm, and a resolution of 37.5 pixels per degree. The total volume of the projection optics is less than 2 cubic centimeters, and its weight is only 3.48 g. Finally, a prototype is fabricated and integrated with a geometric waveguide to form a fully optical module. This study presents a compact freeform projection optics using dual wedge prisms for waveguide displays. Unlike previous designs that separate illumination and imaging paths, a freeform optical path integrates both. The system achieves a 32º field of view, 37.5 pixels per degree, and a total volume of less than 2 cm3.

A novel liquid crystal (LC) based hollow waveguide phase shifter with an LC section of 14.6 mm is presented , operating at 80–110 GHz. As a proof-of-concept, the phase shifter is biased by using permanent magnets, which results in a differential phase shift of 307°–318° and an insertion loss of 2.1–2.7 dB in the desired frequency range of 99–105 GHz. Hence, a phase shifter figure of merit of 118°–148°/dB is determined, which are to the authors’ knowledge the highest values in this frequency range for passive phase shifters.

In this paper, a side-coupled triangle cavity in a plasmonic waveguide structure is proposed and numerically analyzed by the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method and coupled mode theory (CMT). Triple plasmonically induced transparency (PIT) was achieved when an extra triangle was added into the structure, and the transmission characteristics were investigated. This novel structure has a maximal sensitivity of 933 nm/RIU when used as a sensor and a contrast ratio of 4 dB. Moreover, the tunability of PIT can be realized by filling the nematic liquid crystal (NLC) E7 into the triangles. The refractive index of E7 changes with the applied electric field. Given that E7 is also sensitive to temperature, this structure can be used as a temperature sensor with a sensitivity of 0.29 nm/°C. It is believed that this tunable structure with PIT may have potential applications in highly integrated optical circuits.

Optical waveguides in photonic integrated circuits are traditionally passive elements merely carrying optical signals from one point to another. These elements could contribute to the integrated circuit functionality if they were modulated either by variations of the core optical properties, or by using tunable claddings. In this work, the use of liquid crystals as electro-optically active claddings for driving integrated waveguides has been explored. Tunable waveguides have been modeled and fabricated using polymers. Optical functions such as variable coupling and optical switching have been demonstrated.

Plasmon waveguide resonance (PWR) sensors exhibit narrow resonances at the two orthogonal polarizations, transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM), which are narrower by almost an order of a magnitude than the standard surface plasmon resonance (SPR), and thus the figure of merit is enhanced. This fact is useful for measuring optical anisotropy of materials on the surface and determining the orientation of molecules with high resolution. Using the diverging beam approach and a liquid crystal retarder, we present experimental results by simultaneous detection of TE and TM polarized resonances as well as using fast higher contrast serial detection with a variable liquid crystal retarder. While simultaneous detection makes the system simpler, a serial one has the advantage of obtaining a larger contrast of the resonances and thus an improved signal-to-noise ratio. Although the sensitivity of the PWR resonances is smaller than the standard SPR, the angular width is much smaller, and thus the figure of merit is improved. When the measurement methodology has a high enough angular resolution, as is the one presented here, the PWR becomes advantageous over other SPR modes. The possibility of carrying out exact numerical simulations for anisotropic molecules using the 4 × 4 matrix approach brings another advantage of the PWR over SPR on the possibility of extracting the orientation of molecules adsorbed to the surface. High sensitivity of the TE and TM signals to the anisotropic molecules orientation is found here, and comparison to the experimental data allowed detection of the orientation of lipids on the sensor surface. The molecular orientations cannot be fully determined from the TM polarization alone as in standard SPR, which underlines the additional advantage of the PWR technique.