Thin film barium strontium titanate ferroelectric varactors for microwave applications

Analog phase shifters are investigated with a periodic structure that includes Barium Strontium Titanate ferroelectric thin film varactors in shunt or serial connection to the coplanar waveguide transmission line. The phase shift is achieved by applying a DC bias to the varactors and changing the reactance in the circuit. The goal of this paper is to characterize the shunt capacitive varactors regarding the voltage dependence of the capacitance, loss tangent, and insertion losses at different bias voltages. Quality factor analysis is also conducted taking the parasitic effects into account. Repeated measurements show that the capacitance of a single cell is tuned from 0.8pF to 0.2pF under a DC bias of 0-10V while the loss tangent is kept under 0.01 in the frequency range of 0-40GHz. Insertion loss is tuned from -4dB to less than -0.6dB from 0 to 10V with a Figure of Merit of 14 degrees/dB at 10GHz and the total quality factor of the unit cell is around 6.7 to 10 at 10GHz with matched port impedance. By cascading 10-25 single unit cells, the phase shift is expected to reach 360 degrees with minimum insertion loss.