摘要：

A planar circuit type of a liquid crystal (LC) phase shifter is prepared using a coplanar waveguide (CPW) and an indium-tin-oxide (ITO) glass substrate. Since the upper ITO layer is set with a floating structure, the LC molecular orientation can be modulated by driving only the lower CPW electrodes. The upper floating electrode contributes extremely well to reducing the driving voltage of the device compared with the case without the electrode. However, the extra electrode increases the loss of the millimeter-wave (MMW) propagation and principle of the device operation has not been made clear yet. We investigate here the electric filed distribution phenomena of the propagating MMW inside the LC cell by finite difference time domain method (FDTD) calculation. Relationship between the LC molecular orientation and the MMW phase shifting properties are discussed in terms of the MMW propagation mode in the CPW device.

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