Glaskeramiken mit ferro- und paraelektrischen Phasen für Mikrowellenantennen

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Rolf Jakoby
• Subject Area: Electronic Semiconductors, Components and Circuits, Integrated Systems, Sensor Technology, Theoretical Electrical Engineering
• Term: from 2010 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 176965184

This proposal is an extension of the successful research funded by DFG-project "Glass Ceramics with Ferro- and Paraelectric Phases for Microwave Antennas" (GLACER). The achievements of the previous phase include: (I) novel multicomponent dielectric bulk glass ceramics systems with excellent dielectric properties; (II) knowledge based phase diagrams to estimate the properties of a true glassy phase (III) preliminary demonstration of the attractive potential in antenna applications.The proposed scientific research tries to answer further challenges for future antenna technologies. It covers two major aspects of the innovation chain. (I) Based on the experience from GLACER project, it plans to explore new multicomponent systems with further improved permittivity and Q factor. (II) Considerable efforts will focus on the application potentials, including high performance dielectric antenna concepts as well as the feasibility in extended spectrums. Therefore, the two research aspects i.e. of material science and microwave engineering should be brought together to promote the utilization of the new material systems for efficient, low cost and compact microwave components. A new multicomponent system BaO-TiO2-Al2O3-ZrO2-SiO2-La2O3 will be thoroughly investigated for its glass formation region. Parallel investigation of the phase relationships in the system will allow constructing the boundary lines and to identify the characteristic points (eutectic, peritectic). Special heat-treatment regime for bulk-glass ceramic formation is to be developed by controlled nucleation and crystallization. Another interesting point is to replace the La2O3 oxide with commonly used RO oxides (R = Sr2+, Ca2+ or Mg2+) or combined existence of these oxides that will lead to the formulation of a multicomponent system free of rare earth oxides. The new material system will be characterized using narrow- and wide band methods with additional attention on its environmental dependence, for which an in-situ high temperature measurement setup will be built. The overall benefit and the practical performance of the new materials can only be identified through evaluating prototype dielectric antennas. The overall influence of glass ceramics' permittivity, dielectric loss, homogeneity, geometry conformity and surface smoothness on the antenna compactness, total efficiency and performance tolerance can be recognized and modeled in electromagnetic simulation including their microscopic origins and empirical effects. Based on the knowledge of material properties and constrains in processing technologies, the design methodology for specific novel antenna concepts, including hybrid DRA, MIMO DRA, Millimeter wave DRAs and dense DRA arrays are to be developed and optimized. Following the designs, several antennas covering 1 GHz up to 60 GHz will be demonstrated and experimentally evaluated.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants