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Design and measurement of reconfigurable millileter wave reflectarray cells with nematic liquid crystal

This paper describes a new approach for constructing phase shifters for antennas operating at millimetre wavelengths. The work which exploits the physical response of liquid crystal molecules to an applied electric field is a major advance which is shown to simplify the biasing arrangement, reduce the fabrication complexity and unlike semiconductor devices imposes no limit on the upper operating frequency. The principle of operation is demonstrated experimentally for the first time and the work reported in the paper has since attracted follow on funding from the European Space Agency (Space Antenna Engineer).