2017 11th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP)
Integration of Resistive Heaters for
Phase-Change Reconfigurable Antennas
Dimitris E. Anagnostou1,2, David Torres3, George Goussetis1, Symon K. Podilchak1,
Tarron Teeslink2, Nathan Kovarik2 and Nelson Sepulveda3
1
Heriot-Watt University, ISSS, Edinburgh, UK danagn@ieee.org
2
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, ECE Dept., Rapid City, SD, USA
3
Michigan State University, ECE Department, East Lansing, MI, USA
Abstract—Vanadium dioxide has recently been
proven successful as a mechanism of antenna
reconfigurability. We present and discuss the
integration of resistive heaters underneath the surface
of the vanadium dioxide thin film, on the antenna wafer.
These resistive heaters are important for the
implementation of a biasing mechanism that is fast (in
the range of microseconds) and that does not couple
electromagnetic energy to the antenna structure.
Results of antennas with and without the integrated
heaters, along with additional applications of this
technology in the GHz frequency range will be
presented and discussed.
Index Terms— integrated resistive heaters, phase-
change materials, reconfigurable antennas.
I. INTRODUCTION
The metal to insulation transition of vanadium
dioxide (VO2) can be induced through various
methods including Joule heating [1]. Traditionally,
reconfigurable antennas employ electrical
connections between their off-the shelf components
that enable reconfigurability, namely the p-i-n diodes
[2], varactors [3], and FET transitors [4]), or MEMS
[5]. However, these components also have
demonstrated limitations in RF performance due to
their biasing circuitry (which often results in a tuning
bandwidth less than 20%, which is the bandwidth of
conventional λ/4 stubs and bias lines [4]), while their
integration or soldering often reduces device
reliability as well as robustness. These limitations
have recently led to alternate solutions for
reconfigurable antennas that employ phase-change
materials [6,7].
During the phase transition of the VO2, its
electrical conductivity changes dramatically.
Specifically, the measured resistance decreases by
three (3) orders of magnitude when the material is
heated to above 68°C. The resistivity also follows a
hysteresis response curve (shown in Fig. 1), which
makes the material response more stable and thus
applicable in environments where the temperature
does not need to be precisely controlled.
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II. ANTENNA WITH RESISTIVE HEATERS
An aperture antenna with four integrated resistive
heaters was designed. The antenna design consists of
a folded slot with a tuning stub at its center to
facilitate matching. The folded slot radiates
predominantly from the aperture through fields that
are created from the circumferencing current. The
dimensions of the aperture are altered through short
circuits created by the VO2 thin film switches.
The design incorporates a total of four VO2 thin
film switches. The resonant frequency is determined
by the slot perimeter, which should be approximately
one effective wavelength λeff at the desired frequency.
Reconfigurability is enabled by adding two metallic
extensions on each side of the aperture, without the
need for any metallic patches.
Each extension pair is connected through a narrow
thin film of VO2, which when unheated acts as an
open-circuit and when heated acts as a low-resistance
path through which the RF current can flow. Under
each VO2 film there is a SiO2 isolation layer. Beneath
that layer there is a Pt resistive heater, along with the
DC bias lines that are deposited using
photolithograhy in a clean room. The bias lines of the
resistive heaters pass underneath the antenna
metallization layer and are insulated from it resulting
in practically negligible coupling (i.e. the
electromagnetic interference between the biasing
lines and the antenna is neglibigle). This results in a
minimal change to the input impedance of the
antenna and the shape of the radiation pattern in the
far-field. The fields being created predominantly
inside the aperture further support this topology. The
layout and operating principle of this type of antenna
are shown in Fig. 2 and the dimensions in Table I.
TABLE I
DIMENSIONS FOR THE ANTENNA WITH INTEGRATED HEATERS
Dimension Wa Wb Wp Wv Ws Ls_hot Ls_cold Lf_cold a g b
Value (mm) 5.4 3.1 5.25 0.02 1.8 6.35 8 3 1.4 0.2 0.1
 2017 11th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP)
Fig. 1. Measured dc resistance across the fabricated VO2 during
heating (red) and cooling (blue). For comparison, the resistivity of
copper when the temperature varies from 20°C to 100°C shifts
from 1.68·10-8 Ω⋅m to 2.4·10-8 Ω⋅m [8], which is negligible
compared to the range of vanadium dioxide. For comparison, the
resistivity of resistive materials or insulators such as rubber is
1·1013 Ω⋅m.
Fig. 2. Layout of the aperture antenna with four VO2 thin film
strips.
Fig. 3. Integration of the four VO2 thin film strips with the resistive
heaters and bias lines (shown in red color) that are monolithically
etched underneath the antenna layer (shown in purple color). The
inset shows the detail of the resistive heater and the VO2 on the
layout. The aperture area that is covered by the DC lines is
negligible.
III. RESULTS
A dedicated measurement setup is assembled to
measure this antenna. The setup consists of a
Keithley 2400 Sourcemeter as a regulated voltage and
current source. The phase change transition took 40
μs to occur with the temperature reaching a maximum
of 90°C. The measured |S11| of the antenna indicated
2356
a frequency shifted from 9 GHz (when cooled) to 12
GHz (when heated), for |S11| < -10dB, which
indicates a successful implementation of a 33%
increase in the resonant frequency when the antenna
is heated.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
The metal-insulator transition of the vanadium
dioxide (VO2) can be made to occur very fast (i.e.
within a few microseconds) which can enable new
applications, such as radiation cloaks, on-demand
radomes, and ultra-fast reflectarrays. A proof-of-
concept prototype with frequency reconfigurability
and fast switching through integrated resistive heaters
was developed to demonstrate the capabilities of VO2
as an antenna reconfiguration mechanism. Further
research can explore additional possibilities and other
RF applications for VO2. Detailed information on the
antenna structure as well as measured results for this
new technology will be presented at the conference.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the National Science
Foundation under Grant ECS-1310400 and Grant
ECS-1310257.
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