A Reconfigurable Microfluidic Transmitarray Unit Cell

Abstract

This paper presents a novel microfluidics based approach to develop a reconfigurable circularly polarized transmitarray unit cell. The unit cell comprises double layer nested split ring slots formed as microfluidic channels that can be filled by fluids. Split regions in the slots are realized by injecting liquid metal into the channels. Beam steering is obtained by implementing rotational phase shifting via manipulating the liquid metal in the slots. X-band unit cell prototypes are fabricated on glass substrate carrying a patterned metal film, and the slot channels are formed by Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) using soft lithography techniques.