Microwave Liquid Crystal Technology

Dear Colleagues,

Liquid crystals (LCs) specifically synthesized for microwaves are dielectric materials with highly anisotropic characteristics and low microwave losses, which can be used to realize tunable RF and microwave components-based reconfigurable systems. Tunable components are indispensable in applications requiring adaptive signal filtering, beam shaping, or steering. This necessity becomes even more relevant in view of the upcoming new era of communication systems in the context of Internet of Things (IoT) and Internet of Space (IoS). In this respect, microwave liquid crystal technology presents a very promising hardware solution, as it provides continuous tuning, low dielectric losses, high linearity, low power consumption, and potentially low cost. Within the last 20 years, tremendous progress has been made on the material synthesis on the one hand, but also on device and technology concepts on the other hand.

We invite investigators to submit papers which discuss recent development of high-performance liquid crystal materials and liquid crystal-based microwave components.

The potential topics include but again are not limited to:

• Material synthesis;
• Material characterization (e.g., dielectric properties);
• Characterization of the properties under harsh environments, such as large temperature ranges, vacuum, hard radiation (gamma or neutron), etc.;
• Modeling of liquid crystals and components;
• Reliability and stability of the properties, including aging and fatigue, etc.;
• Devices and device concepts based on microwave liquid crystal technology;
• Biasing concepts for LC-based microwave devices;
• Applications of microwave liquid crystals and prototype demonstration.

Dr. Holger Maune
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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