Tunable radio-frequency device having electrochromic and electro-active materials

Abstract

An electrically controllable RF circuit that includes an EC cell and an EAP-based actuator configured to produce relative movement of an electrode of the electrochromic cell and an electrically conducting patch or another electrode electromagnetically coupled thereto. In one embodiment, the RF circuit operates as a tunable patch antenna whose frequency characteristics can be changed by changing the bias voltages applied to the EC cell and EAP-based actuator. Advantageously, the capability to tune the antenna using two different tuning mechanisms (i.e., a dielectric-permittivity based tuning mechanism implemented using the EC cell and a geometry-based tuning mechanism implemented using the EAP-based actuator) provides more degrees of control over the pertinent antenna characteristics compared to what is available in some other antenna designs. In another embodiment, the RF circuit can operate as a tunable RF filter whose frequency characteristics can similarly be changed using these two different tuning mechanisms.