A low‐loss compact six‐bit DMTL phase shifter for phased array antenna applications

Abstract

A phase shifter is one of the main components of radars and phased array systems. In this paper, a novel three-state two-bridge unit cell is presented for a compact low-loss six-bit distributed microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) transmission line (DMTL) phase shifter. The proposed unit cell includes a coplanar waveguide (CPW) transmission line, a MEMS bridge on the signal line, two metal-air-metal (MAM) capacitors on a glass substrate, and two additional electrodes under the MEMS bridge, near the signal line. Using these electrodes, it is possible to generate two different phase states employing the MEMS bridge, and the third state is produced by a metal-air-metal (MAM) bridge. Hence, the designed structure can generate three different phase shifts per unit cell (i.e., 5.625 , 11.25 , and 22.5 phase shifts). The novelty of this design is that the number of unit cells is considerably reduced from 64 in a conventional six-bit phase shifter to only 17 in our design. Therefore, the total length of the six-bit phase shifter and average loss are considerably reduced. The designed structure is calculated and simulated at 32 GHz using MATLAB and ANSOFT HFSS, respectively. According to the calculation and simulation results, the lateral size of the phase shifter is only 8.5 mm, the root mean square (RMS) phase error is 1.38 , and the average loss is 1.1 dB. The feasibility of the proposed design is investigated using the proposed fabrication process. The designed phase shifter can be easily scaled to other frequencies for radar and satellite applications with more bits. K E Y W O R D S DMTL phase shifter, phased array antennas, return loss, unit cell 1 | INTRODUCTION Radio frequency (RF) microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) as a new interesting area in MEMS technology enable us to design and use high-performance devices and systems for broadband communication applications. 1-3 In recent years, nano-electromechanical systems (NEMS) have also developed and have found some new applications. 4-10 RF MEMS-based devices include switches, inductors, capacitors, varactors, and phase shifters. Phase shifters are the main components of the phased array antennas for radar applications and are classified into analog and digital types. 11-14 Analog MEMS phase shifters change the phase from 0 to 360 continuously, and their structure contains MEMS varactors. 15 Digital MEMS phase shifters contain only a discrete set of phase shifts and usually employ MEMS

Review and comparison of different limited scan phased array antenna architectures

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Magnetically Tunable Wideband Ferrite-Based Metamaterial Phase Shifter

“…Phase shifters are the key components of transmit-receive (T/R) modules and have been widely used in phased array radar systems. [1][2][3] Considering the importance of antiinterference and wideband imaging performance, wideband passive radars have become a research focus. [4][5] Additionally, tunable devices have also attracted great interest in recent years due to their reconfigurability.…”