Tunable dielectric delay line phase shifter based on liquid crystal technology for a SPDT in a radiometer calibration scheme at 100 GHz

This paper presents for the first time, an electrically tunable dielectric line based on fiber topology. A fiber segment is filled with liquid crystal (LC) for continuous tuning of the differential phase between 0° to 90° by an applied biasing voltage of up to ±500 V. This phase shifter is aimed to be implemented into a RF switch (Single-Pole Double-Throw, SPDT), to switch between the calibration loads and the antenna of a radiometer at 100 GHz. A subwavelength topology was chosen, where compared to classical dielectric waveguides, air is acting as cladding material, ensuring a low loss propagation comparable to hollow waveguides. The phase shifting section has a total length of 26mm and provides a maximum differential phase shift of more than 107° and 115° at 100GHz for electric and magnetic biasing, respectively. Accompanied by insertion losses between 2.5 dB to 3.0 dB, the phase shifter shows a figure of merit at 100GHz of 42 °/dB for electric and 44 °/dB for magnetic biasing.