Miniaturized Metasurface-Inspired Tunable Power Divider and Phase Shifter

Composite right/left-handed transmission line (CRLH TL) concept with metasurface (MS) unit cells is resurfaced to propose planar tunable and miniaturized power divider and phase shifter devices. Fabrication deals with monolayer metal patterning and varactor diodes. Electronic behavior can be modified by varying the dc bias voltages. A planar X-band power splitter with both equal and unequal power dividing properties is presented. Experimental outcomes confirm that it has 140-MHz center frequency tuning capability. It achieved a highest difference in power transfer of 4.5 dB between the two output ports without any notable change in the performance. Another design having resonant frequencies of 8.95 and 10.25 GHz along with varactor diodes is proposed to produce tunable phase shift characteristics. It generates a wide linear phase tuning range of 45° over almost a 2-GHz bandwidth. Both the prototypes allow an easy integration of active devices to attain tunable functionalities.