Wideband microstrip shifters with phase-slope equalization for mobile-radio antennas

Beam forming networks (BFNs) for providing multibeam or reconfigurability operation of phased-array antennas are quite complex. They are consist of a great number of basic components such as couplers, shifters and active elements. Phase shifters are essential components in a BFN as they perform phase adjustments of the different paths of the signals inside the network, together with, if necessary, a phase-slope equalization over the frequency band of interest. An innovative type of microstrip phase shifter (for 1.7-1.9 GHz band) showing high electrical performance in terms of transmission phase, input matching and bandwidth is presented.<>