High Performance Octave Bandwidth MMIC Analogue Phase Shifter

The Cascaded-Match Reflection-Type Phase Shifter (CMRTPS) was recently introduced to significantly widen the bandwidth of traditionally narrow band high performance analogue phase shifters. For the first time, a monolithic CMRTPS is realised. A 6.5-13.0GHz phase shifter, with dimensions of 3.0×2.0×0.2mm, was fabricated using standard GaAs foundry processing. At the 10GHz centre frequency, the measured relative phase shift and insertion loss varied from 0 to 90° and from -3.65dB to -2.63dB, respectively, for a bias potential decreasing from 0 to -7.5V. Here, a maximum measured peak phase error of ±3.69° and a peak amplitude of ±0.63dB were maintained across the octave bandwidth, for all bias levels. In addition, the measured input return loss was approx. 20dB across most of this octave bandwidth.