Novel dielectric wedge phase shifter for 3G mobile basestation antennas

Phase shifter with moveable dielectric wedge plate sandwiching the strip line in a tri-plate transmission line structure is proposed and designed for 3G basestation antenna. Numerical simulations indicate that phase-shift unit with saw-tooth shaped wedge dielectric may provide low return loss and insertion loss. The performance of the proposed wedge dielectric phase shifter is further demonstrated by a four-element 3G linear array. Return loss below -17 dB at 3G frequency bands and beam tilting in the vertical plane of the base station antenna in a range of 0.2° to 12° can be obtained.