Application of reciprocal latching ferrite phase shifters to lightweight electronic scanned phased arrays

This paper reviews the operating principles of four types of reciprocal latching ferrite phase shifters and compares them with respect to normalized phase shift and RF insertion loss. The effects of frequency and temperature on the phase shift are also discussed. Consideration is given to size and weight, as well as RF power handling, important factors in an array intended for field-environment conditions. Partially switched configurations using quasi-circularly polarized normal modes are shown to have the most desirable performance characteristics of the phase shifters studied. Such structures can have a simple geometry that is compatible with low-cost mass production, and can also be adapted to computer-controlled compensation of changes in operating temperature and frequency.