Compact Tunable Reflection Phase Shifters Using Short Section of Coupled Lines

In the design of reflection-type phase shifters, the coupler that represents the shifter´s backbone is usually assumed to be a quarter-wavelength 3-dB coupler. In this paper, a derived theoretical model shows that, for certain values for the odd- and even-mode impedances, a coupled structure with a length that is less than one tenth of a wavelength is sufficient to build a high-performance reflection phase shifter. The presented analysis indicates that reflection phase shifters can be designed with a more compact size and larger phase range compared with the conventional method of using a quarter-wavelength 3-dB coupler. However, the required odd-mode impedance in the proposed design is low (≈10 Ω) , whereas the required even-mode impedance is high (≈200 Ω). To realize those impedances when using parallel-coupled lines, slotted ground and shunt chip capacitor are used. The proposed design is supported by full-wave electromagnetic simulations and measurements. The simulated results show that 0.085λ coupled structure achieves 255° phase range across 36% fractional bandwidth with less than 1-dB insertion loss and more than 10-dB return loss. In another design, a full-cycle phase range is obtained with less than 1.5-dB insertion loss across the same band by using two 0.076λ coupled sections. A manufactured prototype for a full-cycle phase range validates the simulation results and, thus, the proposed method.