A 5-17 GHz Wideband Reflection-Type Phase Shifter Using Digitally Operated Capacitive MEMS Switches

In this paper, a micromachined low-loss and ultra wide band reflection-type phase shifter (RTPS) is proposed. The phase shifter shows a constant phase shift from 5 to 17 GHz and consists of two cascaded reflection-type phase shifter. Low-loss reflection termination consists of digital capacitive switches, and air-gap overlay CPW couplers are used in order to employ the low-loss 3 dB coupling. The fabricated phase shifter showed the 5 discrete states, $0^{\circ},{\;}22.5^{\circ},{\;}45^{\circ},{\;}67.5^{\circ},{\;}90^{\circ}$ respectively, the average insertion loss of 3.48 dB, and maximum rms phase error of ${\pm}1.80^{\circ}$ for the relative phase shift from $0^{\circ}{\;}to{\;}90^{\circ}$ over 5-17 GHz.