Theoretical analysis and design of a compact analogue phase shifter with constant low insertion loss

An analogue phase shifter with a constant low insertion loss (IL) and compact size is proposed. It consists of two quarter wavelength transmission lines and three tunable reflective loads. The theoretical analysis to maximise the relative phase shift, reduce the IL and the IL variation of the phase shifter is presented explicitly, which provides performance estimation and design guidance for this class phase shifter. A circuit with a size of 0.12 λ g × 0.21 λ g is designed and fabricated to verify the theory. The simulated and measured results are in good agreement. The measurement shows that the relative phase shift of the proposed phase shifter is 186° at 1.97 GHz. The average IL is 0.79 dB with a very small IL variation which is just 0.02 dB.