A 4 x 4 Butler matrix with switching/steering beams based on new tunable phase difference couplers

Basically, a 4 x 4 Butler matrix (BM) connected to an antenna array allows to have four beams, each oriented in a specific direction depending on the excitation port. In this paper, an almost continuously steerable beam system based on a conventional 4 x 4 BM with adjustable phase shift is presented and demonstrated. Here, varicap diodes are used instead of an additional phase shifter. Under different bias levels applied to the couplers throughout these varicap diodes, an output variable phase difference was obtained. A prototype of the proposed tunable BM integrated with an antenna array operating at 3.5 GHz was fabricated and tested. The experimental results show a good agreement with those simulated. A reflection and isolation coefficient better than -15 dB over the entire desired frequency band and an amplitude imbalance lower than +/- 1.5 dB were achieved. The measured radiating beam under different DC biasing can be oriented from +/- 6 degrees to +/- 18 degrees when port 1 or 4 is excited and oriented from +/- 32 degrees to +/- 43 degrees for ports 2 and 3.