A Novel Reconfigurable Miniaturized Phase Shifter for 2-D Beam Steering 2-Bit Array Applications

In this letter, a novel reconfigurable 0 degrees/90 degrees phase shifter is proposed. Compared with the conventional phase shifters, the proposed one uses fewer reconfigurable devices and becomes more compact. Two states of a meander line are used to generate the 90 degrees phase shift, making it suitable for the 2-D beam steering 2-bit array application. A phase shifter prototype on F4B was measured to validate its design theory. Four phase states (i.e., 0 degrees, 90 degrees, 180 degrees, and 270 degrees) are realized through the combination of the phase shifter and the array radiation element. A 2 x 4 array working at 1.5 GHz was fabricated and measured to verify the performance of the proposed phase shifter. When different phase states are switched, the measured peak gain of the array varies from 10.6 to 11.2 dBi.