A new design of MEMS coplanar waveguide phase shifter

Abstract

This paper presents a new design of MEMS coplanar waveguide (CPW) bridge membrane to realize a small, low-loss and fewer-cell phase shifter. In the proposed structure, a symmetrical bridge membrane is added to a universal distributed MEMS phase shifter. These additional bridge membranes are placed under the CPW. By using these structure, it is possible to increase the phase shift of a unit. Furthermore, the phase shift could be increased by employing a discrete capacitance on both ends of the bridge. The structure is simulated at 10 GHz using CST software. According to simulation results for all phase states the insertion loss is 0.5 dB. The employment of the proposed structure can considerably decrease the number of cells. As a result, the size and loss can be reduced.