Miniaturized switched line MEMS phase shifter

Abstract

AbstractIn this article, we propose a novel miniaturized MEMS phase shifter which relies on the loading of meander line and Complementary split ring resonators meta‐material conception to resolve the issues of miniaturization and insertion loss in the transmission line. The proposed phase shifter purely entrenched upon the switchable delay line and a reference line design, which is inline with a metal contact series switch.The phase shifter and RF switches are built on a 50 Ω coplanar waveguide transmission line. One of the unique features of the switch is shaped with triangular to obtain good RF and mechanical characteristics in terms of return loss, isolation, insertion loss, pull in voltage, and stress profile. The result shows, that the mechanical performance of the triangular series switch has low actuation voltage of 5.67 V with a stress value of 5 MPa and the calculated switching time is 3.9 µs. The RF performance of the triangular switch showed an insertion loss of −0.2 with −20 dB of a return loss in the ON state, whereas, in the OFF state, isolation is around −26 dB at DC −20 GHz. The proposed switch was used to build the miniature phase shifter. The average values of the miniaturized 5‐bit phase shifter (11.25, 22.5°, 45°, 90°, and 180°) return loss and insertion loss is −16.68 and −1.35 dB and phase error is less than 0.57°. Overall, 30% size reduction in the miniaturized phase shifter is obtained using triangular single pole single throw switches.