NON LINEAR OPTIMIZATION TECHNIQUE FOR THE REDUCTION OF THE FREQUENCY SCANNING EFFECT IN A PHASED ARRAY BASED ON BROADBAND INJECTION-LOCKED THIRD HARMONIC SELF-OSCILLATING MIXERS

Abstract

In this work, an electronically tunable large range phase shifter based on a broadband Injection-Locked Third Harmonic Self- Oscillating Mixer (IL3HSOM) is designed and analyzed. This multi- functional circuit generates a down-converted Intermediate Frequency (IF) signal and provides a theoretical 540 - continuous phase shift range. The conversion gain and the bandwidth of the circuit are optimized through bifurcation control techniques. The IL3HSOM will be used as the core of a broadband phased antenna array with electronic beam-steering capabilities. The use of a multi-harmonic load based on an arbitrarily width modulated transmission line allows the nonlinear optimization of the circuit phase shift frequency response to compensate the frequency scanning efiect, which negatively in∞uences the performance of broadband antenna arrays.