Electronically controlable phase shifters based on transmission lines with negative dispersion

Compact miniature microwave phase shifters have been designed on a combination of conventional (righthanded) transmission line sections and dual ones (left-handed) with negative dispersion. The phase shifters of two kinds are under consideration in this paper: an analog tuneable phase shifter using ferroelectric varactors as the tuneable components and digital phase shifters based on switched right-handed/left-handed transmission lines using p-i-n-diodes for switching the channels. All the devices have been implemented as multilayer integrated circuits. Operating the phase shifters in a wide frequency band is demonstrated. Solutions providing operation of tuneable ferroelectric phase shifter in a wide temperature range have been proposed.