Compact and Low-Loss V-Band Waveguide Phase Shifter Based on Glide-Symmetric Pin Configuration

Abstract

This paper presents a compact and low-loss V-band waveguide phase shifter based on glide-symmetric pin configuration. This kind of higher symmetry permits the control and improvement of the electromagnetic behavior or radiofrequency devices, as it is the case of the proposed phase shifter. The study of the dispersion diagram of the phase shifter unitary cell demonstrates that the pin configuration is a proper option for introducing a phase shift in a waveguide-based system. There is a significant increase in terms of phase shift when using a glide-symmetric pin distribution compared to its corresponding non-glide-symmetric configuration. Through this paper, the key geometrical parameters are also determined. The complete phase shifter is composed of an optimized cascade of tailored unitary cells so that the desired final phase shift value is achieved. A prototype has been manufactured in order to validate the theoretical approach through the comparison of phased shifters with both non-glide-symmetric and glide-symmetric configurations. The measurement results demonstrate the higher performance and compactness of the glide-symmetric phase shifter. For the same distance, the glide-symmetric version of the phase shifter provides more than 60% of phase shifting compared to the non-glide-symmetric phase shifter. Both phase shifters have a good impedance matching between 46 and 60 GHz and an insertion loss lower than 1 dB, thus clearly enabled as a 5G technology.