C-Band 6 Bit Compact MMIC Phase Shifter with Reduced Loss

A C-band highly compact 6 bit digital phase phase shifter (DPS) on GaAs Monolithic Microwave integrated Circuit (MMIC) is discussed in this paper. The circuit is realized using 0.7µm G7S technology at GAETEC foundry. Switching of the High pass/Low pass network is achieved by 0.7 µm MESFET device which offers reduced insertion loss if compensated with shunt resonating inductors. A measured insertion loss of 6.5 dB with ±0.4 dB loss variation is achieved within 18% bandwidth. The circuit being small in size (4.5mm x 2mm) and having phase shift errors within desirable limits is suitable for integration into a T/R core chip.