Millimeter-wave phase shifter based on waveguide-mounted RF-MEMS

A continuously variable transmission type W-band phase shifter based on a single pole bandpass filter tuned by MEMS actuated fingers is reported. Tuning is achieved by means of two half-wavelength long conductive fingers that synchronously rotate upwards in an antiparallel fashion. The fingers deflection results in a distributed variable shunt capacitance which in turn leads to a variable analog phase shift. For an applied DC bias voltage between 0 and 26 V, the transmission phase can be continuously varied up to 46.4° at a frequency of 106 GHz with an insertion loss of less than 3.4 dB.