1-Bit Reconfigurable Phase Shifter for mm-Wave Antenna Beam-Steering Applications

A 1-bit reconfigurable phase shifter for 28 GHz mm-wave beam steering antennas is proposed. The design uses two beam-lead GaAs PIN diodes loaded on a microstrip transmission line in parallel, to provide two discrete phases for the transmitted signal. When the diodes are switched OFF, no shift in the phase of the transmitted signal is observed while a phase shift of ~90° is achieved when the diodes are switched ON. The total length of the phase shifter is $\sim\lambda /2$ . The compact size, low cost, reduced complexity and easy adaptation in antenna and phased array technology makes it a suitable candidate for 5G mm-wave beam steering applications.