An 8.5-dB Insertion Loss and 0.8° RMS Phase Error Ka-Band CMOS Hybrid Phase Shifter Featuring Nonuniform Matching for Satellite Communication

Abstract

This paper presents a high-resolution and low-insertion-loss CMOS hybrid phase shifter with a nonuniform matching technique for satellite communication (SATCOM). The proposed hybrid phase shifter includes three 45° coarse phase-shifting stages and one 45° fine phase-tuning stage. The coarse stages are realized by bridged-T switch-type phase shifters (STPS) with 45° phase steps. The fine-tuning stage is based on a reflective-type phase shifter (RTPS) with two identical LC load tanks for phase tuning. A 0.8° phase resolution is realized by this work to support fine beam steering for the SATCOM. To further reduce the chain insertion loss, a nonuniform matching technique is utilized at the coarse stages. For the coarse and fine stages, the measured RMS gain errors at 29 GHz are 0.7 dB and 0.3 dB, respectively. The measured RMS phase errors are 0.8° and 0.4°, respectively. The proposed hybrid phase shifter maintains return losses of all phase states less than -12 dB from 24 GHz to 34 GHz. The presented hybrid phase shifter is fabricated in a standard 65-nm CMOS technology with a 0.14mm² active area.