Broadband phase shifter design for phased array radar systems

BROADBAND PHASE SHIFTER DESIGN FOR PHASED ARRAY RADAR SYSTEMS TANG XINYI (B S., Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China) A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2011 Dedicated to My Beloved Parents and Wife ii Acknowledgements I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my supervisor, assistant professor Dr Koenraad Mouthaan, for his invaluable guidance and close supervision on this research topic He has never hesitated to share with me his knowledge on the aspects of both academics and industry His scientific attitude influences me a lot, especially on forming my own style of research methodology, and helps me to systematically and thoroughly look into the insight of problems Without his continuous help, this thesis would not be accomplished successfully I would also like to appreciate Prof Leong Mook Seng and Dr Chen Xudong for their encouragement on my research and discussion of the related topics I am grateful to Mdm Lee Siew Choo, Mdm Goh Kah Seok, Mdm Guo Lin, and Mr Abdul Jalil Bin Din for their help in the fabrication and the measurement of microwave circuits during the past four years I must thank my parents, Tang Jianlin and Long Limin, who always unconditionally support me and love me A special thank goes to my wife, Shu Zhen, for the happiness she brought me and the precious time she spent together with me I am also indebted to my aunt, Long Jian, and other relatives and friends for their patience and encouragement iii Contents Abstract ………………………………………………………………………… vii List of Figures ………………………………………………………………… viii List of Tables ……………………………………………………………….… xvi List of Abbreviations ……………………………………………………… … xvii Chapter Introduction ……………………………………………………… 1.1 Fundamental timed/phased array front-end ………………………… 1.2 Architectures: RF, LO and IF phase shifting ………………………… 1.3 Influence of phase error of phase shifter in beam forming…………… 1.4 Motivation and organization of the thesis …………………………… 10 1.5 Publications ………………………………………………………… 11 Chapter Review of conventional phase shifters …………………………… 14 2.1 Topologies to achieve phase shifts …………………………………… 14 2.1.1 Loaded-line phase shifter ……………………………………… 15 iv 2.1.2 Switched network phase shifter ………………………………… 18 2.1.3 Reflection type phase shifter ………………………………… 22 2.1.4 Vector based phase shifters …………………………………… 24 2.2 Conclusions ……………………………………………………… 25 Chapter Improvement of conventional phase shifters …………………… 28 3.1 Optimized design for the third order HP/LP phase shifter ………… 28 3.2 Third order high-pass/transmission line (HP/TL) phase shifter ……… 38 3.3 Bandwidth enhancement of loaded-line phase shifter ……………… 45 3.4 Dual band loaded line phase shifter ………………………………… 57 3.5 Conclusions ………………………………………………………… 68 Chapter Broadband phase shifter design and tradeoffs using phase slope alignment technique ………………… ………………………… 69 4.1 Phase slope alignment using quarter wavelength stubs ……………… 69 4.1.1 Topology 1: BPF with one pole ………………………………… 70 4.1.2 Topology 2: BPF with two poles ……………………………… 78 v 4.1.3 Topology 3: BPF with three poles ……………………………… 83 4.1.4 Influence of SPDT switches …………………………………… 88 4.1.5 Design of binary phase bits …………………………………… 89 4.1.6 Four-bit L-band phase shifter ………………………………… 94 4.1.7 Discussions on size and insertion loss reduction …………… 98 4.2 Phase slope alignment using LC resonators ………………………… 99 4.3 Phase slope alignment using both quarter wavelength stubs and LC resonators …………………………………………………………… 114 4.4 Conclusions ……………………………………………………… 121 Chapter Quadrature and dual-band power divider designs based on insertion loss study ……………………………………………… 122 5.1 Quadrature UWB power divider …………………………………… 122 5.2 Dual-band in-phase power divider design I ………………………… 127 5.3 Dual-band in-phase power divider design II ………………………… 135 5.4 Conclusions ………………………………………………………… 143 Chapter Broadband phase shifter design using all-pass networks ………… 145 vi 6.1 Single section all-pass network ……………………………………… 145 6.2 Cascaded multi-section all-pass networks …………………………… 147 6.3 Experimental results ………………………………………………… 154 6.4 Conclusions ………………………………………………………… 158 Chapter Conclusions and recommendations ……………………………… 160 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………… 167 Appendix A: Influence of load mismatch on network insertion phase ………… 176 Appendix B: S-parameters of BPF with two poles and three poles …………… 178 vii Abstract Phase shifters are one of the key control components in phased array radar systems to electrically shape and steer the antenna beam In modern radar applications where multi-function capability and communication security are required, broadband phase shifters are essential This work mainly aims to improve the conventional phase shifters and explore novel topologies for broadband and high performance designs One set of general formulas, which includes the formulas of conventional method as a special case, is found for the high-pass/low-pass phase shifter design, and closed-form equations for bandwidth enhanced and dual-band loaded-line phase shifter are provided Several novel topologies using a phase slope alignment concept are also proposed, where trade-offs between phase error, return loss and bandwidth are possible Based on this method, an octave band phase shifter with an RMS phase error of 3.6º and a return loss larger than 15 dB (|S11|