Miniature, tunable, and power efficient ferrite phase shifter devices

Abstract

Ferrite phase shifter devices having drastically reduced bias field requirements are demonstrated at C and Ku band utilizing polycrystalline YIG and single crystal hexagonal Y-type ferrite materials. Phase shifts on the order of 100 degrees with bias fields below 100 Oe are achieved. A novel numerical analysis method for modeling anisotropic ferrites is presented and a good agreement between calculation results and experimental data achieved. Methods of generating tuning magnetic fields with small current drives are presented. The possibility of realizing voltage tuning of ferrite devices via the magnetoelectric effect and preliminary experimental results are discussed. Numerical modeling of meander line phase shifter designs with figures of merit in excess of 200 degrees per dB of insertion loss are presented.