Mechanical phase shifter in gap-waveguide technology

Abstract

[EN] This contribution presents a low-loss mechanical phase shifter in gap-waveguide technology. The phase shifter is aimed at ground terminals for Ka-band satellite on-the-move applications. The use of the gap-waveguide technology allows to divide the device into two main blocks distributed in two levels: a lower-rotatable block, in charge of the power distribution and the phase shifting; and an upper-fixed block with the output waveguides. In this paper, the lower and upper blocks are designed using Groove-gap waveguides (GGW), and Ridge-gap waveguides, respectively, connected to each other by coupling slots. Results show a good performance within the operating frequency band in terms of the phase shift between consecutive output ports (suitable for array feeding), and the return loss level at the input port.