Design of a V-band Phase Shifter Using SP4T RF-MEMS Switches with Sonnet

This paper presents the design of a V-band switched-line phase shifter using SP4T RF-MEMS switches. Sonnet simulations are used to achieve accurate circuit models of both the RF-MEMS switches as well as CPW bends within the phase shifter. The V-band phase shifter utilizes two SP4T RF-MEMS switches to perform the delay line switching. The RF performance of the SP4T MEMS switch is optimized to address the challenge of developing high performance, broadband switches for emerging 60 GHz wireless applications. Full-wave Sonnet simulations are used to optimize the RF-MEMS switch topology to achieve low return-loss performance. The SP4T SONNET model is then used in the circuit simulation to analyze the performance of the RF-MEMS integrated V-band phase shifter. The experimental result shows less than 1° phase error at 60 GHz in comparison to the simulation results.