High integrity, phase shift activated microwave switching system

A new type of microwave multiport switch is presented. This switch performs high power selective switching into N-output ports using an N-way power divider, N-microwave phase shifters and an N-way RF combining network. In addition, this new switch configuration exhibits low insertion loss and demonstrates high system integrity because it overcomes the traditional catastrophic system failure should one active switching element, that is one phase shifter, fail. In addition, it is more resistant to degradation of cross coupling and VSWR, during switch failure. The paper describes and explains the switching circuit concept, presents circuit configurations, and derives phase shifter setting tables. A derivation and computation of power loss, undesirable cross-coupling and VSWR, in case of phase shifter failure, is also presented.