Printed and Integrated CMOS Positive/Negative Refractive-Index Phase Shifters Using Tunable Active Inductors

This paper presents a printed and an integrated bi-directional tunable positive/negative refractive-index phase shifter utilizing CMOS tunable active inductors (TAIs). The printed phase shifter is comprised of a microstrip transmission line (TL), loaded with series varactors and a shunt monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) synthesizing the TAI. Using the TAI extends the phase tuning range and results in a low return loss across the entire tuning range. The integrated circuit (IC) phase shifter replaces the TLs with suitable lumped L-C sections. This enables integrating the entire phase shifter on a single MMIC, resulting in a compact implementation. The TAI used for both phase shifters is based on a modified gyrator-C architecture, employing a variable resistance to independently control the inductance and quality factor. The TAI is fabricated in the 0.13-mum CMOS process and operates from a 1.5-V supply. The TAI chip is used to implement the TL phase shifter, which achieves a phase of -40deg to +34deg at 2.5 GHz with less than -19-dB return loss from a single stage occupying 10.8 mm times 10.4 mm. The IC phase shifter is fabricated in the same process and achieves a phase from -35deg to +59deg at 2.6 GHz with less than -19-dB return loss from a single stage occupying 550 mum times 1300 mum.