Ferrite phase shifter

A phase shifter comprising:

• three parallel, non-co-planar microstrip lines supported on a dielectric support structure;
• a dielectric substrate having opposed first and second surfaces;
• a ground plane formed on said second surface;
• a ferrite element supported within the dielectric support structure between the first surface of the substrate and the three non-co-planar microstrip lines;
• a magnetic circuit for generating a magnetic field for aligning magnetic dipole moments of the ferrite element;
• and
• a control circuit for varying the magnetic field for adjusting a phase shift of a signal transmitted through the phase shifter.

An electronically scanned phased array radar system, comprising:

• a transmit/receive module, including a power amplifier, a low noise amplifier LNA and a circulator;
• a manifold;
• a plurality of antenna elements arranged in an array and connected to the manifold through a plurality of respective phase shifters;
• the phase shifters 6 arranged to individually shift the phase of signals to be transmitted by or received from the plurality of antenna elements to electronically steer a beam of the array;
• a controller connected to the phase shifters to control the amount of phase shift applied by the phase shifters to controllably steer the array beam;
• and
• wherein one or more of the phase shifters comprises:
• a substrate;
• a ground plane formed on a first surface of the substrate;
• a dielectric support structure positioned on a second surface of the substrate opposite the first surface;
• three parallel, non-co-planar microstrip lines supported by the support structure above the second surface of the substrate;
• a ferrite element supported in the support structure between the second surface of the substrate and the three non-co-planar microstrip lines;
• and
• a magnetic circuit for applying a magnetic field to the ferrite element under control of the controller.