A Novel Phase Shifter for 5G Base Station Antenna

In this paper, a phase shifter for the base station antenna with low cost, ease of manufacturing and good performance on phase shift is presented. The phase shifter consists of a metal shell, a substrate, two dielectric plates, and two conductor lines. The phase shift is realized by moving the dielectric plates longitudinally, which cover the conductor lines. With the slots in dielectric materials, the slotted part of dielectric plates can function similarly to a quarter-wavelength impedance matching. Therefore, the function of this phase shifter is that the voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) and power distribution ratio can be guaranteed when the dielectric plate is moved. The phase shifter exhibits a bandwidth of 1.7-2.1 GHz and the corresponding phase shift is 86.88° when the dielectric plate moves by 90 mm. Moreover, its good physical features including light weight, low cost, and easy fabrication make it well suitable for base station antenna applications.