Dielectric waveguide phase shifter

A nonreciprocal latching phase shifter includes a slab of a high dielectric contant material disposed within a closed magnetization path provided in response to a current fed through a ferrite toroid. A substantial portion of the electromagnetic energy is confined to the dielectric slab, with a remaining small portion of such energy leaking from the slab and interacting with the adjacent ferrite whose state of magnetization is varied in response to the current fed through the ferrite to provide a predetermined phase shift to the electromagnetic energy. In one embodiment, a plurality of parallel high dielectric bars is disposed within a ferrite toroid providing the closed magnetization path to provide a low-cost single toroid multi-element phase shifter. In a second embodiment, a plurality of ferrite toroids, each having a second plurality of dielectric members disposed therein, is arranged to provide a low-cost phase shifter array. In an additional alernate embodiment, a pair of orthogonally disposed phase shifter arrays are spaced by a phase rotation array to provide an array antenna with the vertical and horiozntal beam steering segregated between such arrays.