An electrical phase shifting circuit element of the reflection type including a quadrature coupler branch network, a matched pair of selectively coupled transmission lines and an electrical switching element corresponding to each pair of transmission lines, all being separated distributively from each other and a ground plane by a dielectric material, is disclosed. One end of one transmission line of each pair is connected to a corresponding phase splitting port of the quadrature coupler and another end of the other transmission line of each pair is coupled to the switching element which is preferably a pin diode. The pin diodes may be governed by a common switching signal to electrically connect and disconnect the another ends of the other transmission lines to the ground plane. The transfer between the connecting and disconnecting states renders a phase shift to the RF signal at the output port of the quadrature coupler, the magnitude and direction of the rendered phase shift being a function of the selected coupling of the transmission line pairs. More specifically, one transmission line of each pair may have a preset length of approximately one-quarter wavelength of the desired frequency of the input RF signal and the length of the other line in each pair may be selected in the range of 0 to the one-quarter wavelength dimension. The magnitude and direction of the phase shift in the output RF signal caused by the transfer of states of the electrical switching element is based on the selected length of the other transmission line in each pair.