Design of a 24 GHz reconfigurable transmitarray element with continuous phase range

This paper presents a reconfigurable transmitarray antenna unit cell for a frequency of 24 GHz. A continuous phase range is obtained by loading patches with varactor diodes on the outer layers of a printed circuit board (PCB) while the signal couples through slots in the inner layers. The design, numerical and experimental characterization of the unit cell in a rectangular WR-42 waveguide are reported. A phase tuning range of 120° was achieved with a custom layer stack which could be extended to 145° using solely RF-substrates.

[1]  M. R. Chaharmir,et al.  A Wideband Transmitarray Using Dual-Resonant Double Square Rings , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[2]  Alfonso Muñoz Acevedo,et al.  Electronically Reconfigurable Transmitarray at Ku Band for Microwave Applications , 2010 .

[3]  Eduardo Carrasco,et al.  Design and evaluation of multi-resonant unit cells based on liquid crystals for reconfigurable reflectarrays , 2012 .

[4]  Sean V. Hum,et al.  Design and characterization of a 6 × 6 planar reconfigurable transmitarray , 2010, Proceedings of the Fourth European Conference on Antennas and Propagation.

[5]  Manuel Sierra Castañer,et al.  Transmitarray for Ku Band , 2007 .

[6]  H. Hassani,et al.  Low-Profile Slot Transmitarray Antenna , 2015, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[7]  Laurent Dussopt,et al.  1-Bit unit-cell for transmitarray applications in Ka-band , 2015, 2015 9th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP).

[8]  J Y Lau,et al.  Analysis and Characterization of a Multipole Reconfigurable Transmitarray Element , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.