Design and Validation of Gathered Elements for Steerable-Beam Reflectarrays Based on Patches Aperture-Coupled to Delay Lines

The concept of grouping reflectarray elements made of patches aperture-coupled to delay lines is presented in this communication. The combination of two or four elements turning into a sub-array is presented as an effective way of reducing the number of control devices required to reconfigure a beam in reflectarray antennas, with the consequent reduction in cost and manufacturing complexity. It has been shown that the impact of the element-grouping on the antenna radiation patterns is very small, when compared with a reflectarray made of individual phasing elements. The concept has been validated by comparing the simulation results of phase-shift and losses with measurements in waveguide simulator for sub-arrays with two and four elements.

[1]  E. Carrasco,et al.  Reflectarray Element Based on Aperture-Coupled Patches With Slots and Lines of Variable Length , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[2]  Rolf Jakoby,et al.  Electronically reconfigurable reflectarrays with nematic liquid crystals , 2006 .

[3]  Takao Kuki,et al.  60-GHz electrically reconfigurable reflectarray using p-i-n diode , 2009, 2009 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest.

[4]  J. Encinar,et al.  Bandwidth Improvement in Large Reflectarrays by Using True-Time Delay , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[5]  R. Cahill,et al.  Design and Measurement of Reconfigurable Millimeter Wave Reflectarray Cells With Nematic Liquid Crystal , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[6]  L. Marcaccioli,et al.  Recent advances on millimetre wave reconfigurable reflectarrays , 2009, 2009 3rd European Conference on Antennas and Propagation.

[7]  H.J. Song,et al.  Dual linearly polarized reflectarray using aperture coupled microstrip patches , 2001, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium. 2001 Digest. Held in conjunction with: USNC/URSI National Radio Science Meeting (Cat. No.01CH37229).

[8]  John Huang,et al.  Bandwidth study of microstrip reflectarray and a novel phased reflectarray concept , 1995, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium. 1995 Digest.

[9]  A.K. Skrivervik,et al.  Monolithic MEMS-Based Reflectarray Cell Digitally Reconfigurable Over a 360 $^{\circ }$ Phase Range , 2008, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters.

[10]  P. Hannan,et al.  Simulation of a phased-array antenna in waveguide , 1965 .

[11]  A. G. Martinez-Lopez,et al.  Spiraphase-type element with optimal transformation of switch impedances , 2010 .

[12]  H. Aubert,et al.  Multi-scale approach for the electromagnetic modelling of MEMS-controlled reflectarrays , 2006, 2006 First European Conference on Antennas and Propagation.

[13]  J. E. Page,et al.  Electronic controllable reflectarray elements in X band , 2007 .

[14]  M. Arrebola,et al.  Demonstration of a Shaped Beam Reflectarray Using Aperture-Coupled Delay Lines for LMDS Central Station Antenna , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.