On the phase selection of millimeter wave quantized reflectarrays

Microstrip printed reflectarrays are becoming a potential replacement of parabolic reflector and phased array antennas due to their simple design, low cost and ease of manufacture to attain high gain and wide angle beam pointing at millimeter waves (mm-waves). Significant challenges are faced while implementing continuous phase reflectarrays at mm-waves. However, discretizing the required reflection phase provides a practically implementable solution. This contribution addresses the selection of phase states and its scattering in a phase discretized mm-wave reflectarray. The performance of two 1.5 bit phase quantized reflectarrays having closely spaced geometrical features is analyzed at 60 GHz. This study provides a better understanding to achieve a wider bandwidth response in practically implementable mm-wave reflectarrays.