Ka-band beam steering reflectarray study

A one-meter diameter, 32 GHz active microstrip reflectarray capable of electronic beam steering has been studied. The 15,500 element array consists of microstrip patch antennas, microstrip phase shifters, and DC bias lines. Specifically, the study focused on the solid-state devices and DC bias layouts for scanning the beam linearly 45/spl deg/ from boresight using 2-bit phase shifters. Three configurations are recommended for the reflectarray with integrated 2-bit phase shifters where the total substrate and cladding mass varies from 8 kg to 14 kg. Additionally, DC power requirements for p-i-n diodes in 1-bit, 2-bit and 3-bit phase shifting circuits are approximately 19 W, 19 W, and 39 W, respectively. The DC power requirement for phase shifters using passive MESFETs is much less than 1 W.