1-Bit Wideband Reconfigurable Reflectarray Design in Ku-Band

Abstract

In this paper, a 1-bit wideband electronically reconfigurable reflectarray (RRA) in Ku-band is proposed. In order to achieve the wideband and reconfigurable characteristics, the stacked microstrip structure and a 1-bit "microstrip line-slot line-microstrip line" phase shifter (MSMPS) were introduced in this design. A novel "receiving-phase shift-transmitting" unit cell was gotten by connecting two stacked microstrip structures using MSMPS. Due to the receiving and transmitting parts are perpendicular to each other, the polarization rotation characteristic was demonstrated. To avoid the blockage of the feed horn, it was placed above the reflecting surface array with an offset angle of 25° to the normal direction. A 16 × 16 obliquely-fed RRA was designed and fabricated. The measured 1-dB gain bandwidth of the RRA is 15.4%. The measured results show that the fabricated prototype can achieve beam scanning from -20° to 50° in the elevation plane, and ±50° beam scanning in the azimuth plane.

A Dual-Polarized Reconfigurable Reflectarray With a Thin Liquid Crystal Layer and 2-D Beam Scanning

“…Although we have discrepancies between measurement and simulation, by using a mature LCD fabrication technology, the errors can be rectified, and we can reach a good performance index in case of fabrication cost, aperture efficiency, scan range etc., that is comparable to recent PIN or Varactor diodebased beam-steering techniques like those presented in [1][21]- [23]. Moreover, if a low loss LC mixture [13] is used, the presented study can reach even over 30% aperture efficiency.…”

A Broadband 1-Bit Single-Layer Reconfigurable Reflectarray Unit Cell Based on PIN Diode Model

“…This problem is more critical for array with hundreds or thousands of elements which are employed for 5G [24], 6G [14], [25] and satellite [26], [27], [28], [29]. Of a particular note, PIN diodes are preferred for RRAs given their low cost, diversity, and ready availability on the market [22], [23], [30], [31], [32], [33], [34], [35], [36], [37], [38], [39], [40]. Moreover, the control boards for PIN-diode RRAs are simpler and more affordable than those for RRAs using varactors, especially for large RRAs.…”

“…Moreover, the control boards for PIN-diode RRAs are simpler and more affordable than those for RRAs using varactors, especially for large RRAs. Most PIN-diode RRAs adopt 1 bit [22], [23], [26], [27], [30], [31], [32], [33], [39], [41], [42], [43], [44] or 2 bits [35], [36], [37] to shift reflective phases, but those using 1-bit are given more attention because of the ease of design (simple structures) [34] although their performance in terms of sidelobe levels and gains are worse (but acceptable) than those using 2 bits as a trade off.…”

PIN Diodes Loaded 1-bit Cylindrical Reconfigurable Reflectarray Antenna

“…In addition, a varactor diode based reflectarray element is proposed in [10], and a 3 × 15 planar antenna is designed to achieve ±20 • beam scanning. Moreover, 1-bit reflectarray arrays are proposed in [11] to achieve beam scanning, which can achieve beam scanning in the range of ±60 • . In [12], a multi-layer 1-bit reflectarray unit is proposed to achieve beam scanning in the ±40 • range.…”