Performance Optimization of Unit-Cell Reflectarray Antenna for Future 5G Communications

Abstract

In this paper, Reflectarray antenna design operating in KaBand at 28GHz for the future fifth generation (5G) wireless communication applications is presented. This reflectarray antenna is proposed and designed based on the two different resonant elements i.e. circular loop with split rings and square loop with split rings. The characterization of each reflectarray element is further carried out in terms of reflection loss, reflection phase, 10% bandwidth and static phase range, respectively. Simulations have been performed using CST MWS simulation software based on Finite Integral Method (FIM). The 10% bandwidth, Figure of Merit (FOM) and the reflection characteristics (including reflection loss and reflection phase) have demonstrated the possibility of using the designated reflectarray antenna optimizely for 5G wireless communications. These antennas have a significant advantage of being light weight and cost effective as compared to the existing conventional bulky reflectors and phased arrays. Due to the remarkable performance of the proposed reflectarray antenna array, it can be considered as a good candidate for 5G communication applications.

Optimum Design of a Novel Electronically Reconfigurable Reflectarray Antenna for X/Ku Band Applications

“…By inheriting salient features of both reflectors and printed phased arrays, the planar reflecting surface offers an added advantage in terms of shape and compactness compared to parabolic reflectors. Reflectarray Antenna (RA) has prominent features like a low-profile structure, simple spatial feed, high gain with pencil beam width, reconfigurability, flexible installation, and low production cost (Arslan and Alamgir, 2017), but it suffers from the shortcoming of narrow bandwidth. Bandwidth improvement has been attempted using attractive approaches, including a cross-dipole of variable size (Chen et al, 2013), concentric rings (Barriuso et al, 2011), circular split rings with twophase delay lines (Malfajani and Atlasbaf, 2014), and multi-layer stacking of elements (Encinar and Zornoza, 2004).…”