Design of Novel Reconfigurable Reflectarrays with Single-bit Phase Resolution for Ku-Band Satellite Antenna Applications

Reconfigurable reflectarray antennas operating in Ku-band are presented in this paper. First, a novel multilayer unit-cell based on polarization turning concept is proposed to achieve the single-bit phase shift required for reconfigurable reflectarray applications. The principle of the unit-cell is discussed using the current model and the space match condition, along with simulations to corroborate the design and performance criteria. Then, an offset-fed configuration is developed to verify performance of the unit-cell in antenna application, and its polarization transformation property is elaborated. Finally, an offset-fed reflectarray with 10×10 elements is developed and fabricated. The dual-polarized antenna utilizes the control code matrices to accomplish a wide angle beam-scanning. A full wave analysis is applied to the reflectarray, and detailed results are presented and discussed. This electronically steerable reflectarray antenna has significant potential for satellite applications, due to its wide operating band, simple control and beam-scanning capability.