Millimeter Wave Beam Steering Reflectarray Antenna Based on Mechanical Rotation of Array

Abstract

This work provides design and analysis of a beam steering reflectarray antenna, designed at 26 GHz, based on the mechanical rotation of the array. Unit cells based on circular ring elements are designed, and scattering parameter measurements have been carried out for obtaining progressive phase distribution. The unit cell measurements demonstrated a maximum reflection loss of 4 dB with a total phase range of almost 360 • . Symmetricity of the array and the resonant elements has been exposed to steer the main beam by tilting the reflectarray at different angles. A beam steering range of more than ±60 • has been demonstrated by varying the tilt angle from +30 • to −30 • . The designed 20×20 element array provided a maximum gain of 26.47 dB at 0 • which reduced to 19.8 dB at 61.9 • in the elevation plane. On the other hand, the reflectarray antenna demonstrated a maximum bandwidth of 13.1% with a minimum side lobe level of −25.9 dB.

A Novel Asymmetric Patch Reflectarray Antenna with Ground Ring Slots for 5G Communication Systems

“…Moreover, the asymmetric patch reflectarray attains a wider reflection phase span with a lower design complexity than these two dual band designs. Two other similar works reported in [4] and [19] offer good bandwidth and gain performance with low design complexity, but for just a single polarization operation. Moreover, these two works present a reflectarray antenna with a conventional type of element, such as circular ring and rectangular patch, which offer a very narrow reflection phase range.…”

“…The only limitation associated with asymmetric patch reflectarray antenna is its narrow beamwidth, which tends to increase the number of sectors in a microcell. This limitation could be avoided by using a beamsteering strategy in the reflectarray antenna [6,19]. A wide reflection phase range, as in asymmetric patch reflectarray, would be beneficial for acquiring wide angle beamsteering operation.…”

“…Simulations of unit cell element and full reflectarray are performed by CST Microwave Studio within a frequency range of 24 to 28 GHz. The selected frequency range is considered due to its application in 5G communications [4,19]. The proposed design of the reflectarray antenna has also been experimentally verified.…”

1-Bit Wideband Reconfigurable Reflectarray Design in Ku-Band

“…For mechanically controlling [4], the beam scanning is generally achieved by the rotation of the array, the rotation of the feed horn, or combines the two mentioned approaches. In [5], the proposed RA antenna achieves a beam scanning range of more than ±60° based on the mechanical rotation of the array. In [6], a wide-angle beam-scanning RA based on the mechanical rotation of the feed antenna was proposed, and the gain variation was less than 1.7 dB within the scan coverage of ±45°.…”

Development of a Pin Diode-Based Beam-Switching Single-Layer Reflectarray Antenna

“…Such a beam-forming approach can have many advantages over traditional tunable antenna array architectures, including a significant reduction in hardware required per element and increased efficiency [6]. Researchers have investigated different techniques for beam steering antennas such as the use of nonlinear dielectric materials [7][8][9], the integration of Radio Frequency Microelectro Mechanical Systems (RF MEMS) as switches [10,11], loading varactor diodes with the patch elements and varying the varactor capacitance by using various biasing [12,13], using aperture coupled elements where the tuning circuit can be located on the nonresonating surface of the element in order to control the contributed phase from each element [14], and using mechanical movement of the antenna [15]. Some other researchers have also proposed the use of PIN diodes for beam switching where the diodes can be switched ON and OFF using an external biasing circuit, and hence, the reflectarray beam can be controlled [16][17][18][19].…”