A dual‐layered wideband microstrip reflectarray antenna with variable polarization

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents a new kind of microstrip reflectarray antenna those polarization could be reconfigurable among all polarization states instead of some fixed states for dual‐ or multipolarized antenna. The mechanism for polarized variability is so simple that only mechanical rotation is needed. The complete theoretical analysis is given as well as a specific design sample to verify this method. At designed frequency of 10 GHz and in case of circularly polarized (CP) radiation, experimental results in agreement with simulated ones exhibit −26‐dB cross‐polar level (CPL), −13‐dB side‐lobe level, 13.5° half‐power beamwidth, and 17.3‐dBi gain corresponding to about 40% aperture efficiency. It also possesses 8% bandwidth from 9.5 to 10.3 GHz for CPL less than −15 dB. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 48: 1429–1432, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.21640