Bandwidth study of microstrip reflectarray and a novel phased reflectarray concept

Abstract

A microstrip reflectarray is a flat reflector antenna that can be conformally mounted onto its supporting structure without consuming a significant amount of real estate and without adding significant mass. The article concentrates on the bandwidth study of a form of reflectarray that uses identical patches with different-length transmission delay lines attached to compensate for the spatial phase delays. This antenna suffers from one major shortcoming, its limited bandwidth. A new concept of mechanically phased reflectarray is also presented.