A wideband 1 bit reconfigurable transmitarray antenna based on proximity-coupled feed patch element

ABSTRACT

In this paper, a wideband 1-bit reconfigurable transmit array antenna (RTA) is proposed. The 1-bit RTA element consists of a passive receiving antenna and a reconfigurable radiating antenna, which adopt a proximity-coupled feed method to broaden the transmission bandwidth. Two p-i-n diodes are integrated into the reconfigurable receiving antenna to control the current distribution. By switching the states of the p-i-n diodes, the reconfigurable radiating antenna can achieve a 1-bit phase shift. Element simulation results show that the proposed RTA element can achieve a 3 dB transmission bandwidth of 21.5%. A 100-element RTA prototype with 200 p-in diodes is designed, fabricated and measured. The measured results show that the peak gain is 18.8 dBi at 5.05 GHz, corresponding to an aperture efficiency of 20.8%, and the 3 dB gain bandwidth is 17.1%. Furthermore, the scanned beams can reach −32° and −36°, respectively, in the E- and H-planes.

KEYWORDS:

• Reconfigurable transmitarray
• wideband
• 1 bit
• p-i-n diode

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work is sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (61971157) and the Science Foundation of Aeronautics of China (201901077005).