Broadband planar multilayered reflectarray based on circular stacked patches and reflective printed circuits for microwave communication systems

Abstract

This document provides the complete design of a broadband planar multilayered reflectarray based on circular stacked patches and reflective printed lines. These devices are conceived for their use in satellite communications at microwave and millimeter frequencies. The working principle of the reflectarray is based on the reception and front wave correction by means of printed phase shifters embedded in a phased array structure. Our approach is based on an array of circular stacked patches connected to reflective line shifters. Each reflective shifter at each array cell introduces a phase variation that can be modified due to the line length. The work implies the selection and design of the unitary radiating element and reflective lines of the array, along with the complete reflectarray definition and building up based on this constituting array cell. This work provides the initial specifications and constraints, a complete design, and a manufactured prototype with its performance results.

Keywords:

• Microwaves
• reflectarrays
• circular patches
• reflective circuits

Acknowledgments

The electromagnetic design of the unitary cell has been developed with CST Studio Suite under license agreement between Computer Simulation Technology (CST) and Technical University of Madrid. The substrates for the prototype have been kindly donated by NELTEC. The authors want to acknowledge the Spanish Government, Ministry of Economy, National Program of Research, Development and Innovation for the support of the project ENABLING5G “Enabling Innovative Radio Technologies for 5G networks” (Project number TEC2014-55735-C3-1-R), projects UNGR15-CE-3311 and TIN2016-75097-P, and the project Spacer Debris Radar from Madrid Region Government (Project number S2013/ICE-3000SPADERADAR-CM). Acknowledgment to FPI grant with reference BES-2015-075230. We also acknowledge the contribution from the project Jetstream, supported by the call “Retos Colaboración” from the Spain “Ministerio de Economía” (RTC-2015-3495-7).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.