A novel Ku/K band reflectarray antenna with reduced phase slope and phase sensitivity.

The design, development, fabrication, and testing of a wideband reflectarray antenna with a novel concentric ring element operating over Ku/K band frequencies is presented in this paper. The element characterization is performed using the infinite array approach and is inferred that the proposed unit cell offers a higher phase variation of 643° by changing the size of the concentric rings. The proposed reflectarray antenna has a circular geometry and is constructed using 437 elements with an element separation of 0.43λ0. The proposed reflectarray offers a 3 dB gain bandwidth of 35% (15–21 GHz). The aperture efficiency is estimated to be 58.78% at 16.5 GHz. The prototype reflectarray is fabricated and tested to validate the simulation results. The measured peak gain of the reflectarray is 28.4 dBi with a side lobe level of −17.6 dB. The measured cross‐polarization level is less than −32 dB. Furthermore, it is inferred that the proposed unit cell has a reduced maximum phase sensitivity of 246°/mm with a gain selectivity of 6 dB at the lowest operating frequency. The proposed broadband reflectarray with enhanced performance characteristics is suitable for application in satellite communication and aeronautical radio navigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]