6th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP)

Wideband Reflectarray Antenna Based on

Miniaturized Element Frequency Selective Surfaces
Arezou Edalati and Kamal Sarabandi
Radiation Laboratory, EECS Department
The University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
edalati@umich.edu
the periodic FSS structure, a large number of periods must be
present. This condition cannot be met in the design of most
reflectarrays,
and
therefore
the
design
becomes
computationally extensive and optimization algorithms based
on full-wave analysis are required to achieve the design goals.

AbstractA novel design of a printed single layer reflectarray

antenna based on grounded metallic loop-wire MiniaturizedElement Frequency Selective Surface (MEFSS) is presented. The
proposed sub-wavelength MEFSS unit cell with localized
frequency response and minimal dependency to the angle of
incidence allows for broadband performance of the reflectarray
antenna without any optimization algorithm. The proposed
reflectarray antenna with total dimension of 260mmx260mm and
F/D=1.02 is fabricated to validate the design method. A
maximum gain of 26.3 dBi with 3dB-gain bandwidth of 17% and
3-dB beamwidth of 6 is achieved at x-band.

Recently, Miniaturized-Element FSS (MEFSS) with subwavelength dimension, similar to metamaterials, have been
introduced with unique characteristics such as low sensitivity
to the angle of incidence, and localized frequency-selective
behavior with minimal dependency to the neighboring
elements [5]. They are operating in the TEM mode and they are
harmonic free. For such elements one can easily find an
equivalent circuit model. Considering these properties, MEFSS
is ideal for designing reflectarray antennas. By incorporating
small size unit cells of MEFSSs in reflectarrays, design of such
antennas can easily be accomplished without the need for
optimization algorithms. Another advantage is the wide
bandwidth such elements can provide for reflectarrays.

Keywords- Reflectarray antennas, frequency selective surfaces,

array antennas; broadband antenna,

I.

INTRODUCTION

High-gain, low-cost, and conformal antennas are highly

desirable for many communication and radar applications such
as satellite and point-to-point communications as well as
terrestrial and avionic radar systems. The conventional
parabolic reflector antennas have been used widely due to their
high-gain response; however, because of their 3-dimensional
structure, they require significant volume on their platform. As
an alternative solution, flat phased-array antennas have been
utilized in many applications as a substitution for the parabolic
reflectors. One drawback of array antennas is the losses in the
corporate feed which reduces the antenna efficiency (gain). As
a remedy, flat printed reflectarray antennas have become an
attractive alternative solution to both the conventional
parabolic reflector and phased-array antennas. They have
several advantages such as high gain, flatness, low loss, low
cost, low volume and less manufacturing complexity [1]-[3].

In this paper, a printed single sided MEFSS structure

backed with a ground plane is chosen for designing a
reflectarray antenna. The building block of these MEFSSs is
formed by wire grid and metallic loop inside of it on top of a
metallic surface. By changing the dimension of the metallic
loops, the phase of the transmission coefficient through the
MEFSS and as a result the total reflection coefficient metalbacked MEFSS at the operating frequency is modified. By
proper placement of cells with a predetermined phase
characteristics across the surface, the spherical curvature of the
incident wave phase-front can be corrected to create an antenna
with a narrow beam in a desired direction. The proposed
reflectarray antenna is designed to operate at x-band. The
reflectarray antenna with total dimensions of 260mmX260mm
and F/D=1.02 is fabricated and measured in the anechoic
chamber of the University of Michigan.

The microstrip reflectarray antennas are usually composed

of a small feed and a planar surface consisting of small
resonant radiating elements. By changing the geometry of the
elements (detuning the elements) or terminating the elements
by proper reactive loads, a reflected phase is introduced to
compensate for the path delay differential of the incident ray
from the feed to the reflectarray elements. Traditional
Frequency Selective Surfaces (FSSs) have been used as
reflectarray elements as well [4]. However, the dimensions of
such elements are comparable to /2 and their responses are
highly sensitive to the angle of incidence. In addition, to
correct for the phase-front curvature of the feed beam , multiple
FSS unit cell configurations are needed. Also for conventional
FSS structures, in order to obtain a response similar to that of

978-1-4577-0919-7/12/$26.00 2011 IEEE

II.

UNIT CELL DESIGN

The proposed unit cell of reflectarray antenna is composed

of a wire grid and a square metallic loop inside of it, both in
same side of a substrate with permittivity of 2.2. The structure
is backed with ground plane as shown in Figure 1. By changing
the dimension of the metallic square loop, the equivalent
capacitance between loop and wire as well as inductance of
metallic loop are changed; therefore, the phase of the reflection
coefficient can be modified. Figure 2 illustrates the phase of the

362

photograph of the antenna is showed in Figure 3. The substrate

is Rogers RT/duroid 5880 with r=2.2 and h=3.175 mm. An Xband horn antenna with dimensions of 88mmX65mm was used
as the feed of the reflectarray and placed at a distance of about
26.5 cm from the reflector. The radiation pattern and gain of
the antenna at different frequencies are measured and presented
in Figures 4 and 5, respectively. The antenna has 3-dB
beamwidth of 6 across the band and agrees well with the
simulation. The difference between the sidelobe level in the
fullwave simulation and measurement is due to the low
accuracy of the alignment of the horn and reflectarray in the
fabricated prototype. The maximum directivity is 26.3 dBi at
10.5 GHz which is 0.7 dBi less than the simulated one. The
difference between the simulated and measured gain values is
mostly due to the fabrication and measurement errors. The 1dBi gain-bandwidth is 17% which is larger than conventional
reflectarray antenna. The increase in the gain-bandwidth is due
to the sub-wavelength size of the MEFSS and its low
sensitivity to the wave angle of incidence.

reflection coefficient versus the various loop length for

different angles of incident wave at 10.7 GHz.
The simulations were done using HFSS with master and
slave boundary conditions and Floquet port excitation. As it is
shown, the 340 phase variation and very low sensitivity to the
angle of incident wave make the proposed unit cell a good
candidate for designing reflectarray antennas.

Figure 1: Unit cell of the single-sided loop-wire grounded FSS.

Table 1: Unit cell dimensions (Millimeter)

d1

d2

L1

r

hsub

0.08

0.9

10

2.2

3.175

Figure 2: Phase of S11 vs. loop length for two angles of incidence at 10.7
GHz.

III.

REFLECTARRAY ANTENNA AND MEASUREMENT

Figure 3: The photograph of the fabricated reflectarray antenna.

RESULTS

The required spatial distribution of reflection phase over a

planar reflectarray illuminated by a wave with spherical phase
front to generate a planar phase-front in desired direction can
be obtained from geometrical considerations [1]. In this design,
the phase distribution across the reflectarray surface is
determined for broadside radiation with F/D=1.02.

IV.

CONCLUSION

A wideband design of a novel reflectarray antenna based on

grounded loop-wire MEFSS is proposed. The designed unit
cell has localized frequency response and very low sensitivity
to the angle of incident wave and provides wideband
performance of the reflectarray antenna. The antenna was
fabricated and measured. The antenna operates at x-band and

To validate the design procedure, the reflectarray antenna

was fabricated with the previously described unit cell. The

363

measured results show a gain of 26.3 dBi with bandwidth of

17% with 3-dB beamwidth of 6 across the band.

Figure 5: Measured gain of the reflectarray antenna.

V.
[1]

Figure 4: Measured radiation pattern of the reflectarray antenna.

[2]

[3]
[4]

[5]

364

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