An investigation of millimeter wave reflectarrays for small satellite platforms

This article reports two contributions related to reflectarray antenna design at millimeter waves (mm-waves). First, a closed form analytical formulation is provided for the prediction of reflection properties of square/rectangular mm-waves reflectarray unit cells based on various quality factors an...

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Veröffentlicht in:Acta astronautica 2018-10, Vol.151, p.475-486
Hauptverfasser: Ahmad, Ghulam, Brown, Tim W.C., Underwood, Craig I., Loh, Tian H.
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:This article reports two contributions related to reflectarray antenna design at millimeter waves (mm-waves). First, a closed form analytical formulation is provided for the prediction of reflection properties of square/rectangular mm-waves reflectarray unit cells based on various quality factors and the theory of waveguide coupled resonators. To ensure a high accuracy at mm-waves, the effects of fringing fields, surface waves, metal conductivity, and metal surface roughness are included in the analysis. This analysis program greatly facilitates the parametric studies of a unit cell's constituting parameters to converge on an optimum design solution. Secondly, the concept of phase quantization is proposed for a cost effective realization of mm-waves reflectarrays. The developed formulation in the first contribution was used to design two 3 bit phase quantized, single layer, 19 wavelength, passive reflectarrays at 60 GHz. The test results are compared with simulations and a very good agreement was observed. These findings are potentially useful for the realization of high gain antennas for mm-wave inter-satellite links in small satellite platforms. •Realization of a closed form analytical tool for mm-wave reflectarray unit cells.•Analysis of fringing fields, surface waves, metal conductivity & surface roughness.•Phase quantized reflectarrays for a cost effect implementation at mm-waves.•Technology useful for terrestrial backhauls, aircrafts, and satellites.•Enables high capacity mm-wave inter-satellite links using small satellite platforms.
ISSN:0094-5765
1879-2030
DOI:10.1016/j.actaastro.2018.06.044