An Active Reconfigurable Reflectarray Antenna

This thesis focuses on a type of antenna known as the reflectarray antenna. In particular, it looks at the design of an active reconfigurable reflectarray antenna, which has not received much attention in the reflectarray community. Potential applications include deployment as a high gain, reconfigurable antenna for communication links, and as a spatial power combiner. The reflectarray element is an aperture-coupled patch that accepts a linearly polarized wave, phase shifts and amplifies the guided-waves in the transmission lines, and then re-radiates an orthogonally polarized wave. Stability analysis of the element, experimental results of the designed phase shifter and simulation and experimental results of the element are presented. Fabrication details of a 48 element reflectarray and challenges faced during experimental characterization of the elements are also discussed. The two dimensional beamforming capability and amplifying nature of the array are successfully demonstrated and veri fied, indicating robustness to phase errors and oscillating elements.MAS