Electromechanical beamsteering reflectarray antenna for X-band applications

An electromechanical beamsteering reflectarray antenna for x-band applications was designed, fabricated, and tested. Circular aperture of antenna consists of 316 elements and each element of the array is comprised of two stacked PCBs. The upper PCB consists of a rectangular patch coupled to a pair of rectangular slots in the bottom layer and the lower PCB has a jagged slot on the top and perfect GND at the bottom. The phase shift coverage required for scanning the beam of the antenna was provided by moving and sliding the lower PCB under the fixed top one. The antenna was designed to scan the main beam about ±40° from boresight in E-plane of the antenna. This concept was demonstrated by fabricating and testing a prototype of the proposed antenna. The maximum measured gain of 23 dB with an aperture efficiency of 23.2% was obtained at center frequency of 10 GHz. The measured radiation patterns of the antenna were well matched to simulation results.