Mechanically controlled reflectarray antenna for beam switching and beam shaping in millimetre-wave applications

A novel method is proposed to shape or switch the radiating beam of a reflectarray antenna by slight displacement of its layers with respect to each other. A reflectarray, which is a quasi-periodic structure composed of microstrip patches loaded by slot elements, is used in this scheme. The required phase shift at each position on the reflectarray surface is obtained by varying the slot length on the ground plane. Several groups of slots are etched on the slot layer and each group corresponds to one and the same beam. Mechanical alignment of the slots that belong to a certain group with the patch leads to activation of the corresponding beam. This method was used to design a reflectarray antenna with three beams at ±30° and 0°. Measurement results demonstrated the validity of the design procedure.