Slotted tunable reflectarray antenna

This paper presents a detailed investigation on the phase agility of reflectarray antennas designed in the X-band frequency range. A novel technique for the analysis of the required reflection phase from individual reflectarray elements to form a planar wavefront of the periodic aperture is presented. Various slot configurations embedded in the patch elements of reflectarrays are also proposed for the performance improvement of reflectarray antennas. The feasibility of using these slot configurations for frequency tunable reflectarrays and designing periodic structure of slotted patch elements are also demonstrated. The designed reflectarray antenna with attainable frequency tunability of 1700 MHz, demonstrated that a maximum dynamic phase range of 320° and a volume reduction of up to 24.36% are achieved at 10 GHz.