Examining the energetic contribution of reflectarray cells using circuit model and full-wave simulations

In this paper, we focus on the illumination law of a small-sized planar reflectarray antenna. The study is based on the analysis of the electric currents of the cells panel. The mutual coupling between the cells is characterized by a scattering matrix and is integrated using a conventional circuit theory. Reactive loads are used to control the reflected waves of the reflectarray. The electric currents are computed for different states of the reactive loads in order to investigate the energetic contribution of the cells.