Analysis and performance comparison of printed reflectarrays

This paper presents a novel technique for the analysis of printed reflectarrays with arbitrarily shaped patches. This technique is based on the MoM/BI-RME method, which combines the method of moments (MoM) with entire-domain basis functions to the boundary of integral-resonant mode expansion (BI-RME) method, a fast numerical technique used to calculate the basis functions for arbitrary shapes. The flexibility of the MoM/BI-RME method permits to investigate novel unconventional patch shapes, to be used for the design of printed reflectarrays with significantly improved electrical characteristics. In order to compare the performance of different shapes, four figures of merit have been defined: range of the reflection phase (i.e., the maximum phase variation), the sensitivity to mechanical tolerances, the bandwidth, and the cross-polarization level. The comparison of both classical novel shapes is performed on the basis of the proposed figures of merit and is discussed in this work.