Folded reflectarray antenna based on a single layer reflector with increased phase angle range

Simple elementary cells for reflectarrays based on a single dielectric layer exhibit only a limited phase angle range not covering the complete 360deg range, whereas multilayer substrate arrangements are not acceptable for some commercial applications with high pressure on cost. Therefore, this paper reports investigations on novel elementary reflectarray cells suitable for folded reflectarray antennas, resulting in a flat phase angle slope over geometrical dimensions as well as a phase angle range of more than 500deg. A test antenna and a reference antenna with simple rectangular elementary cells were designed, built, and tested. Although the novel antenna exhibits slightly higher losses, it had a larger bandwidth and better performance at frequencies above the design frequency.