Experimental study of a 1-bit 10×10 reconfigurable reflectarray antenna

A 1-bit reconfigurable reflectarray antenna consisting of 10×10 elements is fabricated and measured for proof-of-principle in high-gain beam-scanning antenna designs. The element is reconfigured by a PIN diode. By controlling the biasing voltage on each PIN, beam scanning performance of the reflectarray is obtained. The measured results show that both the radiation patterns and gains can be improved by optimizing the reference phase of the aperture phase distribution. Good scan beams within ±50° range are obtained in the horizontal plane. Due to the small aperture size, large edge diffraction, low spillover efficiency, and specular reflection lead to reduced gain and lower aperture efficiency, as well as poor scanning performance in the vertical plane.