Efficient analysis of reflectarrays through the use of characteristic modes

The aim of this study is to establish an efficient analysis method for reflectarrays with varying element sizes. The efficiency of the method relies on utilization of characteristic modes as macro basis functions, and thereby reducing the MoM matrix equation size dramatically. Although the reflectarrays on the focus of this study are comprised of differently sized elements, it was observed that, when same numerical characteristic mode is used to represent the current on all patches, the resultant approximate current is sufficiently accurate to calculate the far field of the array.